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[mushroom 13,186]

Best workers I had were two rescued ex-pet ferrets. Two hobs, Steve and Ike. They would never leave a warren if anything was still at home, never bit and always well behaved. Both were nearly a kilo. Best jill I had was out of Steve but she was a nasty fuucker when working. Went out up Pendle with Lurcherlass and the kids for a mooch about 10 years ago. I ended up with more bites than the rabbits, hands torn to shit because she wouldn't leave the warren Not so much skulking, more too fired up. Psycho tit latched onto the dogs loads of times just because she wanted to protect the kill. Same jill went toe to toe with my old lurcher and grabbed his face over a bone  

[Bobtheferret 1,249]

5 hours ago, W. Katchum said:

If i wasn’t so stuck in me ways I’d prob not replace any of my jills an instead get a pair a decent sized hobs, not the bear Cubs you see folk handle these days haha but a pair not much bigger than me jills but obviously stronger, as it goes tho I only keep jills 

Your missing out Katc a good hob is an absolute joy to work, from what I hear about the dales they are even more useful up there. Get one this summer and give him a go. 

[forest of dean redneck 11,686]

5 hours ago, W. Katchum said:

If i wasn’t so stuck in me ways I’d prob not replace any of my jills an instead get a pair a decent sized hobs, not the bear Cubs you see folk handle these days haha but a pair not much bigger than me jills but obviously stronger, as it goes tho I only keep jills 

How come you only keep jills ? I’ve always found the hobs lot calmer And easier to handle .

[Neal 1,873]

12 hours ago, forest of dean redneck said:

How come you only keep jills ? I’ve always found the hobs lot calmer And easier to handle .

I no longer keep ferrets as there are not enough rabbits near me to warrant keeping them, but I found the hobs generally calmer and preferred working them too. The only negative was that they were more likely to get stuck in the nets sometimes.

[TOMO 26,466]

i have had a couple of very good small working jills...but the best jills i had were always the longer neaner type that folk would call greyhound type....

but honestly in the last almost 10 years my best ferrets have been hobs....in fact its all me and my ferreting partner keep now....i find they bolt more and kill more ...to me they push out rabbits quiker than jills will ....and of course they will kill quicker or at least stop them till you dig...

there are some downsides to hobs though.....right now if your still ferreting and i am....there minds are wandering they have sex on the brain and they can start to not be as effeciant as they were a month ago.....my hunting partner has had his casterated ...which helps.....both working and living together...

mine arnt casterated but still live together year round..

[C.green 3,231]

Havent bred any ferrets for years but will do this year got a real good producer of a bitch ferret n a small dog ferret really looking forward to getting em on groubd but dog ferrets 6/7 year old never been bred will he be able to do it ?

[Neal 1,873]

1 hour ago, TOMO said:

i have had a couple of very good small working jills...but the best jills i had were always the longer neaner type that folk would call greyhound type....

but honestly in the last almost 10 years my best ferrets have been hobs....in fact its all me and my ferreting partner keep now....i find they bolt more and kill more ...to me they push out rabbits quiker than jills will ....and of course they will kill quicker or at least stop them till you dig...

there are some downsides to hobs though.....right now if your still ferreting and i am....there minds are wandering they have sex on the brain and they can start to not be as effeciant as they were a month ago.....my hunting partner has had his casterated ...which helps.....both working and living together...

mine arnt casterated but still live together year round..

I always had my males castrated, simply so that I could have them in the same court all year round with no problems. 

[forest of dean redneck 11,686]

I only had problems with them living together if there was a jill nearby Otherwise they would live together ok if similar size if one was smaller I found it might get bullied a bit .

[gnipper 6,509]

There's no work for my ferrets locally but I like having them around so they're basically pets, I have a nice small jill there which I'm going to put a micro hob over and hopefully get some nice little pet ferrets for my daughter to keep. 

[Guss33 375]

Everyone has their own opinion on which ferrets to work some say the jills are better than hobs not as big and can get into smaller spots and not as quick. But in only my opinion with the jills being smaller if they get thumped by a rabbit they can cop it hard. They can get onto the smaller spots to get the rabbits but in the past found they would hold you up.  The biggest problem for me Is you need to breed them every year and for me to do that it’s quite hard as I like to have a team of 4 to 5 ferrets. Yes I do have one Jill and this season just gone she had 8 young’s but I only got one hob. The other thing is when you want to use them they are in young and unable to use them. The most important thing to me is are they going to a responsable owner. My personal ones I like is to work cut hobs. They don’t fight they only think with one head they can look after them self under ground when on a big rabbit. And you can keep them all in the same pen. At the moment I am working on some new stock and so far so good three new young ones from this year and one from last year 4 hobs.  But I still run my Jill when she is not in season or with young. This is just my prefrance. All ferreters have their own opinion their is no right or wrong answer on what you hunt with. As long as everyone is happy. 

[Neal 1,873]

Good point. It's just like the dogs we choose to keep: whatever fits or suits you best. I preferred castrated hobs but if we all had them there'd be no more ferrets. I got most of mine from a local ferret rescue but you can't always guarantee what's happened to them before.

[Daniel cain 45,864]

Can't beat a small hob built like a jill... Best one I've ever seen we found him on top of the coal tips one weekend when we was out on our crossers.... It looked like it was on its last legs everytime you took it out the box.... We used to joke, if rabbits didn't bolt in the first few minutes... You was digging himI swear he would mark Warren's like a dog... He could kill a fully grown buck quicker than the biggest polecat hobs we had... Named him Simon Hobbs after one of the boys was a proper f***ing weapon dirty cnuts nicked him along with a load of my old English game bantams and the dogs we kept at the allotment

[Elchapo 3,167]

51 minutes ago, Daniel cain said:

Can't beat a small hob built like a jill... Best one I've ever seen we found him on top of the coal tips one weekend when we was out on our crossers.... It looked like it was on its last legs everytime you took it out the box.... We used to joke, if rabbits didn't bolt in the first few minutes... You was digging himI swear he would mark Warren's like a dog... He could kill a fully grown buck quicker than the biggest polecat hobs we had... Named him Simon Hobbs after one of the boys was a proper f***ing weapon dirty cnuts nicked him along with a load of my old English game bantams and the dogs we kept at the allotment

But like hob I got mate he's the best ferret I've had he's Jill size but strong and if rabbits don't bolt he's killing them ,we named him jaws because if a rabbit hesitated at a hole he'd have them if I turn him in a set and he he don't show no interest I move on , going breed him soon to a small jill of same lines this time keep another hob back 

[lurchers 2,867]

My mate works 3/4 wild polecats to 1/4 home bred ones and he says they will work all day long,He also has 1stx ones and says they are a bit nippy but graft all day to.

[Elchapo 3,167]

7 hours ago, Daniel cain said:

Can't beat a small hob built like a jill... Best one I've ever seen we found him on top of the coal tips one weekend when we was out on our crossers.... It looked like it was on its last legs everytime you took it out the box.... We used to joke, if rabbits didn't bolt in the first few minutes... You was digging himI swear he would mark Warren's like a dog... He could kill a fully grown buck quicker than the biggest polecat hobs we had... Named him Simon Hobbs after one of the boys was a proper f***ing weapon dirty cnuts nicked him along with a load of my old English game bantams and the dogs we kept at the allotment

If I do breed him this year my mate who’s Jill use will probably only keep 1 Jill I’ll keep a hob , if there’s any left ( should be ) your lads welcome to them mate if he want them