ianrob
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Everything posted by ianrob
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I use hazel pegs, I cut them long as this gives me some leeway when I make up the pegs. They go in my loft in the house for a while, no less than a month. You can tell by how light they become when they are ready. Once the hazel is really dry, I straighten it using heat, a gas ring or a spirit burner does, keep the hazel moving in the flame as you don't want to burn it, but keep on heating and it goes really soft. You can get them really straight with practice, and you can keep on heating them till you are happy. You might say, why bother, but if really straight, you can carry more. Because th
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An excellent day out, well done.
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I'm 56 and I've ferreted all my life albeit mainly as a pot hunter. I've never lost a ferret or been in need of a locator. I always used common sense to choose where to ferret. I also never ferreted after two in the afternoon. This gives time for action to to be taken should a lay up occur. I would only tackle sets where you could see what was going on. No railway bankings or massive setts. Even sets where there are holes you can't see are a danger, the ferret can slip undetected into the next set. Now I have a locator, and it gives loads of confidence to tackle otherwise dodgy s
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In a way this is a good question because quite a lot of commercially produced pet foods do contain euthenased pets, so perhaps we are self deluding. I couldn't cope, but that's me. There is only yourself to cope with here. Though the mother in law, naw, I'd get caught sure as a guinea pig's a ferrets dinner.
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The only food worth feeding ferrets is female robins, failing that, I use budgies and canaries stolen from pensioners. As an alternative you could use the many dried complete ferret foods available these days eg James Wellbeloved's ferret food.
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I have had hemp break once and I've been knitting off and on for over forty years. In my case it was a bad batch which had really thin bits in it. If you're built like Arnie Swartzathingie and swinging on it, it might break. Are you just using a normal single sheet bend to knot it, ie, a normal single knot?.
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I was only querying as to if anyone else had tried one, and I'm well familiar with the most popular sizes, and in fact use them. I hear what you say, so don't upset yourself.
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In some ways I agree. I always used nylon nets, up till about 10 years ago. I then found a library book called "net-making and poaching tales" Which gave me a lot of the info I use, and with such authority, it described making all types of purse, ditch, and drag nets for partridges, long nets in hemp, silk and best Irish linen. Gate nets in square mesh and a lot more. The book advised 21/2" for rabbits or smaller as required for smaller rabbits. My dad had always insisted he had used 21/2" with 140 yds set at 100 yds. So I made one. First drop through the day on rough gro
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Regarding hares, the traditional size of mesh for hares was 3 1/4" knot to knot. I know the 2 1/2" is big, but it works differently. It was a poaching tool, and anyone who has tried to lug about 200 yards of wet 4 ply hemp in 21/4" mesh on a wet and windy night will tell you that it's extremely heavy. By increasing the mesh size thus increasing the nets "stickability" virtually no bounce offs. You can reduce the net to the minimum, ie the 14:10 ratio of a mesh open to closed, you have a net with slightly reduced catching quaities at just over half the weight. Leaving an expe
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I think that the idea with the large mesh is that you don't need much bag. They hit and are stuck.
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Buy yourself half a dozen Dufus traps. That's the half tunnel type. Either leave them in a stream for a week, or boil them then leave them outside for a week. Get a piece of bar 3/8" or similar and a spade. Don't smoke, and before starting, rub your hands in the local soil. Search for the run by poking with the bar between the last two newest heaps. try to dig the hole carefully and don't dig it longer than the trap if poss, wider doesn't matter so much. Set the trap and using the soil lumps carefully surround your trap and block it in, gradually burying it shallowly in fine soil. Leave the in
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Yep, Get one of the blunt darning needles you can buy. Thread 4" of of one end up the centre of the other end, then come out through the side and lat it along side the other for 4". Buy some good nylon thread, "I use seatbelt thread" , but failing that, the nylon stuff for sewing jeans is good. Sew from the middle out to one end, then to the other end then back and forth till you are happy it won't break and that your mesh are sliding on it. Be sure to shorten the other band to the same length. Sorted.
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Yes Sir, 5" mesh, it does kill rabbits and was once a common size. Now I suppose if rabbits were plentiful and you only wanted the big guys , whether for selling or consevation purposes, though I suspect conservation is a recent issue, then it works. One thing I noticed using it was, most adultish rabbits struggle to get through it, but if you grab the net instead of the rabbit, the "something to pull against" that they seek, can free them. You must grab the rabbit not the net. The big guys are trapped pure and simple, but rabbits you'd expect to catch can escape.
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Hi Guys, five or six years ago I knitted a hemp net to a size and type that my Father used in the 1930's through to the 1950's. It was hemp and had mesh which measured 2 1/2" between the knots. It is only 140 yards of net to 100 yards set, but catches by sort of snaring the rabbits. It obviously is for big rabbits, as anything under full grown goes through it without breaking stride. I just wondered if anyone else was familiar with this style of net.
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Not my scene man. I'm 56 and have hunted, wildfowled, and been an astronomer all my life, and I can honestly say that apart from 16 ghosts, 38 UFO's, and 11 alien abductions "complete with probings" (you gotta have the probings), I've never seen anything unusual.
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Hi Ditch, The reason that I asked about the traps being in the tunnels, was because I thought it was a necessity for Fenns to be in a height restricted tunnel, to enable them to be humane. You know how they tend to throw things up and catch them by the legs if the height isn't restricted. Is there an other form of trap you use, or is the fact that the Fenn is set close to the end of the tunnel sufficient to prevent live catches. Don't get me wrong I've seen and done some naughty things in my time. Though now I try to be, within reason, by the book. I'm not fishing either, I'm just a bog standa
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That picture is weasily the worst I've seen today and is stoataly inappropriate on this site. If you mustelid post these pics, then post them in the summer when it's a little otter.
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How would you site the Fenn traps, would they be in the pipes?
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I suppose it depends on the type of net you're making, but for a long net, the only way I could see it done, would be by using three needles. One main needle and a needle for each side. Your main needle doing the knitting, then on the last mesh pick up another needle, and treat the two as if it were one. Control of tension would be critical. as would somewhere to sit the extra needles to avoid a knit one purl two situation. I could make it work, but could do without the extra hassle if I was knitting a hundred yards of net
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Hope this pic helps p.jpg
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I always think that, while they're probably a bit keener when they're hungry, it's not fair expecting them to work all day on an empty stomach. I feel that they're also more likely to lay up. The motivation to hunt rabbits is always in them anyway, and they still work well.
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I use this method too, but for the first mesh, I go twice round my mesh gauge then knot it. I then hang this so that the knot is halfway up one side. From then on it's the same. I use wooden net gauges too.
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Hmmmmmmmmm it appears I have to rub shoulders with better rabbit catchers than I. Well done indeed.
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Use spun nylon or four ply hemp. Make the net with two and a quarter inch bars, ie knot to knot, and make the net twice as long stretched like a rope as the length you want it to be. You then have a very efficient net. I have various nets, from two inch bar to bar to two and a half inch bar to bar, which incidentally was a common size between the wars. It however lets a few smaller ones escape. The advantage was that for a one hundred yard net, you only needed one hundred and forty yards of netting. The net captured the rabbits by sort of snaring them. When working the net, you grabbed the rab
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I set mine ten yards, but sometimes a bit closer seven or eight yards if I expect a few rabbits in one bit of the net. Pegs, cut your hazels and leave them to dry for a few months. If you keep them in the house possibly a few weeks will do. Go by the weight of them, you'll know when they're dry. Using a heat source, I use a spirit burner, a turned down blowlamp will do, or even boiling water, use a rag round any crooked bit and soak it in boiling water. You can make the hazel like rubber with heat, and can, "with practice" make the hazel as straight as a ramrod. Sand them down smooth and bevel
