Anyone practice QCM?...

[Hawken1911]

Quality Cottontail Management    

There are some bunnies on my property, and I know I can build brush piles for cover, but does anyone have any other tips for increasing my cottontail population?  Are there any food-plots rabbits prefer or preferred types of cover that I can add to my property?  Ideally I'd like to entice more rabbit activity near my deer hunting set-ups so I might have opportunities at an occasional rabbit while deer hunting.

Any advice will be appreciated.

Thanks,

Paul

[acolobowhunter]

Don't let them populate around your yard.  I did that and they crawled up around the motors of the vehicles and chewed the wiring.

[**DONOTDELETE**]

no cottontails on the mountain where I live, so no hunting them... Bummer.

[pseman]

Predator hunting. That will increase the rabbit population.

[vermonster13]

The clover plots and low browse deer like will feed rabbits too.

[BTH]

Yeah, I manage rabbits. Manage to miss them. They like to stand still and taunt me. As soon as I release they shuck and jive just like a Solana Ranch whitetail.

[bushytail]

pseman has it.Hunting those fox and coyotes will help.House cats can be a problem on the young rabbits.Hawks and owls are protected.

[jacobsladder]

im sure killing predators will help...but i think it is much more important to provide habitat......create as much undergrowth as possible.... brush, briars,brambles, thickets, tall grass , and lots of it...

[akdd]

Try planting a garden that would make a fine food plot for them.

[Boomerang]

Provide good cover and thin out the fox, yotes and cats.

[sharps4590]

I managed for bunnies on our old farm for over 15 years.....had LOTS of them too!  Here's what I did....pretty much on my own, no advice from game agencies.

We also raised beef.  I had about 8 acres I kept in alfalfa or a grain crop, wheat or milo, on a rotation.  When the alfalfa was on its last legs I'd overseed with red clover and get a couple more years out of it before I needed to plow it under.  Next to that was 8 or so acres of cedars so thick you could barely walk thru them.  On the east side of the alfalfa field/cedar patch was a little wet weather creek.  I fenced the pasture side of that about 15 yards from the creek and let it grow up.  That area was probably 250-300 yards long next to the pasture and went that far into the woods.  On the alfalfa field side I let it grow up too.  On the west side was a fence row that had a fairly thick stand of sumac, sassafrass, blackberries and other such stuff.  It was probably 10 yards wide and a couple hundred feet long.  I just let it go as neither my neighbor nor I ran cattle against that fence.  Twice a year, spring and fall, the hired boy, (more like a third son), and I would spend a Saturday building brushpiles in the cedar thicket.  I also killed every stray cat that showed up on the place and took the coyotes whenever possible.  At that time in that area foxes were almost non-existant.

I had provided PLENTY of cover, water was no problem and with the neighbors crop field next to my alfalfa field food was never a problem. Rabbits, being as prolific as they are, soon populated that 20 or so acres.  

A bunny doesn't need a lot...a little food, water, (in fact, I've read that a bunny can survive merely off the moisture it gets from green plants), and a LOT of cover.  It doesn't take a coyote, fox or feral cat long to hunt a clean fence row and if the bunnies have no place to run and hide they don't stand much of a chance.  Raptors can't very well catch what they can't see or get to so overhead cover is equally important.

There was no scientific methods put to use on our old place, just plain ol' common sense.  And it appeared to work just fine!  Back when I was keeping records of such things we took an average of 30 bunnies a year off that 20 acres and never seemed to hurt the population.

Vic

[WildmanSC]

Plant some blackberry bushes and you'll provide ideal habitat for the bunnies and be able to reap some blackberries for some tasty blackberry cobblers as a side benefit! Mmmmmm good!            

Bill

[fireball31]

one thing that we've done before is to create cover by covering old pallets with brush piles.  The nice part about doing this is that you can nail a handle of some sort to the pallet and you can shake the entire brush pile from one spot when your hunting.  As far as food.  They will eat any of the greens that deer eat.  They also like to chew the bark off of autumn olives and and dogwood.

[jonsimoneau]

The biggest thing you can do is provide them with lots of THICK cover.  A couple of the ideas mentioned above are right on.  Of course if you add alot of thick cover your gonna have to deal with a deer influx also!!  If you need help with that problem, ya got something wrong!

[Hawken1911]

Thank you very much for the tips guys.

Paul

[2-BIG]

Paul, there is a fella here in Michigan that frequents this site by the name of  "the Great Jashu". He is a wealth of knowledge on creating habitat for all kinds of animals. I'll be seeing him tomorrow and I'll have him jump in here and give you a hand!  

[grizz]

Have you tried carrots? uhhh, what's up Doc?

[flatlander37]

Like pseman stated, predator management.  My folks farm used to have tons of rabbits when I was a kid, but we rarely see one now.  Too many coyotes, bobcats, etc..