Ferreting today

[Ferret Master]

Hi,

 

We have been planning a ferreting trip at the rugby club for a while but various commitments have held it off until now as Dad is the touch judge for the club and the games have been away for a few weeks. Anyway me and my friend got up at 6:20AM and were not impressed to still have Dad who retired at 8:30PM still lying in bed at 8AM! :(

 

After a decent cooked breakfast and after boxing up the ferrets in their box which was nice and warm as I had put it by the raidiator so it was cosy for them we grabbed the spade, and bag with the nets, knives, locator and collar, batteries and most important from the ferrets point of view... ferretvite we set off at 9AM.

 

Upon arriving we unpacked the boot and looked at the first bury by the 1st team pitch and car park. It was a long bury that would be hard to net but looked like it was holding as their were plenty of marks from rabbits in the duck frost outside and fresh droppings so we decided to net it. 15 mins later and a small calamity from my friend who pulled his foot out of his wellington boot and put it down in the running stream that is along each side of the hedgerow we taped up the MK3 collar and tested it. We then put in on Grace who I entered up the far end of the warren. She didn't like this idea so I can only think it was a dead end so I entered her further up the bury. By this point Dad had taken up position on the far side of the hedge and my friend Gareth was the other side. I was walking around with the ferret finder supervising. 10 minutes later Dad said: Ollie, your ferrets are too tame and pampered. I said no they are not, I'm not the one who surrenders his drink to them when they are in the house terrorising anything that moves. Anyway Grace must have heard this and Dad saw a rabbit appear in a hole near him. It then squeaked and Grace started to drag it back down the hole. She got it down and killed it. So much for pampered useless ferret that doesn't know what she is doing! I got her out 5 minutes later by lying on my front and holding a tube of ferretvite down the hole wriggling it around. Grace was more interested in this and came out slowly licking the tube. She had obviously killed as she was sufficiently blooded around her chin and she was licking her lips looking rather satisfied. :( I then collared up Nippy the sandy jill and entered her by Grace's kill. She came out blooded having found the kill but moved off it and worked the rest of the warren but nothing else bolted.

 

We then moved down the hedgerow to a larger more difficult to net bury. Dad then left to go home and get his rugby kit etc. so left us to our own devices. This burrow took a good 20 minutes to net up as some of the holes were in beastly places and I often ended up belly crawling 12ft along a hedgerow full of brambles and wild roses to net holes. Anyway I entered Nippy as she was still collared up and I went around the other side of the hedgerow. A couple of minutes later Gareth shouted OLLIE, RABBIT! I sprinted round to find him grabbing a dripping form of a well netted bunny which had been netted and gone into the ditch. I dispatched it and Gareth put his foot in the hole and picked up a rather pleased looking Nippy congratulating her on her second ever rabbit. :o This net was tied onto an obliging root as the soil was too soft to give a good hold. We lost another rabbit on this bury through an invisible bolt hole in the brambles as it was full of leaves and almost invisible to the naked eye. :(

 

The next bury was even harder but we netted it and entered Echo 'the magical mole' to do her work. Yet another rabbit errupted in a shower of leaves from within the warren and escaped. :o But I guess there is little I could do about this as I don't have a lurcher or longnets. Someone up the rugby club this afternoon uses a harris hawk and suggested one of these for the bolters. Hopefully these particular buries will be easier later on in the season after some harder frosts. Meanwhile Echo was being a pain and either she was being given the run around underground or just being a little ****** because I didn't catch sight of her for over an hour however the was often within 2ft of me when I got the ferret finder out. Finally she came out by Gareth and he preceded to procure ferretvite which sealed the bargain and made her come out of the holes. Reluctantly we had to call it a day as the rugby games would be starting in an hour as it was already 1PM and people were already training and I needed to go home, wash and get changed, sort out the ferrety things and have lunch so we could get back up there as I do the scoreboards.

 

Although it wasn't out best day by a long way but we enjoyed ourselves as it was nice to get out in the sun and fresh air after the foul weather of late and just to work the ferrets. They seemed to have a nice day and 2 are still asleep however Nippy is enjoying her rabbit too much to sleep at the moment. I wonder how much will be left in the morning.

 

Oh... Chippenham won 66 nil against Swindon. :o

 

Here is a quick pic taken when we got home:

 

 

FM

[magman]

well done FM great read too

[dazza]

well done FM

[lurcherboy]

Well done Ollie

 

 

 

LB

[Frank]

Good man.

 

Frank.

[Ferret Master]

Thanks for the comments. Just to clarify the rabbit hit a net which was verticle to the stream and he went straight into the stream so this is the reason for his soggyness.

 

FM

[pin]

Ollie, great write up and sounds like a good day out young man!

 

More of this please, I think you have a promising career writing for the shooting commics ahead of you!

[henry d]

Keep it up big fella

[flash]

niceone olli looks like the slinkies did, well a complete opposite result to the time we went, good to see grace doing well. :unsure: