New To Forum Looking To Get Into Ferreting.

[Captain Black 7]

Hi all, I am new to the forum and looking to take up ferreting. I am a big fan of wild foods and collect my own wild herbs, fungi, shellfish, crab and fish etc.

Never been into ferreting as I always hunted rabbit with an air rifle In the past (had to sell rifle) but after reading an article about historical ferreting dating back to the 13th or 14th century I have become really interested in having a go myself. I do prefer the polecat coloration as apposed to the white type, though I do realise white are easier to spot in the field.

I don't have a lot of cash and will be looking to build my equipment etc up a bit at a time.

I have a few questions if I may.

 

1. I have read that ferrets should not be kept alone, would 2 be ok and should I get 2 jills, 2 hobs or 1 of each sex?

2. Does size matter? I have seen huge differences in ferret size, both sexes. I like the smaller ones, is it just a matter of taste?

3. Should I get neutered ferrets to start until I have some experience and try my hand at breeding?

4. What age ferrets should I be looking for?

5. What daily food is best?

6. Do I need to get any sort of vitamin etc supplements?

7. In terms of health,wellbeing, what other kit do I need?

8. What kit, nets etc will I need to get me started? (The bare minimum to start, as cash is tight)

9. Does anyone have a couple of ferrets (Polecat markings) for sale in my area?

10. Anyone in South Wales (I'm in Porthcawl) willing to take me out ferreting? I don't want to chance harming my ferrets and would prefer to learn the ropes first.

 

I'm sure I'll have lots more questions, really looking forward to getting into keeping and hunting with ferrets

Robbie

[mad4it 694]

first off hello and welcome to thl,

you are right when you say that you need more than one ferret so two is a minium i would keep two jill to start with. as for equiment you will need a good cage with pentry of space so they can play, dry food is good so is feeding rabbits and what you shoot is good for them.

 

you will need nets a loctaor and collar and a spade to dig to them when they are stuck,

 

try and find some one near you who works and keeps ferrets and ask if you could tag along

[The one 8,479]

Ssombody just asked most of these questions the other day and if you spend a bit of time looking back there the pages on this section you will find all the answers

[Chicken_man 1,651]

Welcome mate

[comanche 3,024]

The answers you get will vary in detail because everyone has their own ideas about how things should be done but the basics of ferreting are simple . You keep your ferret clean and well fed. You make it tame . You find some rabbit holes ,put nets over them and pop your little pal into the holes to chase the bunnies into the nets .

Not rocket surgery or brain science . Luckily there are clever blokes and blokessess who have worked this simple theme into a money-making career in book writing. Read as many as you can.

 

A single ferret kept as it is a pet with lots of cuddles and familiarising with its owner will be as happy as one penfull of playmates and will be a pleasure to handle when it comes to hunting.

 

I guess a lot of the older ferreters on here started off with a lot less equipment than seems the norm today.

 

You can have a lot of fun with twenty nets and one ferret if you don't take-on difficult burrows and have patience if your ferret gets stuck.

 

If you are sort of wild forager type then silence,field-craft and patience shouldn't be a problem. No matter how quiet you are the bunnies will know you are sneaking about upstairs but being as covert as possible when setting nets and waiting for a bolt is less likely to see them diving for a lock-down in the basement panic room .

 

Before ferreters became the affluent lot they all seem to be these days a stuck ferret could mean a long wait; we are not talking the nano seconds it takes some lads these days to decide the locator is called-for.

Another ferret entered to stir things up was/is sometimes effective in clearing a blockage or if you were/are truly traditional you unboxed "The Liner". Basically a sturdy ferret wearing a collar and cord, The Liner was popped in a hole near where the lie-up was suspected and if all went well the beast would stop when it came to the loose ferret and a dead rabbit. This gave the operator the choice of trying to dig the ferrets up by following the route of the cord with a spade or maybe coaxing all the animals out.

It works but needs a sort of feel for the job that can't really be explained.

A lot of fieldcraft and patience went out the window when the locator became "a vital bit of kit".

Start small,if you like it get another ferret or two and a bit more kit or you could end -up one of those people with all the gear ,nowhere to go and with even less of a clue .

Edited February 26, 2016 by comanche

[Captain Black 7]

The answers you get will vary in detail because everyone has their own ideas about how things should be done but the basics of ferreting are simple . You keep your ferret clean and well fed. You make it tame . You find some rabbit holes ,put nets over them and pop your little pal into the holes to chase the bunnies into the nets .

Not rocket surgery or brain science . Luckily there are clever blokes and blokessess who have worked this simple theme into a money-making career in book writing. Read as many as you can.

 

A single ferret kept as it is a pet with lots of cuddles and familiarising with its owner will be as happy as one penfull of playmates and will be a pleasure to handle when it comes to hunting.

 

I guess a lot of the older ferreters on here started off with a lot less equipment than seems the norm today.

 

You can have a lot of fun with twenty nets and one ferret if you don't take-on difficult burrows and have patience if your ferret gets stuck.

 

If you are sort of wild forager type then silence,field-craft and patience shouldn't be a problem. No matter how quiet you are the bunnies will know you are sneaking about upstairs but being as covert as possible when setting nets and waiting for a bolt is less likely to see them diving for a lock-down in the basement panic room .

 

Before ferreters became the affluent lot they all seem to be these days a stuck ferret could mean a long wait; we are not talking the nano seconds it takes some lads these days to decide the locator is called-for.

Another ferret entered to stir things up was/is sometimes effective in clearing a blockage or if you were/are truly traditional you unboxed "The Liner". Basically a sturdy ferret wearing a collar and cord, The Liner was popped in a hole near where the lie-up was suspected and if all went well the beast would stop when it came to the loose ferret and a dead rabbit. This gave the operator the choice of trying to dig the ferrets up by following the route of the cord with a spade or maybe coaxing all the animals out.

It works but needs a sort of feel for the job that can't really be explained.

A lot of fieldcraft and patience went out the window when the locator became "a vital bit of kit".

Start small,if you like it get another ferret or two and a bit more kit or you could end -up one of those people with all the gear ,nowhere to go and with even less of a clue .

Cheers Comanche, thanks for some sound advice. I am a travel light type of guy when I go foraging, so your advice fits me well. Just been looking at locator and collar prices and though I would love to get this kit straight away it's simply out of my price range without saving.

What would be a fair price for a second hand locator and collar out of interest?

Also What books would you recommend to get me started?

Robbie

[Captain Black 7]

first off hello and welcome to thl,

you are right when you say that you need more than one ferret so two is a minium i would keep two jill to start with. as for equiment you will need a good cage with pentry of space so they can play, dry food is good so is feeding rabbits and what you shoot is good for them.

 

you will need nets a loctaor and collar and a spade to dig to them when they are stuck,

 

try and find some one near you who works and keeps ferrets and ask if you could tag along

 

Cheers for the advice mad4it,

Why Jill,s as a starting sex? Are they easier to train? Also, do Jill ferrets have a down period when in season, meaning they can't hunt during this time?

Unfortunately don't have any friends that hunt with ferrets but I am asking about for a local contact.

[Lid 194]

Welcome mate. Modern locators have become pretty expensive now. In the late 70's we used to buy the collars for about £10 or £15 and use a small transistor radio set to near radio 1 :-). I just read on here somewhere that the Deben locators can be picked up with a cheap radio nowadays, although not that deep.

[comanche 3,024]

 

 

Cheers Comanche, thanks for some sound advice. I am a travel light type of guy when I go foraging, so your advice fits me well. Just been looking at locator and collar prices and though I would love to get this kit straight away it's simply out of my price range without saving.

What would be a fair price for a second hand locator and collar out of interest?

Also What books would you recommend to get me started?

Robbie

The grey box Deben ferret Finder was the first really good locator and fortunately they last a long time so there are quite a few offered second hand. Unfortunately because they are quite a good bit of kit they command two or three times their original price! The latest Deben ones -Mk3s- are expensive new and hence are relatively expensive second hand. Both types have their fans and both do the job without any trouble thanks to a squelch/volume dial that varies the sensitivity of the device and helps the operator home-in on a lost ferret accurately.

Somewhere between the two Deben offered the MK2. These lack a squelch/volume ;making location a bit more of a fiddle and they weren't on the market for long .

Compared to the other types the Mk 2 is not ideal but its better than nothing and if you find one second-hand it should be very,very cheap. I paid £20 for one just to get the collar a couple of years ago. The same goes for the MK 2 collars . They work with the old grey box and the MK3 but he Mk2 transmitters are made of black plastic (rather than the grey of the Mk3) and the fact they kill batteries faster than other collars is a bargaining point.

Sadly unless you get lucky with someone in generous mood who has a locator they no longer use hiding in the shed you might be wise to start saving.

Jills are usually favoured because being smaller than hobs they are less likely to overpower a rabbit underground and also slip through the meshes of the nets without disturbing them as a big hob might. There are plenty of exceptions to this theory !

Jills can sometimes have trouble if they remain in-season to long due to hormonal and hygene problems but again this can be dealt with and is not inevitable.

As a working pet for small scale ferreting a smallish hob would probably fit the bill . Two ferrets are not much more trouble to keep than one but if you decide on jills you might have to decide how you are going to deal with the demands of female hormones every spring.

 

The normal season for ferreting is October to the end of March give or take a week or two either way.Lush undergrowth,nursing doe rabbits and the appearance baby bunnies make ferreting a bit of an unsporting and unprofitable slog during the warmer months.

There are loads of books out there and reading a few of them will concentrate your mind far better than relying on well-meant internet advice that might leave you reeling with an overload of conflicting opinions.

I just looked on my shelf and the first book I pulled down was The Shooting Times Guide to ferreting by the late Fred Taylor. The author was well known for his gung-ho and sometimes experimental attitude to shooting and fishing and the book is possibly a little dated. Some wouldn't share his opinions regarding dogs and locators in the ferreting field but it is a good book with an excellent glossary of terminology. When it came out The Complete Book of Ferrets by Val Porter and Nick Brown became a bit of a bible regarding ferret husbandry,working ,scientific facts and health care and still is worth a read.

Have fun.

 

Edited February 28, 2016 by comanche

[Captain Black 7]

Once again.thank you Comanche for the info. Ill start saving for a tracker n collar, maybe ill get lucky and find one second hand as im saving.

will also look up the books you mention.

I agree about hunting rabbit or any other creature when they have young about, not something I would do. On the plus side if I can get my Ferret soon, I will have plenty of time to build up a relationship with it through handling and play before the hunting season. I also live on my own so am looking forward to a ferret companion.

I like the idea of a single small hob to start. Avoid the problems that could occur with my inexperience with a jill in season.

[mad4it 694]

 

first off hello and welcome to thl,

you are right when you say that you need more than one ferret so two is a minium i would keep two jill to start with. as for equiment you will need a good cage with pentry of space so they can play, dry food is good so is feeding rabbits and what you shoot is good for them.

 

you will need nets a loctaor and collar and a spade to dig to them when they are stuck,

 

try and find some one near you who works and keeps ferrets and ask if you could tag along

Cheers for the advice mad4it,

Why Jill,s as a starting sex? Are they easier to train? Also, do Jill ferrets have a down period when in season, meaning they can't hunt during this time?

Unfortunately don't have any friends that hunt with ferrets but I am asking about for a local contact.

 

you can start with either breed just in my opion jills are easyer to house together if you dont want to breed just remember to borrow the services of a vec hob or a jill jab to bring the jills out of season.

[hutch6 550]

Should save you a few quid

 

http://www.abebooks.co.uk/servlet/BookDetailsPL?bi=18101486227&searchurl=kn%3Dcomplete%2520book%2520of%2520ferrets%26sts%3Dt

[Captain Black 7]

Should save you a few quid

 

http://www.abebooks.co.uk/servlet/BookDetailsPL?bi=18101486227&searchurl=kn%3Dcomplete%20book%20of%20ferrets%26sts%3Dt

Cheers hutch

[Blackbriar 8,569]

I've just started ferretting (so I don't claim any expertise) but I benefitted hugely from a few trips with a mate who knows the ropes. If you can find a mentor, grab him and learn everything he or she knows.

 

I got 20 purse nets for Xmas and I was given my ferret for free, but I saved some money and bought a second-hand Mk3 and collar for a hundred quid.....and although it's a lot of money, I'm glad I did ! I went out on my own for the first time last weekend, and the peace of mind it brings you is priceless !

You've got the summer to save up, so go for it and you'll have some of the best days out you'll ever have ! Good luck, mate !

 

(For the record, the ferret worked well and the pup made his first solo catch.)

[Captain Black 7]

I've just started ferretting (so I don't claim any expertise) but I benefitted hugely from a few trips with a mate who knows the ropes. If you can find a mentor, grab him and learn everything he or she knows.

 

I got 20 purse nets for Xmas and I was given my ferret for free, but I saved some money and bought a second-hand Mk3 and collar for a hundred quid.....and although it's a lot of money, I'm glad I did ! I went out on my own for the first time last weekend, and the peace of mind it brings you is priceless !

You've got the summer to save up, so go for it and you'll have some of the best days out you'll ever have ! Good luck, mate !

 

(For the record, the ferret worked well and the pup made his first solo catch.)

Been trying to find a mentor, even joined facebook so i could look lol. As for the ferret finder, yep, allready decided I will get one asap.