Albino stock, a follow up!

[Brimmer 220]

Nice job Brimmer, fair old tally, a good day out ! Strange when i see a rabbit hole with gravel as kick out! dont see that much down ere. Do you just use purse nets mainly?

Used no nets on this trip, on some of the high ground we work, the warrens only hold the odd rabbit or two, so time becomes a factor where net setting does not become an efficient practice.

Up until a couple of years back, all we did was use big strong hobs to hit and hold, and dig the shallow warrens, maybee a foot or so. You could drop in a big strong hob ferret, locate within a minute, turn the sod within two minutes and be onto the next within three! All in the time it may take to set a couple of nets. Any bolting bunnys were taken by the dogs. We used to clock up big bags weekly doing this. (Much to the disgust of a of few of the traditionalists).

Unfortunately, the winter of 2009/2010 saw the snow lay on the high ground for nearly 10 weeks, it just kept getting topped up until it was near 2 foot deep of cover everywhere, wiping out I reckon by my estimations now, at least 95 percent of the rabbit population.

It saw us near give up rabbiting in the following season of 2010/2011 taking approx 6 rabbits on a couple of recce's before saying they needed leaving alone.

Last season 2011/2012 saw a few rabbits on the lower areas,but not many on the high ground, so we had to change our practices, and turn to the jills on the deep warrens, and netting up became a must due to the terrain and there being a few in. We maybee took between 150 -200 and had to leave the rest alone to assure some future sport.

This year 2012/2013 those rabbits we left have done ok, hence a good few on some of the low ground, the high ground still only has a few on, and will only take a small amount of working before you start to send things backwards again.

We do mainly use purse nets at the moment Sirius, occasionally the long net. If we get some numbers back on the high ground, we'll be back to no nets, dogs with stamina and big bloody ferrets!

[Sirius 1,391]

Thanks for writing that Brimmer. How different things are up north to down south hey. Shallow warrens etc lol we try to avoid digging at pretty much any cost down ere, due to depth, time and its feck off boring. Can't imaging digging all my rabbits it could take weeks. We use the dogs solely where we can but if you want to catch rabbits you have to sacrifice some sport it's the net dog combo every time. I think a good day is judged on how many you miss, and without nets it would be a fair old few, even with the best dogs in the world. Interesting stuff.

[Brimmer 220]

How you work is pretty much what we have had to adapt to doing last year, and this year, we always kept a few jills and a bag of nets around for the deeper lowland spots, so we had something to do if the highground was too bad weatherwise to work. I'm still learning a lot every time I go out on the lowlands, luckily i've had some decent animals about me to show me the way!

[ferretville 69]

Good read brimmer and the ferts are doing the biz . Like the stamp of the dog strong looking type . To be honest a lot of mine and me mates permission is sparse with rabbits so at minute were just bolting to the hawks . If they catch thats fine , if they miss there hopefully gonna be there for another day . Theres quite a difference in the way us ferreters opperate up and down the country . Keep up the good work brim

[storm323 191]

Another good read dog looks well !

[NEWKID 27,666]

Really interesting read Brimmer, we definitely try to keep moving down here bolting the rabbits......digging costs time... Mostly ferret hedges, which are deep and rough, it's normally through roots and rock so digging is a last resort..... It's nice to read about different ways mate,

ATB

Kev

Edited December 18, 2012 by NEWKID

[jack68 628]

good read that brimmer and cracking picks,,jack