Rabbit Fence

[Durgan]

http://www.durgan.org/URL/?OAVZC 10 June 2010 Rabbit Fence
One or two rabbits appear daily and do much damage, so a fence was placed around the vegetable garden.

The fence roll is two feet high, with 3 inch by 2 inch mesh, and 50 feet in length. The perimeter of the bed is 140 feet. The post are 3′ rebar, which was painted with Tremclad paint to inhibit rusting. The posts were placed at four foot intervals, and a metal staple was placed on the bottom of the fence between the posts to insure the rabbit cannot squeeze underneath. The fence was tied to the posts using plastic ties.

The other choice for fencing was chicken wire, which is more difficult to work with. My only concern is the mesh being 3″ by 2″ may be too large- meaning Mr. Rabbit may squeeze through the opening. No doubt I will soon know.


13 June 2010 UPDATE:
The rabbit fence depicted is useless. My dog, Neena, was chasing a fair sized rabbit and it went right through the fence without stopping and out the other end of the garden. The mesh is too large.

I have to run chicken wire, which I am in the process of doing, except it started to rain so I had to quit.

[frozenthunderbolt]

I will be interested to see your results Durgan. Depending on the determination of your rabbits, it may be that you will need to bury a roll of mesh to a depth of 6 - 10 inches to completely discourage them.
All the best in the mean time though.

[pelmetman]

When we bought our last house there was a massive problem with rabbits, with huge warrens that had obviously been there for years. The surveyors report actually made mention of them saying that it would be virtually impossible to get rid of them.

Not to be deterred we got to work. At first we kept digging up the warrens nearly every day to disturb them. Then we bought rolls and rolls of chicken wire. We made sure the wire was about a foot under the ground and bent it backwards so that it would stop the rabbits actually digging down through it and a couple of feet high.
The main battle was ensuring all the rabbits were out before we fenced them in. We only had about a 1/2 acre garden to fence in but at the time it felts more like acres but it was well worth all the effort in the end.

It did work though and we were able to make our garden and grow our vegetables. The only time we used to get the odd one in was in the spring when the babies were about, they used to squeeze themselves under the gate but we used to find them reasonably easy to get out.

[Durgan]

13 June 2010 UPDATE:
The rabbit fence depicted is useless. My dog, Neena, was chasing a fair sized rabbit and it went right through the fence without stopping and out the other end of the garden. The mesh is too large.

I have to run chicken wire, which I am in the process of doing, except it started to rain so I had to quit.

[Durgan]

Here are pictures of the chicken wire added on the existing fence. http://www.durgan.org/URL/?KFOGC