One Pile of Dirt Plus Four Hours of Work : How to Make a Rabbit Hide

When our neighbor's eight year old daughter heard me mention that I was going to make a rabbit hide, she exclaimed, "That's mean!"

Naturally, I had to clarify. The idea was not to go "Boo!" at a rabbit to scare it into hiding...but rather to give the bunnies who live near the Border Fort a safe place to sleep--or to run to--when something big, bad, and predatory is out there trying to catch it and eat it. Which is, quite frankly, pretty much all the time.

"Oh," she nodded, "that's different. At least I didn't think you meant you were going to make a rabbit skin. A rabbit makes its own that kind of hide."

This is a bright youngster. Now she wanted to see how I was going to do it. Her parents were of the opinion that going to school today took precedence, however, so I told her,

"Not to worry. I'll take pictures and write a Hub tonight, and you can see how I did it on the computer."

"Okay." We had a deal. Heading out the door on my way back to the car, I pretended not to hear her question to her Mom. "What's a hub?"

There's a bit more to the backstory, of course. When I built our home in 2010, I asked the septic system contractor to dump all the dirt in one big pile so I could then use it to fill the earthbags that would make up the bulk of the Border Fort's walls. He did that, and 1300 filled bags later, there was quite a bit of dirt left over--which surprised me, but in a good way.

The French drain around the perimeter of the residence empties into a small reserve pit (now to be eliminated and converted to "ditch only") that served us well during the heavy monsoon rains of 2010 and 2011. We did wonder from the beginning what sort of critters would end up crawling into the open end of the four inch drain pipe when it was dry in there, though....

Turned out to be rabbits.

The bunny population in this section of the Sonoran desert is fairly robust, but then again so is the coyote population. There are bobcats around as well, a truly huge and handsome hawk that hunts over the area regularly, and of course...snakes. They all love rabbit for dinner.

One day, we spotted a little girl rabbit who'd clearly adopted the drain pipe as her "default safe burrow". For a while, it worked to perfection. She had her first litter right there in that pipe, and we had multiple bonnie bunnies to observe on a daily basis.

Unfortunately, the drainpipe--while awesome cover for a while--is also a long term death sentence. Our local wild rabbits are definitely not of the dwarf variety; they grow. It looks like they must interbreed between species, but most are either big ol' jackrabbits or at least have a "splash of jack" in their DNA.

The time comes when each new generation, including that once-young mother, can no longer fit into a four-inch pipe. Watching the young mother stuff herself in there one last time a few months ago (it clearly wasn't easy, and she had to back out), we knew a better rabbit hide needed to be constructed. Once the pipe is no longer an option, other sleeping and run-to places must be found...

...and pretty soon, the too-big bunny becomes somebody's easy meat.

So, the plan: First, drive to Sierra Vista, hunt all around town, and discover that only Ferguson Plumbing Supply had in stock what was needed for the project.

Ferguson Plumbing Supply helped immensely by checking and rechecking the prices on every type and piece of six-inch pipe they had on hand. (We're guessing, but a full grown jackrabbit should be able to slide into and out of a six-incher.) In the end, the Subaru Outback (because the GMC truck has been down for 18 months at this point) hauled home the following:

1. PVC foam-core pipe suitable for drainage and other non-pressure applications, 2 pcs. @ 10 feet each.

2. One ABS coupling.

3. Two 45 degree ABS elbows.

Six inch pipe is not cheap under any circumstances, but by cobbling together this mix-and-match grouping, we were able to keep the cost down to $155. Considering that I'd budgeted $100 for the project, the cost overrun was "only" 55 percent...not a real thrill, but still much better than the cost overrun of Obama's multitrillion dollar Presidency.

That was yesterday. This morning, the actual task of "rabbit hide construction" got underway at around nine a.m. It was still nippy out, not much above freezing. Even so, the first step was to couple the two 10-foot pieces of pipe together so that we had a single 20-foot stick.

Of course, it had started out as a 20-foot stick, but had to be cut in half to ride safely home atop the Outback. If my truck was working...and if I owned a long enough trailer....

You go with what you got. At least, we already had purple primer and green transition glue (for gluing ABS to PVC and/or vice versa) on hand, so that was a freebie.

Next, it's time to dig. Stan Spade goes to work, slicing down through the thickest and highest part of the dirt pile, one shovelful at a time. Fortunately, despite having been in place for two years and some months, the dirt is easy to shift, much unlike the undisturbed desert surface which has baked in place for centuries.

A bit of serendipity: I have the camera in hand, taking pictures of the growing slot in the dirt pile, when a local (and huge) hunting hawk soars past, flying under the radar on its ground-scanning rounds, seeking either breakfast or brunch.

With the slot ready, the 20 foot stick of pipe is laid therein, adjusted so that (a) one end is at the right spot for a 45 degree elbow to be applied, and (b) there is a slight tilt toward the "back side". (A few handfuls of dirt lifting the front end made the adjustment perfectly; Stan Spade had done his work well.)

Note: Making the pipe level might have been pleasant for sleeping bunnies, but the tilt makes sure that any rainwater making its way into the pipe "burrow" will quickly make its way right back out. A level but soggy bed would be no fun at all.

Once the pipe is set properly, it's time to undo all that digging by caving the sirt from the sides down under, around, and over the pipe--and, of course, finishing up with the usual bit of shovel-and-toss work.

Okay, so far we've got a straight 20 foot length of see-through pipe. That's not going to feel particulary secure to any security minded rabbit. All that's needed to rectify the situation, however, is to saw off two 2 foot lengths of the pipe from the "backside", hook 'em up via the 45 degree elbows, and bingo! Bunny gets to zip in, take an easy turn to the left, and--

"Honey!! I'm ho-ome!!

Will the rabbits be comfortable with that open-at-either-end burrow? We don't know. Hopefully so, because this arrangement gives them a back door to scoot out of in case Jake the Snake comes slithering in the front.

It would have been nice to incorporate more bends in the burrow, but those elbows cost big bucks. Let's see how this works before anybody gets too carried away.

Both entrances are tilted downward, though the "rear entrance" has a noticeably sharper angle. That's mostly because I got careless, but it's also where the water (if any) will exit--so the drop certainly doesn't hurt. Besides, if the bunnies think the climb is too steep, maybe they'll get in the habit of using the front door, which is facing my office window and the ever present Canon PowerShot camera.

I can rationalize anything.

One final tweak to go. That's an awful lot of white (with black stripe) pipe haning out there in midair. The solution: More shovel work, plus a little foot-stomping to flatten that silly little top-pile a bit.

And...done!

The entire process (not counting shopping for materials) took almost exactly four hours of work, beginning around nine a.m. and finishing up at 1:00 p.m. (give or take). Bottom line, it took longer to write the Hub than it did to do the actual project.

The umpty-whatever question is, obviously: Will our rabbits adopt this newfangled burrow? We know it's been constructed with safety and at least relative comfort in mind (except for a bit of breeze that may make it through there on occasion). But we're not bunnies.

Time will tell...and we'll be watching.

Hide, rabbit, hide!

UPDATE: January 14, 2012. I'm roused from sleep (having worked online till 4:00 a.m.) by Pam's excited voice. This has to be good.

It is. My wife has been up since five. Seconds ago, a powerful intuition told her to go look out the office window at the new PVC rabbit burrow. She did so--immediately--just in time to catch our current boy bunny going into the pipe!

AWESOME!

How do we know this one's a boy? It's our opinion that the wild rabbits around here that have noticeable black stripes down their backs, especially near the tails, are male. They just "feel" like guys to us, as the others "feel" like girls.

I joined her at the window in time to see our bun-bun exploring a few dozen yards to the north--he'd clearly gone out the "back door" on the other side of the dirt pile. Moments later, spooked by whatever, he ran lickety-split back toward his safe haven, disappearing behind th dirt pile once again.

After getting Pammie squared away a bit, that is, starting up the generator so she could turn on her TV and feeding the (strictly indoor) cats, I checked the window once more...just in time to catch these shots.

Enjoy. I know we did.