how big should i build my starting and exsersizing pen?

[bamabeagler]

Im only fourteen and me and a couple buddies of mine started a rabbit hunting club of our own and we are on a tight budget of $400.In order for us not to exceed that amount,the biggest pen we can afford is a 75' by 75'.I measured the erea that we want to put the pen on and marked it off and it looks like a decent size to me......I just need some oppinions

[Kevin Dowell]

75ft x 75ft is only 1/10 of an acre. better be awfully small pups

[danny vansickle]

it is good to see you young guys interested in somethin like this,but honestly,that is way too small,you would basically just be feedin dogs rabbits,unfortunately,fence is so high,building a running pin is very expensive,i have never done it,but a told me that it costs $1,000 per acre.

if you are building just a starting pin for pups,it needs to be at least an acre,and that is really too small also in my opinion..........

the guy that starts my dogs and conditions them has a 45 acre runnin pin and a 5 acre starting pin,that is really what you need..........


i would start savin up,good luck guys......

[S.R.Patch]

My little chicken lot is where I put pups to learn to get through brush, explore and find a rabbit. I just put in 3 at 13 weeks old and they're taking right to it, tho the brier is so thick and the honeysuckle so tangled it's give them quite a challenge. I fenced in one little corner of a woods we logged out and had pushed rootwads into after digging a pond. I took 5 rolls of wire, you can cut locus post for free if you don't care to dig holes. Once the sun was able to hit the ground, blackberry and honey suckle vine took over completely and climbed over the dead stumps and treetops, it's a mess, but just what you'd put the hounds in if you were out hunting. A few years ago a friend brought over a 10 month old pup and put in the pen, the pup hadn't been in such a mess before and just stood there around us without a clue what to do and turned flips when it got tangled in the honeysuckle. I want my puppies to know how to navigate brush and know that's where the rabbit lives, that's all my pen is for. When I was a boy, my old female would go off and leave her pups to hunt the woods behind the barn. When I got home from school, I would hear the pups crying lost out in the woods and have to go out and gather them all up to the barn again. Well, by the end of summer that old female had all the pups running and they were the boldest pups and feared nothing from their exposure to the wild as babies. They learned how to listen and locate each other (a hound hunting with it's nose doesn't mean it has to shut off it's eyes and ears, and they learn that ), they learn to hunt as a pack, when the one little female went off by herself, her two brothers went looking for her, now they would never have had to worry about that living in a 4 X 8 chicken coop, this is experience and exposure they get before I take them to the hunting field. It's just something I do cause you cant' let pups free range like you could when I was a boy...

[rabbitearl]

Bamabeagle I can help.Go for it you got to learnd sometime.Theres one thing that you got to know.A rabbit pen is no good without rabbits.I don t care how nice it is you got to have rabbits.That is a little small but you will learnd alot.I build my first pen in 87 and build # 7 pen last year.# 7 is 10 and half ac I done it myself and it cost 5,035 dollors.My biggest pen is 24 ac but everbody likes the 10 to 15 ac pen.I run a place for hunters to come and run there dogs.20 dollors for 6 dogs for 12 hr.I have men to come and run and they with a rabbit pen.They say its cheaper to come here and run.I don t know about that.I beleive they want a different place to run.You get tire of running in the same place all the time.But just remember your not done working when you get done with the pen.RABBITS RABBITS RABBITS.

[S.R.Patch]

I keep no more than 3 rabbits in my chicken lot, one is enough. You want the pups to have to hunt for the rabbit and the less confusion there is of side jumpers and cross tracks the better. I only had 750 ft of wire and it is placed in a large oval shaped pen. Abundance of cover is the key in my mind not the number of rabbits you can pile on. I think the problem of pups giving up a track and going off looking for another become set in them by having to many rabbit to run.

[BriarCreekBeagles]

I was thinking about putting one in the same size and after I measured and marked I decided to go a little bigger,my pup pen will be about 60 x 140, its not a starting pen like most would consider but I agree with Patch 1 or 2 bunnies is all I will put in this. I don't plan starting older dogs just pups at least 6 months or younger. I like to see my pups start early as possible and I don't think they need much more than this. I am gonna put in a 4 acre pen in the spring and planned on having it done already but like Vansickle said, $$$$. One of these days I am going to put in a 10 acre pen but it 's gonna really cost me the advantage I have to my 4 acre pen is all the post and high tensile is already there from when I used to keep horses so all I need is the rabbit fence but it still cost $.
Good to see some young guys doing something worth while with their time instead of getting all wacked out on drugs and other crap like alot of'em these days. Keep runnin'em and have fun while you can.
Goodluck with it and God Bless, Kris

[GA Hound Hunter]

Ive got about 3 acres penned in and i have 5 rabbits in it . I can run four dogs at a time because of the cover and i have been runnin every other afternoon. i havent had a rabbit caught yet. but boys like danny said its expensive to do it right and you want to do it right if you want it to last.