RABBITS IN KITTLE

[micky 3,325]

I have been catching a few rabbits on a rail track close to me and have been lucky enough to sell them in bulk to a fellah for a deuce apiece [gutted ]my eldest lad had the rest for his pub,f--k all [dressed]when i dressed them i found 17 does were in pup, and one doe was nursing,a few of the bucks had there coats glued on as well, it seems to have come early this year, though if this cold snap continues it might knock them back abit.The fields near the track are set with rape and are covered in good runs so when the frosts lift i am hopeing to get some wires down,anybody else catching does that are showing yet?

[Halfinch 51]

No signs on my permission as yet, but i remember a lot of people talking about them being in pup about this time last year.

[3jackwhite3 2]

Me and a mate off here went ferreting a couple of days ago and the dog and ferret caught a young rabbit each they could fit into the palm of your hand easy. ill ask him to put a pic up.

[Matt 160]

Rabbits in pup?

 

Feck me, they must be some size.........

[Penda 3,341]

This aint unuserual mate i remember bolting sum kits about 3 christmases ago,if the weather goes slightly mild and theres plenty of food they will be at it like rabbits.I was out in week and there was alot of fur by the warrens which does surgest to me that they have been either fighting or mating or both

Edited January 1, 2009 by Penda

[stealthy1 3,964]

Some leverets showing on my patch, think they're end of season.

[mattydski 560]

No young, but shot a couple of pregnant ones the other weekend.

[ferret boy charlie 0]

cought a youngun on boxing day .........

[comanche 3,077]

cought a youngun on boxing day .........

 

The youngens getting caught now are from late litters(mated in October ,kindled November ,weaned December) not early ones .It's quite normal .Rabbit tend to come into breeding condition after the shortest day (Dec21/22) as the light levels rise ,go out of condition during the long days and the heat of summer and then have a brief flurry of mating activity in the late summer early autumn.

 

While rabbits will mate at this time of year many litters will not go full term and may be reabsorbed back into the mother if there are bad weather conditions ,lack of food or stress of any sort. Some of these does that have "aborted " will still show milk and lose fleck but they will soon come back in season and re-mate .

 

Nature is taking a gamble by making rabbits mate in late winter.If conditions are good early litters will result.If conditions are bad the mother simply reabsorbs her unborn young and saves her energy by not producing babies that would be sure to die through chill or starvation.

It is all quite normal and one of the reasons rabbits are so successfull!

[The one 8,512]

We normally get a month in scotland after you boys have started finding young rabbits but with these seasons you can never guareente it

[stubby 175]

ferreted two today, that were very early into pregnancy

[moley 115]

ferreted two today, that were very early into pregnancy

 

we had 76 on saturday and i had 34 today of the fell edge, nothing showing any signs of being in young , theres fleck around the sets tho , so it won,t be long

[micky 3,325]

ferreted two today, that were very early into pregnancy

 

we had 76 on saturday and i had 34 today of the fell edge, nothing showing any signs of being in young , theres fleck around the sets tho , so it won,t be long

45 years ago we used to ferret right through till April, we only stopped when we bolted young,back then rabbits were few and far between 4 was a good bag 8 was a red letter day, about 30 years ago we finished in March,back then bags of 50-100 were fairly common,[though the locater helped]nowdays it looks like ending in Febuary, but again the numbers of rabbits are up ,i see rabbits in fields where there were none when i was a kid.What i am thinking is ?are numbers rising because they are breeding earlier? or ,are rabbits breeding earlier because there numbers are rising.

[comanche 3,077]

ferreted two today, that were very early into pregnancy

 

we had 76 on saturday and i had 34 today of the fell edge, nothing showing any signs of being in young , theres fleck around the sets tho , so it won,t be long

45 years ago we used to ferret right through till April, we only stopped when we bolted young,back then rabbits were few and far between 4 was a good bag 8 was a red letter day, about 30 years ago we finished in March,back then bags of 50-100 were fairly common,[though the locater helped]nowdays it looks like ending in Febuary, but again the numbers of rabbits are up ,i see rabbits in fields where there were none when i was a kid.What i am thinking is ?are numbers rising because they are breeding earlier? or ,are rabbits breeding earlier because there numbers are rising.

I suppose 45 years ago bunnies were recovering from myxy still and slowly building up immunity and also rebuilding their genetic defences and adaptations to the British climate almost from scratch . They've had fifty four years since myxy nearly did for them . In that fifty -four years they've probably become a lot stronger and are probably still adapting successfully all the time .

 

I've not been at it as long as you but I've ferreted since the early 70's and every year someone seems to say ," Young are early this year!". We still manage to keep going to the end of march /early April . I guess maybe the reason that we see more young about in winter is because these days there are more adult rabbits about to produce em that 30 or 40 years ago.