Sorry, I don’t have pet rabbits (not that I have anything against the idea–they are marvelous creatures… I do have a cat).
Okay, so I have weeds galore. I know there is at least one or more adult rabbits around. They love to come to my back yard and eat my weeds. I love it and love them. However, I can’t keep plucking weeds by hand. The dandelions are beautiful but crazy. So I try to mow once a week. I leave the rabbits be but talk to them and love them.
I was going to have someone come and spray the front and back to kill the weeds and prevent any more weed growth. I “staked” off the flower beds as well as areas where I thought bunnies might live. I wasn’t sure.
Whoa, well, I’m sure now.
Mowing yesterday, I discovered a rabbit nest under my apple tree. It scared the heck out of me. They just sat still as they could. I hope I didn’t traumatize them with myself or the loud mower. I finished mowing but kept a wide berth and just left some grass around the tree.
I called the lawn guy and left a message saying DO NOT COME SPRAY.
This morning, I staked off the apple tree, thinking that was rabbit nest central. I thought there were two babies. I have seen mom around. I noticed, however, that they had moved to the other side of the tree and were hiding in the grass instead of in the nest. Again, did not want to traumatize them, and they just held still as possible.
Washing dishes, I was fortunate tonight. I saw the mom bouncing around in the back yard, doing her thing. I wondered when she’d feed her two little kits. At some point, she must have given a signal, because not only did the two little kits pop out, but bunnies from all corners of the earth came running at the same time–four from the apple tree and at least four from the flower bed that I had staked off.
So there are 6-8 babies, not 2. They look to be 2-3 weeks old. Obviously they can move around on their own.
Long story short, I do not have a rabbit nest under my apple tree–I have an entire back yard of rabbits! I am just thankful that I did not run any over with the mower, hope I did not impale any with lawn stakes, or frighten any, and I’m so glad the lawn guy didn’t come spray, because they would have just sat as still as they could and gotten sprayed!
So help me. What can I do? How do I mow with them back there? Is there anything I can do for them? Should I just stop mowing for a month? It would be a disaster to my back yard, but I want them to be safe.
I hope that soon they will be at the same capacity as adults and will know to run away from me and run away from my lawn mower and any other danger. I don’t mind if they have my back yard as their home base, all 9 of them. I would like to be able to mow my yard, however, and I’d like to spray for weeds. I don’t want to do those things, or any other things, if it will endanger them, though…