John-B 4 Posted February 6, 2009 Report Share Posted February 6, 2009 Starting again and fully prepared, got the new mk3 collars on the ferrets all day so they can get used to them, think i've figured out how to use the locator thanks to help from this forum, cheers guys, all gear is ready by the door to load into the van in the morning. Bouncer is goin mad cos he knows what is coming. gonna take my 2 jills my young black eyed white who is starting to work well and my old pole cat jill who is about 6 years old so she will be coming out of retirement for a few of the easier samller sets so will take it easy with her, they are having a light lunch of kitten biscuits and a little bit of meat with a few drops of olive oil before feeding them later on tonight. Just hope we can get up there due to all the snow, we need to clear one particular area next to a stream for the farmer as he has been onto us about it, it's about 80/90 holes (we don't have longnets either yet ) then going to give the neughbouring farms a knock to see if we can get on their land aswell, fingers crossed all goes well this time, "Touch wood" Keeping away from those big sets though, not taking the risk again. Quote Link to post
Guest mickyrichardson Posted February 6, 2009 Report Share Posted February 6, 2009 Good luck mate sure your old jill will love coming out of retirment have a good day lads enjoy Quote Link to post
Guest Countryboyo Posted February 6, 2009 Report Share Posted February 6, 2009 All the best John-B hope you have a good one. fair play for making it happen. Quote Link to post
John-B 4 Posted February 6, 2009 Author Report Share Posted February 6, 2009 All the best John-B hope you have a good one. fair play for making it happen. I hope Col doesn't mind me saying this but I feel I had to do something as I could see how losing his ferrets affected him (I've had to leave ferrets before and it's not nice) and thought he was going to pack in ferreting, not only that though I didn't have a ferret locator or collar as they way we worked the ferrets never let us down, we used to put jills down with no collars then if anything happened the big randy hob went down with the collar on and give us the mark as to where they were so we couldl dig, now that way let us down once and we aren't taking the chance again, also I nearly lost my Jill the last time we were out due to it being on a kill and the big hob not finding it, so I decided to leave the ferret box next to one of the holes and we moved on, thinking i had lost her we went back later to get the box and there she was snuggled up inside the box, no risks will be took this time and they will be collared up, just itching to go now. Quote Link to post
Coatesy900 0 Posted February 6, 2009 Report Share Posted February 6, 2009 A 90 holer without longnets!? How many purse nets you got mate coz I'd be buggered in that situation Quote Link to post
John-B 4 Posted February 6, 2009 Author Report Share Posted February 6, 2009 A 90 holer without longnets!? How many purse nets you got mate coz I'd be buggered in that situation we have enough mate Quote Link to post
John-B 4 Posted February 6, 2009 Author Report Share Posted February 6, 2009 Farmer phoned, all ok, quite a bit of snow up there but that wont stop us Quote Link to post
John-B 4 Posted February 7, 2009 Author Report Share Posted February 7, 2009 Back, not a bad day, it's Cols turn to do the write up on how things went so here is a few of my pictures (56K Beware) First of all we were met with this view of our permission snow 4 foot deep in some places plenty of footprints to show us the way Bouncer doing some marking Col's son, Connor, found it hard going today and had to go to the van for a sleep Bouncer likes giving the rabbits a bit of a clean then a few love bites My team of Jills, SKY the black eyed white and Sandy the 6 year old pole cat Look Dad i've managed to remove that new mk3 collar you put round my neck and left it down the hole Grrrrrrrrrr Sally the lurcher waiting for a bunny to bolt A few random shots of Bouncer Finally Come on Bouncer time to go home, love his face Quote Link to post
John-B 4 Posted February 7, 2009 Author Report Share Posted February 7, 2009 Col took a few pics so they should follow Quote Link to post
Brimmer 220 Posted February 7, 2009 Report Share Posted February 7, 2009 Awesome piccies lads, looks like you have it worse for the weather than we have! Bouncer and Sally have the job sorted, and don't you just hate the collars coming off! How many did the Team Sky take back? Quote Link to post
John-B 4 Posted February 7, 2009 Author Report Share Posted February 7, 2009 Awesome piccies lads, looks like you have it worse for the weather than we have! Bouncer and Sally have the job sorted, and don't you just hate the collars coming off! How many did the Team Sky take back? aye, not impressed with the mk3 collars at all going to look and see idf there is anything else available, had 2 digs for them today, one at about 1 foot and one at 5 foot Grrrrr we managed 8 but lost loads due to not being able to see the bolt holes which have a nice thin layer of snow over them ready for them to explode out, not many rabbits bolted they just sat in the entrance of the holes looking out at the nets. Quote Link to post
col g 0 Posted February 7, 2009 Report Share Posted February 7, 2009 had a canny day and a good laugh.arrived at the permission at about 8 o clockto be greeted by quite a bit of white stuff .myself,john and connor got all the gear out of the van and headed off.after trudging through about three foot of snow,falling over god knows how many times we arrived at the first sett.i took my old hob and its son,the young hob is in experienced so i thought id take it and give him a go.after netting up the sett the best we could i entered the young hob.he wasnt to ground long before the squealing started.the ferret was to ground ages and i thought it had killed the rabbit,but it never,myself and john were watching it at one of the enterances.i took the net off and tried to grab it but it backed off.again it re appeared at another entrance and tried to bolt.i tried to grab it again and it was away back to ground.we then entered johns jill to get the job done.after a short while we seen the rabbit again at one of the enterances and this time johns jill was firmly attached.after a short dig and the ferret biting johns finger we had our first.on to the next sett where there was nobody home.we tried another couple of setts with no luck.we then moved on to the really big sett on the river bank.there was a few holes that had been opened up by the rabbits but the snow was pretty deep so we had to lay the nets on top of the holes and hope for the best.we managed to bag another two rabbits out of this sett.we worked another sett in close proximity to the big sett.another four holes were open on this.we netted up and entered the ferrets.after about ten minuites a rabbit boted out of a bolt hole which wasnt netted and tried to make its escape.unfortunately for it sally was on top of her game today and after a short run she nailed it ,so i was buzzing with this.then we put the ferrets back in to see if there was anything left,sally and bouncer decided they woul go for a bit of a dip in the stream and keep connor company.they werent there long when connor starts shouting at the top of his voice" RABBIT....RABBIT" myself and john turnedround to see sally had nailed another one( what the hell is going on with her today ).after walking a few yards further along the bank sally marks a four hole sett.in goes johns jill and my old hob,sure enough a rabbit puts in an appearance and is swiftly despatched by john.both ferrets appear but sally is still marking the sett.so back in goes the old fella and after a short while we get another rabbit.nets off and we move on.by this time connor is absolutley soaking wet,cold and hungry.we decided to do another two holer sett and call it a day,john enters his small jill and i entered my young hob.this is probablys one of the worst decisions of the day.my hob starts chuntering away to its self and grabs johns jill and tries its hardest to mate with it.so down goes my hand to try and extract one of them but that didnt go to plan.after about ten minuites johns jill appears without its collar on.we gets the locator on it and i reads 5ft.so myself and john sets about the task of digging out to get te collar back.after a bit of a dig i had to return to the van with connor as he was crying with all of his clothes being soaked through and his feet dripping wet.i left connor in the van with his dinner and the heaters on full whack to get him warmed throgh.i returns to the sett and john has got half of the embankment dug out and still no sign of the collar.after digging half of the tube out john finds the collar and the arduous task of filling the hole in began.we finally got this done and decided we were going to call it a day.on our way back to the van we stumbled across another well used sett.wemade the decision to net up and enter the ferrets.we were standing when a rabbit appears from no where and does a runner.bouncer gives chase but was a long way shortof his qurry.both ferrets re appear but bouncer was adamant there was another bunny home.so in goes the old hob again and we wait.i gets the locator out of my pocket and gets my mark.four foot .i gets the shovel and begins to dig.i got about a spades depth down and starts to remove the top layer of grass and earth.as i lifts it with the spade bouncer pounces and has the rabbit..i took the rabbit off him and despatch it.i then look at the rabbits back and its got a largish bald patch off where the ferret had been scratting at it.i dont know why the ferret does this,rather than just killing it and eing done with it.anyway w put the soil back on top of the hole and departed.our final tally was eight.we had a cracking day and despite the snow.i will get the pictures up later on once ive found the data cable for my fone. Quote Link to post
Brimmer 220 Posted February 7, 2009 Report Share Posted February 7, 2009 Had the same yesterday, rabbits just flying out of the snow! Did the nets freeze up? The rabbits yesterdays just bumped of them and backed down. Quote Link to post
Guest AngelicAcid Posted February 7, 2009 Report Share Posted February 7, 2009 Good do lads, and some cracking pics, 4 ft deep snow, lovely . Quote Link to post
John-B 4 Posted February 7, 2009 Author Report Share Posted February 7, 2009 Had the same yesterday, rabbits just flying out of the snow! Did the nets freeze up? The rabbits yesterdays just bumped of them and backed down. we found the hemp ones did but the thin nylon ones were fine the rabbits just wouldn't bolt today, too cold i guess. Quote Link to post
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