really old style living?

Red_Doe

And he said it isn't myxy but some new liver virus that's killing them. Has anybody else heard of this?

No, but it`s like Watership Down up this way! Hordes of them, and they are destroying the croft with their runs and burrows. I have a lot of rabbit meat in the freezer.

missychrissy

I envy you the rabbit meat, but if I was trying to survive on a croft I would kill and eat anything that was threatening my livlihood!

mardatha

Snot fair !!! My OH loves rabbit and we refuse to pay for it Not had any in ages

Red_Doe

Too much of a good things isn`t..um...a good thing, always. I need to find more creative ways to cook rabbit!

RAS

mardatha wrote: »

By the by, I was saying to my son yesterday that the rabbits seem to have vanished here, for 2 years they have been scarce. And he said it isn't myxy but some new liver virus that's killing them. Has anybody else heard of this?

Interesting I was on an island this summer where the rabbits had all just dissappeared a few years ago - whole population just died. it was not mixxie - anyone can diagnose that. Wonder if it was this liver thing?

Any idea what it is called?

RAS

ceridwen wrote: »

Hmmm...if I wanted/had the money to buy land that had that sporting/fishing clause attached and I wasnt able to get it removed:think: - I guess I'd start getting a bit "ingenious" at finding ways to get round that....;)

It is when the sporting/fishing clause is NOT attached that you worry, as someone else still owns it.

I have no problem killing a deer that is busy raiding crops on crofts when other land is available, although I would try to scare it away first.

With foxes, no point taking out the lead vixen but if you dispose of her helpers you can keep the problem down, and it is most likely to be the helpers that are helping themselves to the chickens.

However, here I like to have a fox on the allotments (we do not have one at the moment) as this keeps the rats down, massively.

seasalt_2

Haven't heard of liver disease in wild rabbits. I googled it. Pet ones are susceptible to it apparently because of phenols in bedding eg pine shavings/sawdust. Also something called Viral Haemorrhagic Disease in Australia but don't know whether also in UK.

ChocClare

Red_Doe wrote: »

Too much of a good things isn`t..um...a good thing, always. I need to find more creative ways to cook rabbit!

I have a scrummy recipe for rabbit with red wine, rosemary, bacon and cream if it's not one you already use. If you're interested, I'll look it up for you.

In re foxes: my "land" borders a river which gives onto preserved land. There is a gamekeeper who keeps down predators, so we are quite lucky, although last year, I did have a VERY stupid hen who used to run away and hide at bedtime (I found her every morning outside the henhouse squawking to be let in with the others). Then one day I found her minus her head in the middle of the lawn... Always thought it odd that a fox (if it was a fox) shouldn't have taken more - I'm not convinced it was a fox tbh, but I don't know what else it might have been unless it was one of the many large farm cats round here.

The downside of this is that in October (well, later in October), I have no doubt that I shall waken each morning to find two dozen pheasants on my lawn, chomping into whatever they can find. Pity I don't much care for pheasant...

Red_Doe

ChocClare the recipe would be great, thanks! All I ever seem to do is rabbit stew, rabbit casserole, onepot bunny, well, you get the picture.
The hen may have been a cat, my own barn cat often brings back some sizeable birds, eats the heads then leaves them lying around! Evil beast she is....

RAS

mardatha wrote: »

Ceridwen, I think that most people who buy these places know and understand the law and how the system works. Then also, sometimes it's not as "in your face" as it sounds.. an awful lot of things up here are more unsaid than said - and while technically the landowner might have the right in law to do this that or the other, a lot of them are down south and don't know the half of what goes on, remembering that their bailffs are local people...:rotfl:
I think as long as it's discreet and not too blatant, people do have a lot of leeway.

Most people, yes mardatha, but..

English early pensioners took over a croft house and two letting properties. They had spent about 8 weeks in the area over the summers in the previous 5 years and "it had always been sunny, although a bit windy sometimes." Cue, mardatha, seasalt and choille to fall over laughing (they were north of choille).

They were incredibly naive, one of the lets was a converted garage with no planning permission, building control and completely uninsurable.

They thought that they had bought the croft land as well. It was when they stopped a neighbour riding his tractor through the gate down the side of their house and garden and got a bit uppetty that things went pear-shaped. It turned out (some time later) that when the croft had been split, the old landlord (with the CC approval presumably) had given exclusive access to one tenancy and right of access over the same ground to the tenant on the far field.

Things got rather out of hand because of the bust up, with the neighbour trying to apply to the CC for the croft land, partly out of spite I expect and partly to teach these bloddy foreigners some manners. They did not have any livestock on it and had not at that stage made any approach to the CC, as they did not even realise they needed to do it. To cap it all, they took over in the early winter and discovered what the weather up there could be like.

The new landlord was not best please either, as he was getting grief from both parties. After a year of legal threats flying all over, someone in the local community had a bright idea; the landlord and grazing committee agreed a new access from the common grazing land onto the far field, allowing the neighbour to access his land without going over the English couple's land. The CC eventually granted the crofting tenancy to them as well, although I have to say that they were very poor farmers.

On the other hand a local man did understand crofting law and had been helping his uncle for many years. When uncle died, the house went to his family down south and this guy was desparate to get the crofting tenancy. He shifted himself and his kids into one of the cattle sheds where he sort of rigged up accomodation. They had running water and electricity already, and installed a stove (peat mainly). I never saw inside but I recall the lad, about 11, always helping his dad and looking a bit too old. Both kids were not quite clean enough ever. He got the place in the end as the cousins did not want to return and he could show he had been running the place.