[basketcase]

Hi!

I'm new here.  Hope this is the right place to ask this.  I've got an allotment in Aberdeen and have just got the place dug over and recently started planting things.  (Not as late as it seems, given that Scotland's usually a good month behind England and this has been a really lousy year so far!)

My problem is rabbits.  I'm currently growing possibly the most expensive and certainly the most labour-intensive rabbit food in the world!  I knew there was a reason I never liked Bugs Bunny.  I sympathise totally with Elmer Fudd.  Kill the Wabbit!  :twisted:

Anyway.  I must get a fence, but I don't have much cash.  Anybody got any advice on how to get a cheap - preferably free - fence?  In the meantime, are there any reliable repellents?  (I can't shoot.  And anyway, it's Council property!)  

All help appreciated.

[Ian_P]

I got 1200mm * 19mm wire from Atlantic Stratford via eBay. That was the cheapest I found

[GrannieAnnie]

You could also try joining one of the freecycle groups in your area

http://www.freecycle.org/display.php?region=United%20Kingdom,

someone may give you some 'wabbit' proof fencing!

[John]

It could be worth trying your council - they provide the netting and posts and you put it up? I don't know if rabbits can be put off by scents - I've heard of human hair  and urine for foxes.  Maybe a friend has a terrier you could take for a walk at dawn or dusk and if it slips the leash....

[GrannieAnnie]

OH said to snare them, kill em and turn into bunny burgers!!!!

[basketcase]

Don't tempt me, grannieannie!  My nephew has already said that when he had an allotment he never had a bunny problem - just a shotgun.  Alas, I'm on Council property...  Maybe I should make my signature Kill the Wabbit!  

Thanks for all the replies and suggestions about fencing.  I had thought of asking on Freecycle, but it seems so cheeky somehow.  Will certainly give it a go now.  Will keep you posted.

Perhaps this weekend I can see what I get down at my allotment by way of local advice (and spare chicken wire?)  The problem for me is that I work full-time so everything else I've got to do is squashed into the weekends. The only time I can manage to get down and do any work is before breakfast.  So I tend to go for about an hour from 0600-0700h.  Great for getting things done, peaceful and loads of wildlife.  Knocks the social bit and asking around for advice on the head though.  :?

[mellowmick]

I have a similar problem here in Dundee. Our local wildlife park at Camperdown offers Lynx dung which deters rabbits, but has a shelf life. Don't know if Aberdeen has anywhere similar. I've managed to get some chicken mesh around the perimeter and the problem is reduced but not eliminated.

[basketcase]

MELLOWMIKE: Lynx dung? I like it!  Unfortunately I can't think of anything similar in Aberdeen, but am working on it.  Asked down at the allotments about rabbits.  Apparently they're on the way down.  We have buzzards, which are helping considerably and somebody has a ferret.  Now there's an idea...

JOHN: I put your suggestion of trying the Council for fencing to the gents at the allotment on Saturday.  It was the best laugh they'd had in months!    

Our Council is now much better than it used to be, I'm told. However I wasted an entire season last year waiting for them to come and rotavate the plot (they told me to wait and they'd do it or I wouldn't have done).  They then sent a snotty letter threatening to kick me off because I hadn't 'brought the allotment up to standard'!  To be fair to them, when I wrote to them and explained they retracted it.

Ah well, back to the day job...
Elizabeth

[basketcase]

Was at the plot before work, as usual.  Frosty, so didn't get as much done as I'd hoped.

But... Unusually I had company - someone coming to water their stuff.   (Do you do that when there's ground frost?)  Asked about the corrugated panels I'd seen lying in the plot next-door-but-one.  They were rubbish!  What's more, they'd been used as a fence, so already have screwholes in them.

Needless to say, they're not decorating Lot 73 any more!  Have covered a bed of weeds till it can be sprayed, but I now have a front fence at least.  Well, when I can find the posts!

Don't you just love recycling.  

[Dogstar]

Rabbits are a problem for us too, and they are far too nervous to sit still and be shot. Plus, they can jump and dig, so any fence has to be pretty serious. I have had some success by making my brassica cage (their main target!) with wire mesh sides to deter them, plus siting live traps where they tend to have tracks (see http://mdc.mo.gov/landown/wild/nuisance/rabbit/).

[John]

I think I should point out that shooting rabbits or anything else on an allotment is probably illegal. In fact, turning up on an urban allotment with a firearm could get you shot.

Apparently even using an air rifle within some distance of a house is considered an offence. So, unless you really know the law - best not to.

Wish I'd taken notes when I was chatting to the policeman now