Post by Ryan on Sept 1, 2007 15:45:32 GMT -5
Set the Table for Rabbits
Maintain a healthy population on your property by providing rabbits with enough food and cover to keep them from straying.
By: Chad Mason of Outdoor Life Magazine
By giving rabbits all they need within their home range, you can maximize hunting opportunities on your own land or your hunting lease. Dear will also be less attracted, so beagles can stay focused on rabbits. Other wildlife species will benefit as well.
Even if you don't own or lease a hunting property, the following information can help you recognize optimal cottontail habitat, and thus help you find good hunting.
WHAT RABBITS NEED
Nesting Cover:
In northern latitudes, cottontail reproduction occurs from March through September, while in the southern United States rabbits might reproduce year-round. A cottontail doe rears her young in a shallow depression, which she digs with her front feet and then lines with leaves, grass, and fur pulled from her own body. The ideal setting for a nest is an unmowed plot of mixed cool-season and warm-season grasses, reaching about thigh-high on an average man. While rabbits relish hayfields for feeding, these aren't ideal nesting areas since regular mowing will destroy the helpless, immobile young. Good grasses include brome and orchard grass, but it's best to encourage native species such as little bluestem, switchgrass, or wild rye whenever possible.
Often, controlled burning is all that is necessary to stimulate the dominance of native species. It also helps to have a bit of clover in the mix. This creates a denser, warmer, and more secure environment for the vulnerable young rabbits, and provides food for the doe near the nest.
Food:
Throughout much of the year cottontails are predominantly forb eaters, which means they prefer a diet of lush, green, broadleaf plants-especially legumes. Clover and alfalfa are favorites although rabbits will eat grasses and sedges if those preferred legumes are not available.
In places where the winter climate is cold enough to kill greenery, rabbits will switch to the buds and bark of woody plants. Some favorite foods in both fall and winter include willow, birch, apple, cherry or chokecherry, hawthorne, blackberry, white oak, buckbrush, sumac, and multiflora rose. Agricultural grains, such as corn, wheat, and soybeans, are not necessary for rabbits, though rabbits will certainly eat them if they are available. However, these crops are important if you hope to provide a benefit to upland birds, such as quail or pheasants, along with rabbits.
Protective Cover:
Birds of prey are a rabbit's worst enemy, which is why rabbits spend a considerable time in the types of cover where avian predators can't easily target them and make a clear swoop. A small orchard of wild plum, apple or crabapple, or a brushy fencerow grown up with dogwoods, honeysuckle, sumac, or raspberry vines, will prevent owls and hawks from sneaking under the radar to snatch cottontails feeding in winter.
Brush piles also make super rabbit fortresses. To benefit rabbits, a brush pile mush be at least 10 to 15 feet in diameter, and at least 5 feet high. In addition to protecting rabbits from predators during the day, a good brush pile protects rabbits from exposure to the elements. This can be especially important if heavy snow buries the grassy areas where rabbits spend much of their time. Brush piles do rot away over time, and should be replaced every three to five years.
Constructing brush piles has an added benefit. By removing mature trees and making brush piles out of them, you reduce the attractiveness of your rabbit hunting area to deer. This means fewer temptations for your rabbit hounds to "run trash." Still, it is probably impossible to entirely eliminate deer from the area.
SETTING THE TABLE
Homebodies:
Rabbits have a very small home range. Typically, a cottontail rabbit will spend its entire life in an area of less than 5 acres. This means that you don't need a large property to have a good rabbit population. It also means cover types should be distributed in small patches on larger properties. All the major habitat requirements-nesting, cover, food, and protective cover-should be accessible within a 4- to 5-acre area.
To plan your habitat layout, envision a circle 150 yards in diameter, and use this imaginary circle as a template. No matter where you place this 4-acre template on your land it should encompass some of each cover type and at least one brush pile. This ensures that each rabbit on your property has everything it needs within its home range, and none of your property will go unused by rabbits.
DO Disturb:
Regular disturbance is essential to maintaining a healthy and effective habitat for cottontails over time. If not renewed occasionally by disturbance, nesting areas and protective cover will eventually mature to the point of uselessness.
Controlled burning is the best method for renewal of nesting areas. Divide your nesting habitat into three or four sections, and burn one section each year in rotation. This keeps plenty of nesting habitat available each year, and maintains all areas in a constant state of renewal. Burn early in the spring, so cover will be reestablished through spring and summer for nesting and fall hunting. Early-spring burning also ensures that wild plum thickets will not be killed. Use fall burning only to clear out a severely over grown area, such as when starting from scratch with a newly acquired, long-neglected property. Be advised that raspberry is not hardy enough to withstand burning, so avoid burning raspberry vines if you want to keep them. Also take care to avoid burning your brush piles. In fact, you might want to place them outside the nesting area for this reason.
Don't attempt controlled burning without the instruction of someone who has experience with the proper technique. If a fire gets away from you, you could have big problems. Contact your state forestry service or state came department and ask for guidance with your first controlled burn. Another good source of information is your local office of the Natural Resources Conservation Service.
Use a brush-hog to mow down protective cover, such as dogwoods or sumac. Again, if you rotate the disturbance over three or four years rather than renewing all the protective cover at one time. Give your little corner of rabbit heaven a few years to reach its full potential. When your hard work pays off, you'll be glad you set the table for rabbits.
CROCK BARBECUED COTTONTAIL
Serves 4 to 6
2 or 3 cottontail rabbits, cleaned, washed, and cut into pieces
1 cup water
1 1/2 cups barbecue sauce
Spice Mixture:
3 tablesSSpoons dry instant minced onions
1 tablesSSpoon crushed red pepper flakes
1 teasSSpoon instant coffee grounds, crushed
1/2 teasSSpoon salt
1 teasSSpoon garlic powder
1/2 teasSSpoon ground cinnamon
1. Rub spice mixture into rabbit pieces and put into slow-cooker. Pour water over the rabbit pieces, cover and cook on low heat until meat is fall-apart tender, 6-8 hours.
2. Remove meat from bones and discard bones. Be careful to remove all the fine leg bones. Drain off the water. Pour in your favorite barbecue sauce and mix with wooden sSSpoon.
3. Serve on grilled wheat buns, with dill pickles and potato chips.
Maintain a healthy population on your property by providing rabbits with enough food and cover to keep them from straying.
By: Chad Mason of Outdoor Life Magazine
By giving rabbits all they need within their home range, you can maximize hunting opportunities on your own land or your hunting lease. Dear will also be less attracted, so beagles can stay focused on rabbits. Other wildlife species will benefit as well.
Even if you don't own or lease a hunting property, the following information can help you recognize optimal cottontail habitat, and thus help you find good hunting.
WHAT RABBITS NEED
Nesting Cover:
In northern latitudes, cottontail reproduction occurs from March through September, while in the southern United States rabbits might reproduce year-round. A cottontail doe rears her young in a shallow depression, which she digs with her front feet and then lines with leaves, grass, and fur pulled from her own body. The ideal setting for a nest is an unmowed plot of mixed cool-season and warm-season grasses, reaching about thigh-high on an average man. While rabbits relish hayfields for feeding, these aren't ideal nesting areas since regular mowing will destroy the helpless, immobile young. Good grasses include brome and orchard grass, but it's best to encourage native species such as little bluestem, switchgrass, or wild rye whenever possible.
Often, controlled burning is all that is necessary to stimulate the dominance of native species. It also helps to have a bit of clover in the mix. This creates a denser, warmer, and more secure environment for the vulnerable young rabbits, and provides food for the doe near the nest.
Food:
Throughout much of the year cottontails are predominantly forb eaters, which means they prefer a diet of lush, green, broadleaf plants-especially legumes. Clover and alfalfa are favorites although rabbits will eat grasses and sedges if those preferred legumes are not available.
In places where the winter climate is cold enough to kill greenery, rabbits will switch to the buds and bark of woody plants. Some favorite foods in both fall and winter include willow, birch, apple, cherry or chokecherry, hawthorne, blackberry, white oak, buckbrush, sumac, and multiflora rose. Agricultural grains, such as corn, wheat, and soybeans, are not necessary for rabbits, though rabbits will certainly eat them if they are available. However, these crops are important if you hope to provide a benefit to upland birds, such as quail or pheasants, along with rabbits.
Protective Cover:
Birds of prey are a rabbit's worst enemy, which is why rabbits spend a considerable time in the types of cover where avian predators can't easily target them and make a clear swoop. A small orchard of wild plum, apple or crabapple, or a brushy fencerow grown up with dogwoods, honeysuckle, sumac, or raspberry vines, will prevent owls and hawks from sneaking under the radar to snatch cottontails feeding in winter.
Brush piles also make super rabbit fortresses. To benefit rabbits, a brush pile mush be at least 10 to 15 feet in diameter, and at least 5 feet high. In addition to protecting rabbits from predators during the day, a good brush pile protects rabbits from exposure to the elements. This can be especially important if heavy snow buries the grassy areas where rabbits spend much of their time. Brush piles do rot away over time, and should be replaced every three to five years.
Constructing brush piles has an added benefit. By removing mature trees and making brush piles out of them, you reduce the attractiveness of your rabbit hunting area to deer. This means fewer temptations for your rabbit hounds to "run trash." Still, it is probably impossible to entirely eliminate deer from the area.
SETTING THE TABLE
Homebodies:
Rabbits have a very small home range. Typically, a cottontail rabbit will spend its entire life in an area of less than 5 acres. This means that you don't need a large property to have a good rabbit population. It also means cover types should be distributed in small patches on larger properties. All the major habitat requirements-nesting, cover, food, and protective cover-should be accessible within a 4- to 5-acre area.
To plan your habitat layout, envision a circle 150 yards in diameter, and use this imaginary circle as a template. No matter where you place this 4-acre template on your land it should encompass some of each cover type and at least one brush pile. This ensures that each rabbit on your property has everything it needs within its home range, and none of your property will go unused by rabbits.
DO Disturb:
Regular disturbance is essential to maintaining a healthy and effective habitat for cottontails over time. If not renewed occasionally by disturbance, nesting areas and protective cover will eventually mature to the point of uselessness.
Controlled burning is the best method for renewal of nesting areas. Divide your nesting habitat into three or four sections, and burn one section each year in rotation. This keeps plenty of nesting habitat available each year, and maintains all areas in a constant state of renewal. Burn early in the spring, so cover will be reestablished through spring and summer for nesting and fall hunting. Early-spring burning also ensures that wild plum thickets will not be killed. Use fall burning only to clear out a severely over grown area, such as when starting from scratch with a newly acquired, long-neglected property. Be advised that raspberry is not hardy enough to withstand burning, so avoid burning raspberry vines if you want to keep them. Also take care to avoid burning your brush piles. In fact, you might want to place them outside the nesting area for this reason.
Don't attempt controlled burning without the instruction of someone who has experience with the proper technique. If a fire gets away from you, you could have big problems. Contact your state forestry service or state came department and ask for guidance with your first controlled burn. Another good source of information is your local office of the Natural Resources Conservation Service.
Use a brush-hog to mow down protective cover, such as dogwoods or sumac. Again, if you rotate the disturbance over three or four years rather than renewing all the protective cover at one time. Give your little corner of rabbit heaven a few years to reach its full potential. When your hard work pays off, you'll be glad you set the table for rabbits.
CROCK BARBECUED COTTONTAIL
Serves 4 to 6
2 or 3 cottontail rabbits, cleaned, washed, and cut into pieces
1 cup water
1 1/2 cups barbecue sauce
Spice Mixture:
3 tablesSSpoons dry instant minced onions
1 tablesSSpoon crushed red pepper flakes
1 teasSSpoon instant coffee grounds, crushed
1/2 teasSSpoon salt
1 teasSSpoon garlic powder
1/2 teasSSpoon ground cinnamon
1. Rub spice mixture into rabbit pieces and put into slow-cooker. Pour water over the rabbit pieces, cover and cook on low heat until meat is fall-apart tender, 6-8 hours.
2. Remove meat from bones and discard bones. Be careful to remove all the fine leg bones. Drain off the water. Pour in your favorite barbecue sauce and mix with wooden sSSpoon.
3. Serve on grilled wheat buns, with dill pickles and potato chips.
