Night time ferreting

[Bobtheferret 1,248]

Like a lot of us my permissions have seen a fairly dramatic fall in rabbit numbers but despite this there are some pockets on some very public land that seem to be immune to the disease that I feel has savaged rabbits overall. My master plan was let’s try and re populate my permissions with some of these rabbits, the issue they are crawling with people during daylight hours. So it has to be at night, I tried last year with a member of here to longnet but had limited success so I decided to try ferreting them at night. I found a spot with a long footpath running straight through the middle with a raised 2 foot bank either side this bank was full of holes and rabbits and nice and open. I picked a night and set off with 75 yards of longnet, a load of ferret boxes, a spade and two trusty ferrets. After 15 minutes of walking I was f****d. Still on I went and arrived at the first warren after seeing 7 drop in through the thermal I ran out the long net and entered the ferrets. I had never ferreted at night and didn’t know if they would bolt better or worse, first attempt they were sticky. After 10 minutes nothing then bang 3 hit the net in a minute, I extracted the coneys and put them unharmed in my boxes then nothing I got out the locator but couldn’t locate anything. Starting to get a touch nervous then suddenly headlights driving towards me….arsehole starts to go normally poaching at night you just leg it but I had two ferrets to ground and a load of longnet out. Mercifully the lights drove by and I breathed a sigh of relief then my jill appeared and I checked the collar nothing the box had packed up! Few on and offs and it sprang to life then the hob appeared with blood on him I boxed him up and packed up lively. I was going to call it but thought f**k it I am here now and ran the nets out on the next warren, ferrets in and action immediately. 4 hit the nets in no time, I boxed 3 and necked the last as I only had space for 6 live ones. Jill back in box but no sign of the hob, I was praying the locator would work and thankfully it did and just a foot down. Relief. Then the arsehole starts going again as I hear a voice, a bloke on the phone walking a useful looking German Shepard at nearly midnight. I was literally pulling out the rabbit hob attached and he just stood there looked at me, looked at the nets, the ferret and gave a look that said “none of my business” and walked off! Touch. If only more people had that attitude! That was me, pack up and lug the rabbits and gear back to the truck before dropping them off at their new home, a touch more adrenaline flowing than a normal ferreting trip! We will see what comes of it come the autumn.

Thanks to anyone that got to the end, I don’t often do such lengthy write ups but hopefully someone enjoyed my tale! 

[terryd 8,430]

Bloody great thought I was reading a 10 year old post we need more of it 

[Daniel cain 45,480]

Thank you for sharing

[gaza 508]

Enjoyed that mate nice one

[gaza 508]

Fell down a temu wormhole looking at random stuff. These might be handy for picking up at night if using purse nets and its not too on top. 

[brambles 3,249]

Always remember a local deer park next to the municipal golf course holding a load of rabbits. It was lit quite well by nearby street lights so we decided wait till dark and get it ferreted lol. The night in question was full moon and crisp with frost, after climbing the 6 foot perimeter fence with nets ferret and small whippet type, we walked the park dog lifted a couple but plenty went to ground. Nets set in went 2 ferrets with bells on their collars (what we'd read in a poaching book lol), rabbits bolted well enough, brown and whites, black one, couple of ginger coloured ones and the normal coloured rabbits. Think we ended the night on 17. The next week front page of the local paper there was a picture of 2 purse nets left set and the cup off a tartan coloured flask, with the headline "Where have the Rabbits gone???" My father came in and said "That was you"    "No dad it wasn't me I promise"    " Well if it wasn't you, how did the cup off my fcukin work flask end up in that deer park and not in the kitchen" needless to say that my life has continued along the same lines since lol

[Arry 21,920]

Nice write up Bob and Brambles Nice to here these tails and reminds me of things I got up to. Also the tails my father told me as kids about ferreting ground burrows in open fields on top of a hill they used to poach rabbits at night. He would go out and grease all the gates with lard they still got caught by the woman farmer one night. When  ever I drive by that hill called Hazard it makes me smile.

Cheers Arry

Edited March 22, 2024 by Arry

[Aled 494]

Enjoyed reading those, nice one guys. 

[Luckee legs 471]

I've had similar thoughts about relocation but totally failed to act. Has the relocation worked ? 

[Bobtheferret 1,248]

4 hours ago, Luckee legs said:

I've had similar thoughts about relocation but totally failed to act. Has the relocation worked ? 

I did a few last year and tbh it didn’t work well at all, but they had a tough year round my way with a strong outbreak of mixi in and around the area I released them on so thought I would try again this year. The spot I dropped them on used to be absolutely heaving with rabbits but so few left there now that I basically have nothing to lose. I have heard tales of other people doing it and it worked, I tell myself that the entire rabbit population of Australia originated from 24 coneys relocated from good old Blighty so shouldn’t be that hard to get a few spots going again….at least that’s the theory. 

Edited March 22, 2024 by Bobtheferret

[Daniel cain 45,480]

I used to drop a few every season on some ground local, probably took 5/6 seasons for them to establish themselves properly...now they are about in good numbers,can actually harvest a few these days,even with the summer airgun brigade trying their best to wipe them out

 

[OldPhil 5,796]

Done many moonlit nights with the ferrets and Long Nets,.. quite a few legally ,.but far more illegally.

Great craic,...always memorable and invariably exciting....

[paulus 26]

On 21/03/2024 at 21:18, Bobtheferret said:

Like a lot of us my permissions have seen a fairly dramatic fall in rabbit numbers but despite this there are some pockets on some very public land that seem to be immune to the disease that I feel has savaged rabbits overall. My master plan was let’s try and re populate my permissions with some of these rabbits, the issue they are crawling with people during daylight hours. So it has to be at night, I tried last year with a member of here to longnet but had limited success so I decided to try ferreting them at night. I found a spot with a long footpath running straight through the middle with a raised 2 foot bank either side this bank was full of holes and rabbits and nice and open. I picked a night and set off with 75 yards of longnet, a load of ferret boxes, a spade and two trusty ferrets. After 15 minutes of walking I was f****d. Still on I went and arrived at the first warren after seeing 7 drop in through the thermal I ran out the long net and entered the ferrets. I had never ferreted at night and didn’t know if they would bolt better or worse, first attempt they were sticky. After 10 minutes nothing then bang 3 hit the net in a minute, I extracted the coneys and put them unharmed in my boxes then nothing I got out the locator but couldn’t locate anything. Starting to get a touch nervous then suddenly headlights driving towards me….arsehole starts to go normally poaching at night you just leg it but I had two ferrets to ground and a load of longnet out. Mercifully the lights drove by and I breathed a sigh of relief then my jill appeared and I checked the collar nothing the box had packed up! Few on and offs and it sprang to life then the hob appeared with blood on him I boxed him up and packed up lively. I was going to call it but thought f**k it I am here now and ran the nets out on the next warren, ferrets in and action immediately. 4 hit the nets in no time, I boxed 3 and necked the last as I only had space for 6 live ones. Jill back in box but no sign of the hob, I was praying the locator would work and thankfully it did and just a foot down. Relief. Then the arsehole starts going again as I hear a voice, a bloke on the phone walking a useful looking German Shepard at nearly midnight. I was literally pulling out the rabbit hob attached and he just stood there looked at me, looked at the nets, the ferret and gave a look that said “none of my business” and walked off! Touch. If only more people had that attitude! That was me, pack up and lug the rabbits and gear back to the truck before dropping them off at their new home, a touch more adrenaline flowing than a normal ferreting trip! We will see what comes of it come the autumn.

Thanks to anyone that got to the end, I don’t often do such lengthy write ups but hopefully someone enjoyed my tale! 

I found the best way to transport them was to get hold of the cardboard tubes in the centre of some carpets, cut to length, push one end down, pop them in a flatten the other end down, I discovered this whilst driving up the M1 and half a dozen escaping from a plastic cat carrier Lol

[TOMO 26,197]

Same as old Phil....used to do loads of night ferreting all over the place ....particularly liked a few deer parks....

[lampingboy 270]

Enjoyed that, thanks for the post . Much the same as you, rabbit numbers have dwindled the last few years here. I do have one particularly good permission that I've been thinking of doing the same thing with though if I get five minutes spare