It seems playing is way more fun for some today instead of rabbiting. Well ok, it is the end of the day and we’re in Queenstown waiting on the ferret to come out.
Pup fun
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This wee cute
This wee cute (Dingo) had her first day at work rabbiting today, well ok, she slept in the Ute. But she came for a drive to Wanaka while we killed rabbits!
And here’s a picture of mother and daughter.
Rabbit Tally
A solid night shooting rabbits with the thermal the other night at Hawea Flat, Otago. Back in a day or two to see what else we can shoot….
And while we’re here a better photo of Dingo the pup
Catch up
Well there is a lot going on in the rabbiters life at the moment including lots of rabbits to be dealt to around Otago. In fact it seems to be the same story in many parts of New Zealand! Rabbits everywhere I go (And a few Wallabies around the place as well) plus all the rabbits in other areas people are telling me about.
Got the new longnet going the other day, so nice having a good setup again. It just makes life easy.
Wolf had pups, the father is Arthur who is now with another rabbiter. She had 3 but one was born dead which was a shame, two wee girls survived. I’m keeping one and the last I heard the other is going to a neighbour which is cool. They got a couple of spare ferrets off us not long ago so this pup will round out their rabbiting team nicely. Their kids are young and all over this rabbiting gig.
The one we are keeping has been named Dingo.
Got the rabbit netting manufacturers down next week so the yarn up with them will be interesting, hopefully we can get some major improvements happening which is sounding really good. Fencing being the very first step in a good control plan it will be nice to get a better product to put up.
Just got the knew trailer painted last weekend, purpose built as it was taking me two trips to get to jobs, and of course two more to get home. You get over that real fast!
And here’s a few random pics just because…..
Feeding the rabbiting pack
This comes as a surprise to most people, but no the rabbiting dogs don’t live on rabbits for their dinner. Don’t get me wrong, they do love a feed of it. Especially at the moment as the snackpacks are here (very young rabbits) The dogs just grab and go!
The reason is very straight forward, they can’t live on them as they don’t contain enough fat. If you want to go on a crash diet then get into the rabbit meat but be warned, we can’t survive on it.
I started the dogs on Mighty Mix a few months ago and they are doing very well on it. We’re giving them the frozen concentrate, feeding the usual way for us which is into a bucket and help themselves whenever they want.
Wolf the little guts is the only one overweight but she’s just had a litter of pups so not to worried about that. For now.
They have also spent time on the nourish biscuits and did well on them. Was looking after a pigdog pack (What a pain in the arse they were) and managed to get them looking really good on the large dog biscuits and dogrolls. They were skin and bones when they got here and looked bloody good when they left.
Price wise it seems to be working out slightly cheaper, a bag of frozen lasting about 9 days. On the other brands I would go through two bags for the same time frame which equates to an absolute minimum of $120 IF you can get it on special, which often you can’t.
So far very happy with it. I must get a bag of the treats they have and see what the dogs think of them….
Yes I LOVE hard boiled eggs
This is probably all kinds of wrong, but an Otago rabbiter needs the food! These eggs, hard boiled, well, what more do you want? I’m running with Central Gold eggs because well, they taste so good! And a neighbour by not much. I do work on the KISS princeable. I do wonder how badly I screwed that spelling up 😂 but I digress…
How should you cook a boiled egg?
In a pot with hot water is good. So I slip a few in on top of the spuds, pull them out at the right time and job is done. Less pots to clean, that is a thing for me. No cook atm. (If your female yada yada do feel free to get in touch….)
Oh, the video attached is the easy way to cook eggs. 😂😁😁 (Now to work out attaching video)
The big dig
Not an unusual sight to see Jack with the black nut sack digging yet another rabbit out, this one is up Arrowtown way Central Otago.
Not long after this was filmed he started growling at any other dogs that came near, that means only one thing, he’s close! Sure enough within five minutes he had another notch on his belt, the old bastard has worn several belts out now 😂
Rabbits in Aussie
An interesting piece on rabbits over in West Island. A bit of history with some cool footage of the old rabbit drives.
Watch “Rock wall” on YouTube
The dogs do love a good rock wall, hiding spots for rabbits. We ended up with three out of the one hole here.
2020 Breeding season
Well here we are again, the breeding season for rabbits in New Zealand will be well under way! In order to see those young rabbits in Central Otago in August it means the mating will be happening now in June. 28 day gestation period for rabbits (pregnant again within 12 hours of having a litter), a few weeks in the nest then come August out they come.
If your planning a poison drop then best you get on with it if you want maximum success, the reason is straight forward, if you leave it till August the young rabbits can survive without mum but are to young to take bait.
We had a visitor for a couple of weeks, old Bolt came up for a holiday while Evalynn was away. He enjoyed getting out for a few runs with the team smashing a few rabbits around camp. Of course him and Jack said gidday to each other then where straight back to their old ways, growling, barking and snapping at each other.
Bolt’s looking a bit more grey and has slowed down a lot but is enjoying retirement.
