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comanche

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Everything posted by comanche

  1. comanche
    Its all true .Collie crosses are rubbish . Don't buy one . If you hear of such a litter(or even better a lurcher to collie cross) being bred this year however I'd love a PM as I'm looking for a bitch that will be totally useless to replace my old collie /lurcher cross who was also totally useless .
  2. comanche
    £20 is a lot for a youngster to pay when plenty of freds can be had for between nothing and a tenner ....But for an adult ,experienced ferreter and trusting that the little animals are from good stock and from a breeder who values his animals that extra tenner is hardly going to be a deciding factor. Especially when the cost is likely to be spread over a working life of six to ten years and the capture of hundreds of rabbits . I tend to give mine away or do swaps with people I know . I've have two strains on the go for years .One is very laid -back (bomb-proof I thi
  3. comanche
    Yeh as a replacement for chicken it looks the part but certainly as far as the the older specimens go perhaps it should be called" musty ,yellow leathery sponge of the woods" !. Caught young its not bad in stews and "chicken" curries .
  4. comanche
    interference with property is crime or at very least a Tort . hence RSPCA had no right to touch a legally set snare . A possible defence -quite reasonably -would have been that the fox was foul caught by a leg or suchlike . The Wild mammals protection Act does recognise that a possible degree of suffering may be unavoidably involved in legitimate pest control so providing the snare was legally set and checked and fox was fairly caught the RSPCA had no real legal cause to interfere . A better course would have been to check via the landowner who had set the snare and liased with them
  5. comanche
    as everyone says ,there is danger from rats ,mink , stoats etc and a muzzle will leave the poor fred unable to deliver a self-defending nip. Doe rabbits ,especially late in the season, can get very aggressive and will choose to fight a ferret rather than bolt . A muzzle might stop a ferret killing down the hole but it won't neccessarily stop it from having a go and scrabbling at a rabbit in a dead -end or scratching at a nest of babies in frustration . That's assuming that the poor thing can concentrate on it's work whilst wearing the device . . Also, as people are saying , ma
  6. comanche
    Badger?!!!!
  7. comanche
    I'm keeping quiet on the Jeyes fluid debate but there are things that can be applied very successfully . Like hell am I going to give details . As Matt says there are legal considerations for a start even before you get onto environmental concerns . Oh no , you won't hear it from me . Support your local mole-catcher ! Matt the Rat . I fear you could be right about the leg -pulling .Woke-up today and found that I am now well over 7 feet tall ! . You've heard of the foam being used for studying t
  8. comanche
    Yep , I asked about the quality of the pitches after treatment but he swore it was fine . I obviously sounded like disbelieving so n so because he did agree to find out more for me when the school holidays end . Another problem I would have thought ,would have been foam bubbling -up out of the ground where the mole hills had been ... Maybe the operator was doing something a bit dodgy and "spun " the foam story to make it sound more acceptable ?. Trouble is there is a grain of truth in it all as i know that such things have been done as part of studie
  9. comanche
    Nasty things . By law he cannot use it on runs that contain moles(or any other animal ) as it is illegal to blow any animal up in this country ! . So he should be clearing the moles out BEFORE he blows their homes up or he's lining himself up for a visit from the Law . In other words he might just have well invested a £100 or so on a score of decent mole traps and bunged you a few bob to run em out and check em for him & saved himself the bother of buying the dangerous monstrosity in the first place ..... On the other hand £1600 would get him a jolly good relationsh
  10. comanche
    Dear Dierdre Ok so I fell for it when someone told me that the word "gullable " had been deleted from the dictionary but I feel there could be some truth in this . Customer -school teacher at a "good " school - told me that they spent a lot of money stabilising their sports field after the mole tunnels had made it a health hazard . He described a machine that criss-crossed the whole field and was equiped with sensors attatched to foam-pumping probes that detected hollows and tunnels under the surface and automatically pumped them full of what sounds l
  11. comanche
    forget the Larson -not big enough . Go for Holdaway's big ladder or walk -in cage trap suggestion !
  12. comanche
    I'd try 2 to 4 ounces of food per bird in a proper feeding dish or hopper. If they eat the lot add some more tomorrow ,if they leave too much clear it up try a bit less .When they get the feel of scratching for worms and stuff things might change but then they will be using up energy foraging so their intake of shop-bought food might not actually drop. Good luck with em anyway , Ps Marans and LS .Good choice !
  13. comanche
    Just consulted my book on this one .Angling & The Law by S Payne . Seems that as long as you stay in a section of river where the tide "in the regular course of things flows and reflows" you have rights of navigation and free fishing . As long as you only catch sea species you won't need a licence . According to Justice Grove in a 1882 case it matters little if the water is salty or not but other cases have suggested that "where freshwater prevails " is the defining limit . Best to remember though that while you can probably navigate and fish several miles from the sea quite legal
  14. comanche
    Something meaty is good . Quixote gives good advice but I'd say that it is worth baiting fenns for rats if it is safe to do so .Remember, once you bait a trap you are in danger of attracting non-targets that might not otherwise be interested in an unbaited tunnel. One bait that has proved itself over and again for me -both for squirrels and rats is bird -feeder fat-balls. The rat in this picture was caught this afternoon and came to a Fenn tunnel barely an hour after it had been set on a shed shelf . I'd barely sat down at home for a cup of tea when the customer phoned to report
  15. comanche
    We had 23 from the one burrow but as you'll have gathered it was a big rambling one . A real South Downs chalk fortress & being the endof the season things were a bit sticky.Took us most of the day . To be honest I hate digging more than a foot or two but there really was'nt any option but to at least have a go. I've known the lad who owns the ferret since he was born as he is the son of one of my best mates . It's wierd ,I remember scraping round with his dad trying to get a few acres of ferreting permission and being over the moon if we managed to come home with a couple of rabbi
  16. comanche
    max abell you are the voice of reason . and what about the undergrowth snagging nets & making the holes difficult to find and access ? Once them does are paired -up and in kindle they get very territorial .Often rather run deeper into the burrow and make a fight of things than bolt .Believe me an adult rabbit ,given a bit of manouvring space, will not always back down to a ferret .I've seen a rabbit hop out of a burrow followed by the ferret . The bunny turned on the bumbling ferret ,boxed at it and gave it a kicking . . Then there are the nests of juicy kits ,the easily caught a
  17. comanche
    Used to be in a ferret club (long defunct ) & we did the shows . Ferret racing was the only money spinner we had to pay for the petrol . 10p a ticket ,bet on the collar colour. The guy in charge of the club had all the speil to draw in the punters ... The kids loved it . I remember those days -pipes ,cages , show tent and camping gear strapped to the roof of my old Mk1 Escort . I do mean strapped to the roof too. Did'nt have a roof rack!. My little girls 6th Birthday party ( she's nearing the big 30 now and has savage brats of her own ..... I must stop mis- quoting John W
  18. comanche
    I suppose most serious ferreters have packed up now that the ground is starting to defend itself with tiny but disproportionately acid- tongued nettles and the burrows are running with scuttlers .Another season over. Our last trip was a bit of the proverbial mixed bag. My mate had a family party to attend but still managed a couple of hours on the Downs with myself and his son . The lad had managed to wriggle out of the commitment and quite reasonably argued that as permission to work this bit of land had initially been given to him he could'nt very well leave me on it alone
  19. comanche
    We get quite few of these crosses running round the base of Arundel and various other old castles in Sussex . The technical term for them is ,I believe ,a "moat". I am soooooo sorry !
  20. comanche
    There was quite a debate about this subject last year . For my part I tried em out on my own ground before using them professionally on customers property . I am so glad i did . There used to be a film on the internet showing how great these Nooskis were . Rats would bundle through a laboritory test course ,straight into the Nooski and ,whack ! Ratty would fly about in its' death throws . Point one/. In hindsight I'd warrent that these poor lab rats had been accustomed to feeding from the un-set Nooski for some time before video stardom becomed . On the big day the trap was
  21. comanche
    I think if you had a rats arse in your mouth you would be pulling the same face Some would say that you could'nt tell where the rats arse ended and my face began ... (phew ,got that in before anyone else did !)
  22. comanche
    The whipplington seems to be winking at the camera in the first shot .Sort of "Hi chums . Ratting ? This is how it's done . By the way is this my best side ?" One more of my two rascals . Note how the old fella knows how to relax at the end of the day but the young one is still looking for trouble .
  23. comanche
    The handsome Bedlington cross belongs to a young indoor cricketer who is also a jolly good ferreter . The weedy black bitch is mine ,as is the ancient collie cross . Ugly ,grumpy ,crippled old bugger but just see how his face lights up when he marks a burrow !
  24. comanche
    well i didnt know any of that, but outhers i know have 4oz long nets and havent seen a rabbit in the net thay go over when [acking it up and it's ripped like a bitch. But thanks anny way. Had something bigger than a fox in my net a few years ago . The spiles were nearly all pulled and about 5 yards of net shredded but the "thing" was not only judged to be highly edible but was held long enough to pay the price of its, folly . A bunny in a long-net will often have a go at biting it's way out. I made some purse-nets of really fine but strong kite string years ago thinking I could
  25. comanche
    Mate they are rabbit fleas . They can't live on ferrets ..or people . Might crawl about a bit or get caught in your jumper but they can't survive without a bunny to feed on. They are going to be very active at this time of year because female rabbit fleas can only breed after latching onto a pregnant rabbit & the bunnies are in Spring breeding condition . As everyone has been saying ,hang the bunnies you've caught up and s they cool the fleas will drop off anyway. Incidentally the fleas you do find on ferrets are usually cat or dog fleas that have come-in with hay or other bed
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