How's Your Winter going?

[B+.]

Makes me think of a cold glass of kir on a hot summers evening. Interesting that the birds don't go for them.

They don't go for them here. They're probably too full after eating all my red currants and morello cherries though :-(

 

[Poly Hive]

Talking of rabbits have you noticed the absence of?

PH

 

[Stiffy]

Talking of rabbits have you noticed the absence of?

PH

Although I seem to have quite a few on my fields there has been news of a decline. BTO has reported a 80% drop in Scotland and around 40% in England.
When you consider how abundant they have been this is of concern, though I expect many farmers will not be sorry.
S

 

[Hivemaker.]

Talking of rabbits have you noticed the absence of?

No shortage of them here despite my best efforts.

 

[B+.]

Talking of rabbits have you noticed the absence of?

PH

No. Nore hares. I saw one of those yesterday

 

[Poly Hive]

I caught a bit of a radio program last year and they were talking about a blood disease which is killing the rabbits. The Uni of Anglia has been studying a warren for donkeys year until last year when it died out.

Around here the roads were carpeted with corpses and now.........zero.

There is also a worry they said about it crossing to hares, and just 20 minutes ago whilst walking the dogs we came across a flattened hare. Lengthwise.. which I have never ever seen before, the first roadkill hare I have seen.

PH

 

[Hivemaker.]

There is also a worry they said about it crossing to hares

That is myxomatosis, cases in Suffolk and Norfolk up until then.

 

[Repwoc]

Rabbit haemorrhagic disease type 2.

https://www.theguardian.com/environ...bbit-virus-threatens-uk-brown-hare-population

Maybe you should report the dead hare you found.

 

[Poly Hive]

Not mixy Pete this is something quite different.

PH

 

[B+.]

Not mixy Pete this is something quite different.

PH

The one I saw was very much alive - tearing across the middle of a field

 

[Hivemaker.]

Not mixy Pete this is something quite different.

Could be the other disease then, but on the television and news papers last year it was also about hares getting mixy...here is a video clip with Dr Diane Bell of the uni of Anglia which you mentioned.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iNtmDTFCN0A

 

[thedozzer]

Talking of rabbits have you noticed the absence of?

PH

We went down to no rabbits for about 10 months, had culled them quite hard and then we had an outbreak of RHDV2 = https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rabbit_haemorrhagic_disease
they feel ill and go and die in the burrow, this has the affect of transmitting to the rest of the warren. most of the farms near my friends and plenty of people at the gun club have said they had similar.
Which sadly we think has now crossed over to the hares
it has taken about 12 months for the population to get back to even having to think about control again. going out tonight.

 

[Poly Hive]

Not seen a rabbit here for at least a year.

I am hoping the hare is a one off but will keep an eye out.

PH

 

[Beefriendly]

Loads of hares about this year, even the semi-tame one (Twinkletoes) who regularly comes into my garden to feast...as does Boris the midnight Badger.
Never ever had rabbits in any quantity in the immediate surrounds, but still lots in their usual areas.

 

[Millet]

Still plenty of bunnies on the Yorkshire dales much to the delight of my pooch who likes exercising them for a short while before catching them and bringing them to me..RHD is on the increase in small pockets but not everywhere and Hares can not catch Mixy.. a flawed study was done a while ago which proved very little..
As for Poly seeing more gear splatted on the roads that means you have/had a healthy population before they got ran over..hares however are suffering on the dales from some kind of liver fluke but very little is known about it..

 

[Funny honey]

Not looking or feeling like winter here at the moment! People out on the beach walking their dogs while I’m at work but o well spring is almost here might get the shorts on end of February

 

[citrus]

so with a spring feeling ...when should i dig out the eke and the syrup feeder ?

or is it me being a newbie and 'trying to help' when they are best left alone

 

[jenkinsbrynmair]

so with a spring feeling ...when should i dig out the eke and the syrup feeder ?

or is it me being a newbie and 'trying to help' when they are best left alone

do they need syrup?

leave well alone unless you think they're short of stores.

It's not spring - it's midwinter, remember the wost of the weather usually comes later

 

[Poly Hive]

More to the point if they are short of stores feed fondant not syrup please to avoid stressing the colony with the extra work of drying syrup off.

PHJ

 

[Funny honey]

so with a spring feeling ...when should i dig out the eke and the syrup feeder ?

or is it me being a newbie and 'trying to help' when they are best left alone

Haha slow done not spring yet I took that picture this morning a few hours later and suns gone winds picked up and it cold. Remember last year it snowed in March