I'm located in Minnesota. It's been exceptionally cold this winter. For the first time, feral rabbits are living inside my barn. They poop (and I assume pee) all over my hay. They burrow into the bales. They cut bale strings. They also leave waste scattered on the floor. I'm tired of shaking piles of poop off hay before feeding it to the horses. I assume there's waste residue on the hay. I can't close the barn because my horses need to get inside for shelter. Their heated water fountain is outside. The rabbits can squeeze through little openings around the big sliding doors when shut.

I have packets of rat/mouse poison along the walls of the barn (except for the horse area) that takes care of those rodents. I checked with my local farm supply store and the young workers didn't have a clue on how to solve this problem. Is there rabbit poison available? I don't have barn cats. My farm is located right off a busy state highway. Cats regularly get hit. I'm getting desparate and thinking of taking my chances with barn cats. I thought about covering the hay with a tarp but suspect the rabbits will get underneath it anyhow.

My Blue Heeler has killed over a dozen feral rabbits on the farmsite this year. He can't keep up with the exploding population and also lives indoors at night.

I welcome your suggestions!

Rabbits die easily from lead poisioning. Keep a .22 rifle handy at all times to inject the lead. They also make a good meal after the hunt. This solves two problems; gets rid of the rabbits and reduces the grocery bill.

Don't worry about the waste on the hay. Horses will eat what they can and if there is some contamination, the horses will not eat it. Who knows what is on the hay when it is getting cut and baled. Who knows what gets on the hay as it is being transported and stored. You can get a roll of chicken wire and make a barrier around your hay if you are really worried about it. We use the orange plastic mesh snow fence to wrap around our haystacks to keep the deer out of and off our hay. The chicken wire would do the same thing for your bales inside a barn.

I second NW's method. I have some real nice rabbit recipes if you need some.

There ain't no such thing as 'too many rabbits in the freezer'.