Rabbit Trap

[MelleeRN]

Anyone have a easy to build rabbit trap directions?
My son's, 11 and 12, would like to start trapping rabbits. Please be aware that I will be allowing them to read the responses. Any information that you can provide will be greatly appreciated, and would be a great learning summer adventure for them.

Thank you,
Melinda-Lee

[Wyobuckaroo]

Mel

This summer might not be the best time of year to trap rabbits. Like many species, they are busy raising little rabbits. Also, I presume, you are talking about cotton tail rabbits. They will not do well with the stress of being trapped and caged. They will die right away.

Now, if you waited until fall, they would be fat and ready for winter, and make a VERY nice meal. When hunting season opens on rabbits will be a good indicator of when they are at there best condition to eat.

Now, if you catch one you will have to dispatch it and clean it before consuming. You WILL get severely bitten in this process, if they get a chance to get hold of you. They are VERY able to defend themselves.

There are good lessons in life for kids in the process of catching, cleaning, and cooking a wild rabbit. But there are dangers.

Good luck
Wyo

[Grizzy]

Hey Mellee and Family :D (wave'n)

http://www.bukisa.com/articles/60915_homemade-rabbit-traps

Homemade Rabbit Traps

Whether you are looking for a new pet, dinner, or need to do some rodent pest control, it is important to have a good rabbit trap. It's very simple to make homemade rabbit traps which are humane and fun. The following article will detail how to make primitive yet effective homemade rabbit traps.

Things You'll Need:

* Large Wooden box
* Piece of plywood
* Stick
* String
* Screw hook
* Carrot

Step1
Screw in the screw hook on the inside of the box in the center. This will serve as a pulley mechanism for the suspended carrot later in the process of doing rodent pest control.

Step2
Place the piece of plywood on a flat surface near a place where you have seen the bunnies. This way, they will not have to hunt out the bait. They will wait until your back is turned and take it.

Step3
Prop the box up with the stick so that there is enough room for the bunny rabbit to get underneath it.

Step4
Tie the string to the carrot. The carrot is the bait. You may choose to tie it in several spots so the rabbit does not just eat it without pulling the stick out. Run the string through the hook and out to the stick. Many people are not confident in this form of rodent pest control, but it can actually be a lot of fun.

Step5
Pull the string until the carrot is suspended several inches off the ground. This ensures that they bunny rabbit will have to give it a good tug in order to eat it. Once it is suspended, tie it carefully to the stick.

Step6
Sneak off and wait a bit. When you hear a thud, you might have got your mark. Pick up the plywood and the box together. If you put it on a table, you can easily work the bunny rabbit out and into a pillow case
without touching it or hurting it. Then you can let him go somewhere very far away. This is the best part of the humane rodent pest control process.

This page is just some good common sense reading as young ones learn about trapping in general..
http://www.gardensmartshop.com/pest-control-products/live-traps.html

And I found THIS one to be kinda humorous... after traveling all over the internet HIway (i really need a milkshake now...) I found this one that might be fun for ya'll to take on... whew am really tired now ;D
http://www.backwoodshome.com/articles/sanders64.html

[MelleeRN]

Wyobuckaroo,

Thank you, as a mother, we learn that we are always wrong and when someone else's states the facts to them. Then and only then it is believable. We had them go to the states hunting and trapping laws website.
As a child, I use to trap and clean rabbits, they do have quite a bite. Thank you for the information.

Melinda-Lee

[MelleeRN]

Grizzy,
(Family waving back)
We will be checking out those websites. This summer should be an interesting for them. I figure that there is plenty of information from the other members that can be past down to them as learning adventures this summer. So, I will be posting more for them and allowing them to read. (Once I have screened...lol)

[Teg]

Just be careful of possums and other critters that get in the traps as well. :)

[MelleeRN]

Good point!!!

It is one of those days that the minute we go outside it rains, and the minute we come back in it stops. So, we went out hunting tracks and found a few interesting ones that I am going to have them identify. So, right now, the goal of making a trap is on hold, thanks to great advice from above. Now, track identification is today's project. They are busy at work with the pictures and going through online photos of animal tracks.

[daoejo22]

In the warmer months wild rabbits are full of fleas and sometimes ticks too. They are alot of fun to hunt/trap and good eating, but wait till fall. Summer is time for fishing, frog gigging and turtle trapping.

[Dslayer66]

Rule of thumb is to wait til after a hard frost to eat wild rabbits. Those taken in warm weather may have spots on the liver indicating disease. Besides probably being out of season with Fish & Game.

[MelleeRN]

That is a good rule of thumb.

[woodzman]

My Grandfather taught me to build a box trap similar to Grizzy's when I was around your kids age. We also used a lot of homemade snares. My favorite way to make them was to drive a nail at an upward angle, into something sturdy at shoulder height. Take three strands of #24 brass wire about three feet long and twist an eye into one end about a quarter inch in diameter. Put the eye over your nail and twist the other end around a pencil sized stick. Turn the stick like a propeller, keeping some tension on the wire until you've got a fairly tight twist on it, then slip the loop off the nail and unhook it from the stick . All that's left to do is to pull the end you turned through the eye until you've got a three or four inch diameter "noose" in the end. Tie them off to something solid and use a stick to support the loop and keep the bottom a couple inches off the ground. They work good in trails and den openings. Snares aren't legal here, but I think everybody should know how to make them. Keep in mind that snares don't know the difference between a rabbit and the neighbors cat, so be careful with them.

Bob.

[Anon001]

Mellee,

I, too, have always been told not to eat wild rabbit that was "caught" before a hard freeze.

You didn't really say why they want to trap rabbits. Is it for meat, pets (they die caged), the hides, etc?

If they are taken in the summer months, they don't have as nice a fur as in the winter. I usually wait until the winter fur has set on and after the first hard freeze and then I put the rabbit in the iron skillet and the hide in the freezer until I have time to start tanning it.

[momma_to_seven_chi]

Why not just borrow a live trap? They only cost about $25 for the wire ones, and work for many critters. Bait it with lettuce/greens. Beware that sometimes you catch a skunk or other undesirable critter. You have to use a stick to open the trap and RUN from those.
Everyone is correct in saying it is the wrong season though. I would encourage them to tadpole, hunt eggs, and catch minnows and turtles right now. It's also fun for kids to set up a barrel pond. Line a barrel with plastic and fill. You will need something to areate it, either a pump or small fountain. Just catch some minnows (or buy them), leaches, a couple of crawdads, a catfish or two, etc. Add a water lily plant if you can find one cheap or some water lettuce. The kids will love it, and it isn't that expensive. My boys loved to build ponds when they were small. (We had holes all over the property lined with plastic!)
If your boys dig a pond rather than using a barrel or pool, let them use the dirt to make a bike ramp. That is as much fun for boys as the pond!
Whatever you do, have lots of fun!

[momma_to_seven_chi]

Mellee,
I put the rabbit in the iron skillet and the hide in the freezer until I have time to start tanning it.


What do you use for tanning? When my kids were small, we would tan fox/coon/rabbit by just soaking in salt and scraping off the fat. It was part of some of the crafts we did in homeschooling, and they didn't turn out too well. I heard alum works too, but we never got any of the professional chemicals. Ours was just for fun.

[Anon001]

Those are great ideas from Momma....! But, heck, just let cinok build the bike ramps with his dozer (if he can without getting it stuck! LOL).

[flatwater]

I catch rabbits the old fashion way--- Just stand behind a rock and make a noise like a carrot. When the rabbit hears this he'll come a running. Then just take a fishing net and scoop him up ...... unless of course he is little bunny foo foo, he can't get caught because he is out in the field scooping up the field mice and boppin,em on the head. ;D

[Anon001]

What do you use for tanning? *When my kids were small, we would tan fox/coon/rabbit by just soaking in salt and scraping off the fat. It was part of some of the crafts we did in homeschooling, and they didn't turn out too well. I heard alum works too, but we never got any of the professional chemicals. *Ours was just for fun.
I've used alum. But, I have some old chemicals that a taxidermists grown daughters gave me when he died. I've never used them all up! lol... most of them I can't even find anymore... But alum will work. However, it makes for a very stiff fur or hide. You can go natural and use the animal's brain for tan

[Grizzy]

Dang Flat!!! TANKS! "Feed a bear a carrot and ya fed her for... well not long BUT teach a bear so make NOISE like a carrot and... well.... You got her fed for a LIFEtime!"

~grasshoppaGrizzy~

[traper]

a good easy way i do it is either stand in the back yard with an air rifle in the evening an nail em as they come out or get some wire an make some homemade snars thats what always works for me real cheap an easy if you dont know how to make one try looking it up on youtube you can learn alot from some of that

[idris]

Apart from being able to bite small fingers right off, they also have a nasty kick, which can scrape a swathe of skin off where ever it strikes: pick them up by the scruff, and point them away from you. Much the same applies to other small, furry beasts. Also; fleas & ticks may infest their hides. After all that: know what to look for in the organs to know if the creature is healthy enough to eat. Happy hunting:: I used to do when young, & it taught me much more than just catching a meal. You might look into keeping the hide: that is another useful thing to do: waste not, want not.

[traper]

if your gunna eat them an not keep em for petts you could use a 110 connibear you can get one for less than 5 dollars thats what i use when i have trouble with em gettin into the garden if you dont know what they are there pretty much a bigger modified version of a mouse trap

[Mitch]

With the exception of one or two old timers, no one seems to have a clue!

Rabbits are a winter time venture. Rabbits carry rabbit fever! Make sure you don't skin them bear handed unless you like being deathly ill for a month or so. Fry them well, I like to roll them in flour like chicken. Makes a great gravy too!

Rabbit hide is very thin and tears. Forget about rabbit pelts, just pinch on the back, run a knife through the hide and pull each way. In 5 seconds he is skinned. Gut him, and cut him up, soak overnight in cold salt water, dry and wrap the pieces and plop him in the freezer. Toss the head, feet, hide and guts and your done. It takes about 20 minutes to dress 10 of them.

To catch all you want, take 3 old 1X8 inch boards 2 feet long and nail them together making a trough with open ends. Mid ways take a fence staple and staple the chain of a connibear 110. Cut an apple in half and push it on the 110 trigger wires securely. Set the trap (use a safety, easier on the fingers) set on ground in rabbit trail and run two stakes to secure trap vertically. I cut two notches mid ways in board trough big enough for trap springs to work and cap trough down over trap. I lay a log acrossed it or use a rock to hold it still. Now you have a 2 foot tunnel with a kill trap in the middle baited with a cut apple. Take a spray bottle and spray apple cider in each end of tunnel. Come back next day and get rabbit out of 110 kill trap :)

12 such traps will take 8 to 12 rabbits per day in good rabbit habitat. I generally have all I care for in a week to 10 days.

Mitch