I had a wild Hare...

Jeff · August 25, 2007, 08:03:53 AM

I had a unigue encounter of a bunny kind this last week. I had been mowing behind my Sister's cabin. I jumped on one of the quads to move it, looked into the newly mowed grass and I found this Varying Hare. Rather I think it found me. It wasn't shy or scared at all. He let me take a video and a few photos, then off he went. I sure don't know how he will survive with his friendly disposition. I sure enjoyed our short visit.

Youtube video clip
http://www.youtube.com/v/xX34RoyHswY

Mooseherder · August 25, 2007, 08:08:07 AM

Too Cute!

8)

gary · August 25, 2007, 08:59:22 AM

Vary cool

Furby · August 25, 2007, 11:17:01 AM

Ya think he liked the sound of the quad?

beenthere · August 25, 2007, 11:28:26 AM

Seems too cute to be a food source.
Never seen one before....thanks.

Dan_Shade · August 25, 2007, 11:36:04 AM

you gotta be careful around them things, Jeff. They're unpredictable, at the slightest provocation, they'll take your jugular clean out, and there's blood everywhere. I saw it in a movie once.

crtreedude · August 25, 2007, 12:11:57 PM

I sure hope the Holy Grail is nowhere near by...

Norm · August 25, 2007, 01:15:21 PM

What a cute little guy.

When we moved to the country many years back I thought I'd raise rabbits for meat. Got me a buck and doe for stock and along came the first batch of little bunnies. Oh my gosh were they cute, there was no way I could butcher them. :D

SwampDonkey · August 25, 2007, 07:08:12 PM

They learn quick. ;D One of the guys grabbed one by the ears this spring and he was just a squeel'n. ;D

Them darn things have 2 or 3 litters a year. :

We call'm snowshoe hare up here in hinterland. One in the same.

crtreedude · August 25, 2007, 07:13:48 PM

Our son and his soon to be wife are moving down to help with the company business. Well, these has already caused relocation of livestock. Seems she isn't comfortable have a personal relationship with her food - so the sheep (and the cute lambs) have been moved up to the farm.

She loves animals and I fear she would have definitely been giving them names and we would be waiting for the to die of old age before we could do anything. ;)

SwampDonkey · August 25, 2007, 07:17:15 PM

I've eaten hare, no different than chicken actually when prepared properly. Probably a lot cleaner to.

thecfarm · August 25, 2007, 08:54:52 PM

We was always eating rabbit when I was growing up.Seems like we always had it in a stew.Not many around now.

crtreedude · August 25, 2007, 08:59:40 PM

Rabbits tend to be cyclic. The population will tend to grow until the start to die out due to disease (predators only help slow em down) - then the survivers will start the population explosion all over again.

Radar67 · August 25, 2007, 09:31:47 PM

I have a good batter recipe for rabbit...anybody want it?

Stew

SwampDonkey · August 26, 2007, 06:58:23 AM

Quote from: thecfarm on August 25, 2007, 08:54:52 PM
We was always eating rabbit when I was growing up.Seems like we always had it in a stew.Not many around now.

I can send down a few. ;D

Norm · August 26, 2007, 08:00:46 AM

Heck yes Stew, as long as I'm not the one doing the butchering I love domestic rabbit meat.

Radar67 · August 26, 2007, 12:37:18 PM

The batter recipe is real easy, mix one cup of finely crushed Frosted Flakes cereal into one cup of flour. Soak the rabbit in milk a minimum of two hours. From milk to flour, to milk then flour again. Fry just like you would chicken. You can season to taste. I use just a pinch of salt and red pepper in the batter.

Stew

Dan_Shade · August 26, 2007, 12:57:24 PM

Do any of you guys raise rabbits? I've kicked around the idea, but I'm not sure I want to deal with the hassle of it.

Radar67 · August 26, 2007, 01:34:38 PM

Dan, I don't raise rabbits, but my daughters have one as a pet. The hutch gets cleaned once a week and he gets fed hay twice a day. They are not a lot of trouble at all.

A friend of ours does raise rabbits. She has hardware cloth bottoms in the hutches so she only had to scoop up the waste once a month.

Stew

Warren · August 26, 2007, 03:41:20 PM

Well, since the conversation has turned to food... Many years ago I was on a business trip to Brussells, Belgium. Rabbit meat is very common in the butcher shops in Belgium. One day the company cafeteria had hassenpfeffer as a main dish. SO I took it. One of my hosts made a comment that I was the first American he had seen take the hassenpfeffer. I explained that where I grew up, hunting rabbits and squirrels for food was very common.

SQUIRRELS ?!?!?! >:(

NO ! NO ! NO ! they said. Rabbits are for food. Squirrels are your furry little friends that you feed when you go to the park. I tried to politely explain that where I came from they were both considered food. Needless to say, much animated, cross cultural, conversation followed....

Warren

Onthesauk · August 26, 2007, 03:48:04 PM

Dan,

If you do decide to raise rabbits, count on great gardens too. Not a better fertilizer then rabbit manure as far as I'm concerned. I once grew potatoes in a rabbit manure/maple leaf compost and had individual potatoes over 4 pounds.

Dan_Shade · August 26, 2007, 03:51:47 PM

that's one reason I want to do it. and then common sense catches up with me.

limbrat · August 26, 2007, 03:56:24 PM

There kin to nuteria and make great dumplins. Worm beds work great under rabbit pens as well.

SwampDonkey · August 26, 2007, 04:23:24 PM

If ya want earthworms, just plant raspberry canes.

Soil peds from earthworm workings.

Just wait till ya see a shovel full of that earth turned over. ;D

Norm · August 26, 2007, 06:00:44 PM

Dan they are pretty easy to raise. The biggest problems we had with them was how they handled heat. We put gallon milk containers with frozen water in their cages on the hottest days to help. Other than making sure you kept the cages clean they were not much hassle....well other than the since I couldn't butcher them and ending up with way more than I intended. :D