Chaotic but very enjoyable day ferreting

[Tyla 3,179]

I've been meaning to have a proper day with the ferrets for a while and had arranged to go today with herdwick, Water Badger and scrapman off here. Had to be a late start as herdwick works first thing but we were aiming to leave by 9.15.

 

Arrived at the farm to pick herdwick up and a cow he's been watching chose that very moment to calve. We had a go at getting her calved before we went but she wasnt making it easy so herdwick decided to call the vet out and drop out of the day which was a shame.

 

I finally get to the ground about 10.15 and we collared up the ferrets and set off. As things were so late we left the purse nets behind and took a couple of long nets and Water Badgers .410 pump. At the first bury we netted up and i had a little fall out with Parker he has not had the work he needs since we moved and has developed a bit of an attitude which manifests itself by ignoring me! Once we had that settled we went back to the bury dropped in 3 jills and bolted 2 nice rabbits into the long net. Its very pleasant seeing rabbits unmarred by mixy after the devestation nearer home.

 

We carried on down the same shore doing one more bury and netting another rabbit on the way. While me and scrapman were picking up the the nets Water Badger went for a walk with the gun. We heard two shots and saw him drop a cock pheasant so we went to investigate, he'd got a squirrel with the first shot but dropped the cock bird into the only pond for miles around All the dogs took one look at the ice and prompyly refused to have anything to do with the retrieve, not that i blame them it was bitter cold. After some buggering about with long sticks WB wandered off round the pond and came back with ... a peddelo!!! He then made the retrieve himself narrowly avoiding a ducking!

 

We moved to the other side of the valley to a hedgerow next and set up the nets. The only rabbit from this bury nevr even reached the nets, Parker caught it by the head and drew it out the bury complete with one of the jills attached! The final bury was a bit of a disaster, we bolted four rabbits but we'd placed the net wrong and two bolted outside it, one more went the opposite way while we were all looking at the hole we'd missed but Tyla had a very neat catch on one as it made for the net. We then had a bit of a long wait for the hob thinking we were going to have to dig but luckily he appearred. Very luckily as it happened as his collar had stopped working!

 

On the long slog back up the hill Water Badger had a shot, or 10 , at a squirrel which dropped among the waiting dogs and was brought back to me by Parker.

 

It was a good day, very good craic, not a massive bag but certainly eventful! The dogs did well, scrapman's diesel had never seen ferrets before but by the end of the day he had the hang of things even if he was a bit too enthusiastic with his marking at times! Heres a few pics

[Tyla 3,179]

rest of the pics

[Ferret Andy 1]

HaHa cracking story mate!

Made me chuckle at the peddelo!

Is that the Mossberg P/A .410 with silencer? If it is, i'v got one. Absolutly cracking gun!

 

All the best...

[herdwick 52]

Here is the reason why I bottled out on the days ferreting!

Nothing to do with the sub zero temperature mind!

Wish I'd seen Water Badger in his pedalo tho

 

Mother and calf both ok.

[blackstaff 488]

Sounds like i missed out on a very entertaining day Glad the Diesel dog is coming on well too

 

Herdwick - Glad mum and calf are good

 

Tyla,new wheels all sorted on jeep at last. Fingers crossed we won't be getting stuck in any fields this season, unlike last year

[Tyla 3,179]

Glad you got the calf sorted herdwick, shame though, you would've enjoyed today. The weather wasnt too bad in the end, cold but not as bad as first thing this morning.

 

Blackstaff - glad you got those tyres sorted, dont need a repeat of last year!!!

[blackstaff 488]

Thats for sure bud, also maybe need to give you a lesson or 2 about driving in fields

[Water Badger 26]

That was a cracking day mixed bag using mixed methods and a moderate ammount of urine extraction

 

cant wait to get out again