Tuesday, October 18, 2005
I Don't Like Spiders And Snakes
My good friend Lisa came up on Saturday to visit the rabbitry. While there, I noticed something floating in a crock of water inside the cage of a couple of promising youngsters. Believe it or not, it was a shiny black spider with the distinctive red hourglass design on the bottom. It was obviously dead, but creeped us out nonetheless.
While down in Perry, GA, recently, I heard a breeder say that he found a 7' black snake in one of his cages. It had just devoured a number of kits. That was his last meal.
My friend Linda saw two snakes this summer. One was in the barn. She spread sulfur on the ground around her barn to discourage snakes. I hope that worked for her. I can't stand snakes - even the beneficial ones.
If you can stand the noise of guineas, they will attack snakes (even poisonous ones) and either kill it or annoy it to death. You must have a group of guineas, though, because they work together. We had some, but we cannot stand the "gripe, gripe . . . gripe, gripe . . . gripe, gripe" sound they constantly make. And our dogs never welcomed them to the family, so they were not a good option for us.
I use to think that raccoons were really cute. That is, until I learned that they will reach right into your cage and snatch out your baby rabbits. I knew they ate fish, so I should have figured that they'd eat other meat. I see raccoons in a totally different light now.
My nephew's dog is one of the main reasons we now have a barn. In the beginning, our rabbits were housed in the overhang of the shed. Our dogs and cats did not bother the rabbits at all (I did find my cats curled up sleeping on top of the cages occasionally). But Dixie, a chocolate lab, loved to run under the cages and snap at the rabbits. Since a dog can kill a rabbit without even touching him, we had to fence in the sides of the overhang. But since those mean raccoons could still get it, we decided to build a barn with wire mesh over the windows to prevent any large animal from entering. Of course, I built the barn to house just a few more rabbits than the shed.
We placed rocks around the foundation of the barn and mixed them in with the soil as we back filled around the bottom of our pole construction. We have a gravel floor in the barn. I hoped that would deter animals from digging under. So far, it has.
One warm night we had our windows open and awoke to dogs yapping and a strong odor. They had a skunk trapped against the house. So we tried to shoo the whole group away from the house (especially our bedroom window). So they then trapped it against the side of the barn. Thanks. I figure that if that skunk could have found a way under the barn that night, it would have. But it had no luck. The next morning the skunk was gone, but we had some pretty foul smelling lumber stacked in the overhang of the barn and two really stinky dogs.
One very rainy evening, I got stuck in the barn while water just poured from heaven. When the rain let up a little bit, I opened the door a bit to see if I could dash inside. There sat a large bullfrog. He just sat there with huge pleading eyes. It was if he knew that there was a smorgashboard of flies and other insects in the barn and he was just begging to come in for awhile. I actually considered it, but I wasn't sure if frogs carry diseases damaging to rabbits. And I would hate to step on frog in the barn. So it wasn't his lucky day.
I really do hate spiders, but one insect I really like is the Preying Mantis. Occasionally I see them walking on the screens to the barn window. I think they, and those bugs that look like leaves, are very interesting. And I like to think that the mantis is helping himself to as many other insects as he can get.
I never knew when I got into rabbits that I would have so many encounters with so many other animals as well!
Laurie Stroupe
The Nature Trail Rabbitry
"Holland Lops Of Distinction"
http://www.thenaturetrail.com/
http://www.thenaturetrail.com/blog/BLOG.html
¶ 9:05 AM
While down in Perry, GA, recently, I heard a breeder say that he found a 7' black snake in one of his cages. It had just devoured a number of kits. That was his last meal.
My friend Linda saw two snakes this summer. One was in the barn. She spread sulfur on the ground around her barn to discourage snakes. I hope that worked for her. I can't stand snakes - even the beneficial ones.
If you can stand the noise of guineas, they will attack snakes (even poisonous ones) and either kill it or annoy it to death. You must have a group of guineas, though, because they work together. We had some, but we cannot stand the "gripe, gripe . . . gripe, gripe . . . gripe, gripe" sound they constantly make. And our dogs never welcomed them to the family, so they were not a good option for us.
I use to think that raccoons were really cute. That is, until I learned that they will reach right into your cage and snatch out your baby rabbits. I knew they ate fish, so I should have figured that they'd eat other meat. I see raccoons in a totally different light now.
My nephew's dog is one of the main reasons we now have a barn. In the beginning, our rabbits were housed in the overhang of the shed. Our dogs and cats did not bother the rabbits at all (I did find my cats curled up sleeping on top of the cages occasionally). But Dixie, a chocolate lab, loved to run under the cages and snap at the rabbits. Since a dog can kill a rabbit without even touching him, we had to fence in the sides of the overhang. But since those mean raccoons could still get it, we decided to build a barn with wire mesh over the windows to prevent any large animal from entering. Of course, I built the barn to house just a few more rabbits than the shed.
We placed rocks around the foundation of the barn and mixed them in with the soil as we back filled around the bottom of our pole construction. We have a gravel floor in the barn. I hoped that would deter animals from digging under. So far, it has.
One warm night we had our windows open and awoke to dogs yapping and a strong odor. They had a skunk trapped against the house. So we tried to shoo the whole group away from the house (especially our bedroom window). So they then trapped it against the side of the barn. Thanks. I figure that if that skunk could have found a way under the barn that night, it would have. But it had no luck. The next morning the skunk was gone, but we had some pretty foul smelling lumber stacked in the overhang of the barn and two really stinky dogs.
One very rainy evening, I got stuck in the barn while water just poured from heaven. When the rain let up a little bit, I opened the door a bit to see if I could dash inside. There sat a large bullfrog. He just sat there with huge pleading eyes. It was if he knew that there was a smorgashboard of flies and other insects in the barn and he was just begging to come in for awhile. I actually considered it, but I wasn't sure if frogs carry diseases damaging to rabbits. And I would hate to step on frog in the barn. So it wasn't his lucky day.
I really do hate spiders, but one insect I really like is the Preying Mantis. Occasionally I see them walking on the screens to the barn window. I think they, and those bugs that look like leaves, are very interesting. And I like to think that the mantis is helping himself to as many other insects as he can get.
I never knew when I got into rabbits that I would have so many encounters with so many other animals as well!
Laurie Stroupe
The Nature Trail Rabbitry
"Holland Lops Of Distinction"
http://www.thenaturetrail.com/
http://www.thenaturetrail.com/blog/BLOG.html
¶ 9:05 AM
