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Number of comments 0 Rabbits Love Green Beans...................... July 9, 2007 14:02:38 This year the rabbits just love my green beans. I would try a different variety if that would make any difference but I doubt it would. Early the rabbits were not much of a problem but I think it is young ones out there eating now. There are a lot of half grown out in the lane along the corn in the evening and I think there are more half grown ones lurking in the tall grass and weeds during the day waiting for evening or night time to come out and dine.What to do. What would you do? I have pretty much written off the row of beans that was half yellow wax and half green. You can kind of see what the row looks like now in this pic.  I thought about trapping them and then realized I might, by unfortunate chance, catch the skunk that we believe is living under the shed next to the garden. So that idea is out. I am not much for shooting them and I don't even own a gun so I would have to get a neighbor to do it.
If I remember right you are not supposed to handle rabbits during certain parts of the year. That is why, when I was a kid, we used to rabbit hunt during cold cold weather. Which reminds of going rabbit hunting in the winter on my Grandfather's farm by Stewardson, Illinois. It was cold. I was probably 6 or 7 or 8 years old so it would have been about 1956 or so. A neighbor of ours went with us. He had what I thought was an uncanny ability to just walk up on a sitting rabbit and step on it. I could never see them sitting. They always had to move for me to see them. Anyway, it was so cold that day, my dad sent me in to the house to get warm. So I wound up sitting in the parlor with my Grandma around the old coal burning pot bellied stove. I will never forget it. She probably gave me something to eat. She always did. She was probably sewing something. There was no TV. No radio. The memory is vivid and probably shaped my attitudes in ways that still influence me. Anyway, sorry I got off on that tangent, but, I planted some more green beans a couple of days after a rain and they came up very nicely. After a couple of days the rabbits ate the tops off of half of them. So I got out some chicken wire I had with some makeshift posts and put it up around the new plants. I made the bottom of the wire bend and lay flat on the ground for about 4 inches before becoming vertical. I also put some short wood stakes in to hold the bottom to the ground. You can sort of see it in this pic.  I put the wire close to the beans on both sides of the row. You can also see in the pic some of the beans that were eaten off have regrown leaves on top so I think they will come out of it as long as the varmits are kept out.
I thought about putting an electric fence around the beans. I never have done that on beans. It might work if you put two strands one about 4 inches and another about 8 to 10 inches. I know they could jump over it but they might just walk up and get shocked and turn and go elsewhere. I think I will see how the chicken wire does. It is more low tech and does not require being energized by electricity. Comment on this article |