Jump to content

comanche

Members
 View Profile  See their activity

  • Content Count

    2,477

  • Joined

  • Last visited

  • Days Won

    3

 Content Type 

Everything posted by comanche

  1. comanche
    The belief is that the guy(retired civil servant) died after picking it up on his feet from puddles round a swimmin pool where rats had been seen at night. Your Post might literally save someone's life!
  2. comanche
    Incredably WELL SAID! Much as I try to operate a minimal poison policy It's minimal exposure policyfor me when it comes to rats.Traps= exposure( every time I handle,rebait and do dailychecks etc )to real danger and the fact that a trapping campaign tends to continue longer than a poisioning attack extends the risk .ElfnSafety demands minimal exposure to risk not parlour games with bits of bent metal.If I sound a bit "straight",sorry ,but a mate of me Dad died of Weils before Christmas.
  3. comanche
    If you have good,strong, stock with some "special" quality that cannot be bred into your strain from outside sources it might be allowable to mate close relatives.You'd have to be a good old-fashioned stockman though and be prepared to admit to faults and cull your stock ruthlessly ,possibly over the next few years,to make the exercise a positive one.Your bro+sis will be geneticly very similar .Mental and physical health strengths and weaknesses will be the same.In very simple terms any babes they have will get a double dose of any good bits but also a double load of BADbits.Depending on how s
  4. comanche
    It can be mate but there's a hell of a lot of genuine people down here also! According to my mum who is also my granny and my sister's twin brother my family are still owed royalties from that film. Enclosed is a picture of my sister!
  5. comanche
    Probably not quite that simple (,any sort of stress can cause the internal abortion thingy at any time of year)but whatever the cause it helps the survival of prime breeding does in times of adversity and saves them the time and energy involved in rearing unviable litters.Thanks for the kind comments.I'm off to put my anorak back on.
  6. comanche
    Thanks D. I'm not sure that winter young and embryos are that new anyway.I've been ferreting since the early 1970's and recall them .I keep a Game Book(a grand title for a scruffy collection of notes describing my forays with the ferrets and encounters with three inch perch!) and make notes of things like the weather and numbers and size of rabbits caught....I think the thing to remember is that the rabbit as a species,despite being here 900years, has yet to find a balenced enviromental niche in this country and probably never will.It has taken them 50years to recover from the first myxomato
  7. comanche
    Nowt to do with Global Warming .Bunnies breeding condition depends on light stimulation not temperature.Once we get past the longest night (21/22 Dec)the daylight increases.Laying snow can also effect the breeding cycle by effectivly increasing the light levels by reflection on bright clear nights.Round here we expect to see a few scuttlers around the end of Dec/New years day.These've been born about the begining of December ,hence concieved begining of November .In other words the babies you see after Christmas are late litters not early ones.... A s to the embryos found in Winter -caught
  8. comanche
    Lovely old tools ,full of character and history (Maybe not the modern adzes).My own trapping hammer's not so steeped in the sweat of long departed rustic hands.S'just a 50p boot-sale jobby with the claws cut off,a slot cut crossways with an angle- grinder and a wedge shaped blade (cut from an old S+J N.o3 ) welded into the slot.Same spade also provided a strip of steel to make ,with the addition of a big file handle and some sharpening, a crude but sturdy turf- knife for mole -catching.The remains of the spade with its' cut down handle and 3 !/2"wide blade is usefull too.It lives in the van
  9. comanche
    As some ferrets are a bit portly ,especially in Winter condition,and others are slim it obviously pays to experiment with collar width, design and tightness and practice fitting your collars at home making adjustments -extra holes etc before you actually find yourself in the field.Let the ferret wear the collar (without batteries)for a few hours in its hutch to become used to it.I'm pretty sure that the Mk3 "collars" are actually military watch straps.Some people trap a tuft of the ferrets fur in the buckle to help stop the collar slipping round on the neck too much(a sideways collar can a
  10. comanche
  11. comanche
    When I started I did'nt know that nets had tohave pegs I was so naive!.Bit like my computer skills nowSomehow managed to post my message twice (heaven knows what I've done to have a banned text ) and no idea how to delete one of the posts.Sorry
  12. comanche
    Thanks to one of my regular mole-job clients having "a word" with her neighbour I was lucky enough to be given rabbiting permission on a new patch last week.Went on it first time with the ferrets yesterday and took 27 rabbits by lunch-time.Owner impressed..."Could I take out her children(boy+girl about 8,10) for an hour or two?",she asked...Took em out this morning on a sloping field next to their garden .With lovely warm woods(ripe for when the pheasant Season is over) nearby these burrows out in the bitter wind were never going to hold much but being only small looked ok for some quick acti
  13. comanche
    Thanks to one of my regular mole-job clients having "a word" with her neighbour I was lucky enough to be given rabbiting permission on a new patch last week.Went on it first time with the ferrets yesterday and took 27 rabbits by lunch-time.Owner impressed,me very pleased [bANNED TEXT] miself..."Could I take out her children(boy+girl about 8,10) for an hour or two?",she asked...Took em out this morning on a sloping field next to their garden .With lovely warm woods(ripe for when the pheasant Season is over) nearby these burrows out in the bitter wind were never going to hold much but being onl
  14. comanche
    The very fact that the market is divided on the Mk3 must be telling Deben something.Dunno if it's tru ebut someone told me the Mk3 was actually designed for finding blocked drains.Maybe that's why it works best if the ferret is absolutely motionless.Dunno if Deben 's MK1 patent is still sewn -up but I'm sure the Chinese could do something very competetive.
  15. comanche
    Deben have a great customer relations policy even towards old wingers like me who despise the MK3.That's what you have there ,with the twiddly bit -a Mk3.Sounds like the old one you had was actually a MK2.The volume knob works just like the one on the old Greybox(MK1)locator.Turn it clockwise,rove about until you hear a nasty rabbit- repelling sonic attack.Now you are in contact with the ferret.Turn the volume down until you JUSTlose the noise.Move the locator about till you pick up the noise again.Repeat as needed.Assuming the ferret does'nt move you will be working nearer to it .It is simp
  16. comanche
  17. comanche
    Get into the habit of counting em out o your bag in groups of 10.Set those before taking another 10 out.Any unset nets go in your pocket .. Don't put any nets back in the bag until you've counted em into bundles of 10.(Don't know if I explained that very well but it's the system I use on big burrows.)Or work out a similar system and stick at it until it becomes habit.A mate used to put elastic bands round his nets.As he set a net he put the band round his wrist.In theory he only had to count the bands to know how many nets he had down.Trouble was bands caught on thorn bushes and broke or w
  18. comanche
    Hello.Hemp is fine if you give them the chance to dry properly after a dunk in a ditch or rain. But a spun-nylon net handles like a traditional hemp one,is stronger,close to rot-proof,costs the same as hemp and takes the same amount of time to make! I agree that it is a good plan to practice a few rows of stitching with some cheap string first though.Get your drawcord from the same supplier as your' Hemp/Spun Nylon /twine of choice or go to your local dressmaker/fabric shop.They have a choice of thicknessess and will sell it by the yard(sorry metre..It's me age) straight off the roll.That'
  19. comanche
    Have to agree about being honest about the fate of the squill ,also find tunnel traps catch better than cages when set in similar circumstances ,on branches /fences etc.But that might be me projecting a"confidence" thing on my prefered method if that does'nt sound daft.With Spring round the corner though it'll soon be cages only.Don't want birds investigating potential nesting -holes.More bird-tables are ,apparentlly,being visited by dormice so cages are going to increase in relevence.
  20. comanche
    proper job, you don,t want a shed like mine as its standing room only , i,m waiting on woodga and duckwing coming up to clear it out for me to take all these snares away , by the way whats wrong screwing a modified rat trap to the post , cheap , light and easy , and effective no chewed posts , dead squirrel. Tis true,a MK6fenn or Magnum in a wooden box-tunnel,mesh one end and restricted entrance t'other,few peanuts,hung on a fence ...works very well but you have to be aware o the customers'and neighbours'sensibilities.The box-tunnel is essential to stop birds ,cats etc investigating and
  21. comanche
    Sadly I think such occurances are bound to become more common-place as usage of the MK111(Hi Viz)increases.Certainly the noise my one generates is more relevent (in my opinion...legal disclaimer etc)to the realm of interstellar communication than the hunting field...As for your friend.How terrible,not to say confusing for him/her.
  22. comanche
    I use these traps regularly in woodland and garden situations and they are very effectve. The ones i use are called "Elgeeco" traps, but the ones in the picture differ slightly from mine. They are customer friendly in as much as they can be used as feeders for wild birds during active service. Highly Reccomend. Rolfey. I've a couple that catch well especially if the customer has'nt put the squills on their guard by using water pistols and strong language to chase em off the bird table.Are the "Elgeeco" ones the ones that you dare not lay on their sides because the door comes open and t
  23. comanche
    Too be honest there wasn't much time.As for sexual-probing.....they would'nt let me!
  24. comanche
    Well done, it would have to be someone from Cornwall, I was in my 20's and had long moved from home before I learnt that a grammersow was a woodlouse. Think I might 've cracked" JASPER" too,thanks to DS reminding me that we've always been. bit lazy with our pronunciation here in Sussex.How about "jab-spur"or"jab -spear";pretty good description of a peevish wasp . Said quickly with a rustic lilt soon becomes "Jasper"....Notice in all the old B movie Westerns a Jasper is a bit of a dodgy character.
  25. comanche
    Another advantage of coloured nylon is that your fellow ferreters can't get away with "accidently"popping one of your nets into their own collection . I was going to make some pink ones thinking that nobody would even want to steal em....Then it hit me that I might be missing a money-making oppertunity.There are a lot of lady ferreters out there.....And I'm only 30 miles from Brighton! oooh you are a bitch; can I have 2 dozen please; they had better be the right shade of pink or i;ll have to hit you with my game~bag! Steve mayhap when Pride puts on a Game Fair of it's
×
×
  • Create New...