Rabbit Destruction January 18, 2023

Rabbits!

I thought my fence around the orchard was doing a good job, until I found this on 16th of January.

This 10 year old apricot tree was the first thing I noticed in bad shape. I was hoping for apricots this spring but that's not going to happen now.

I'll have to try to graft some scions on the bottom of this tree in the spring.

As I looked around the orchard I found the rabbit had clipped off branches of several my 3 year old hazelnuts and ate all the catkins off.

I don't expect any nuts on these this summer.

Here is some more damage on some older plants.

I'm really beginning to hate these furry little rodents.

This is another picture of a 4 yr hazelnut plant.

I don't expect any nuts on this one either

I also had 3 Nanking cherry plants which must have been dessert for the rabbits.

All this damaged happened in 3 days. 

This is a pear that I just planted last spring.

There is about 2 feet of snow around this pear and I did put tree wrap on it also.

I'm hoping for some new shoots lower down above the graft. 

Even on this old apricot tree the rabbits took some of the bark off.

I was really upset when the rabbits damaged this apricot tree which had 4 different types of apricots grafted on it.

I also had black raspberries growing on the fence which the rabbits must also like. 

I took a picture of the fence which the rabbits have to squeeze through.

The chicken wire (poultry netting) was only 2 feet high, so next summer I'll have to add another 2 or 3 feet of chicken wire to the fence and hope we don't get 6 feet of snow next year. 

I have a trail-cam in the back by the orchard and caught this mini beaver headed for dinner in the orchard.

 

In the center of picture you can see his eyes shining as he squeezed through the fence.

I set up 2 live traps and caught 3 rabbits in a couple days.

I'm hoping that's all of the rabbits that have been able to get through the fence into the hazelnut orchard.