The Great Escape...

How on earth do you stop them making liek Steve McQueen?!

Hazel a while ago dug a good 2 feet under our pondok. I filled it in with stones.

Then someone (I suspect Stu) attempted a break-out under the mesh (maybe a foot long). Filled in with stones.

There have been a few false starts (where they have just dug a bit of sand and then stopped) which I have stopped with stones.

I am running out of stones! Yesterday I was out there in the sweltering heat trying to dig up enough stones from our garden to fill in the 3 foot escape trench that Big J has been working on. In the end I gave up as the stones were just rolling down the tunnel not blocking it up so I found a fallen coconut and shoved that in the entrance, filling in the surrounding gaps with (you guessed it) more stones and some sand.

Now, I am rapidly running out of stones and their run is going to end up looking like a rockery, as well as bringing the floor level up by a good 6 inches!

How on earth do you stop the repeated breakout attempts!? I was very lucky with this last tunnel as Jasper was evidently heading for the centre of the earth rather than the 'under and up' approach. Otherwise we would be one bun short!!!

He was neutered last week which I hope will help but it's not as if they are without stimulation. I was tempted to reopen the tunnel under the pondok 'cos at least they can't come up anywhere under there and escape for a few feet (the concrete base of the house) but I don't want the thing collapsing in on them!

Any suggestions?

Mine dug a huge hole which goes down at an angle and then turns towards the inside of their compound. It is about 7ft deep and ends in a warren. They don't seem interested in escaping and use it as a safe house. Maybe your buns are looking for somewhere cool to escape from the heat to. You could maybe start a hole in the middle of the compound and hope that they just dig down and make a warren like mine have done. Not easy with determined buns and boy can they dig!

That's a good idea. The whole thing is grass anyway so there's no obvious sandy areas (well obviously there are now since they've uprooted the grass in places) so maybe they're just enjoying themselves!

I will start a wee 'central tunnel' tomorrow I think. Thanks Nickie!

However, if you find them with soil down their trousers and whistling, you're in for trouble!!

I have a neighbour who has two buns who live totally free-range. Hers dug themselves a burrow and live in that rather than their hutch. They only go to the hutch for their food so it is kept dry. Otherwise, they hop around at will and put themselves to bed.

Holly started the burrow herself and Wolfie joined in. Once I realised they weren't building a tunnel and were probably just building a warren like my neighbours', I just left them to it. It is maybe something that they do when they are settled.

Can you not mesh over the floor of the run