what a day ive had today

[muddy210 34]

decided to take my old faithful gill out with one of the youngsters today to a bit of permission i have thats got a good long hedge full of rabbits and a nice shallow depth incase i need to dig. started off getting the nets down on either side of the hedge got a good few down before retiring for a sit down for ten mins to let it all settle introduced my older gill who went straight in like she was on a mission. collared up the second gill and enterered her aswell this was this young ones first trip out she messed about a bit to start then got the gist of it.

 

after about ten mins the young gill showed so i let her clear the hole then picked her up and boxed her up thinking i will give her another run further on down the line.

 

then thump thump i thought we would start to see a rabitt or 2 anytime soon but nothing materialised. after probably half an hour i thought i would see where my gill had got to so i put the locater on to have a look round no signal to be found. at this point i thought that the collar might have failed so had a good look round and could see nothing i then went for a walk up the hedge line with the finder and got a signal 40 meters from where i started thank god id found her i then watched her work the rest of the hedge row like a spaniel pushing the rabbits to the end this was what i wanted to see a ferret working as it should be hunting all the holes and moving rabbits allong just a pity they werent bolting to the nets.

 

this is when it all went wrong big time i could now see the ferret above ground so made my approach to pick her up so we could move on as soon as i approached she ran down the nearest hole this went on for about an hour and a half so you can imagine i was getting a little pissed off at this point so i set the finder at the end of the hedge on the spade to make sure she didnt get past this point then follwed her work above and below ground when shecame out of the set towards me every time i moved she would bolt to another hole she has never done this before and shes never been snatched from a hole allways left to exit on her own. now she wont exit if she sees me when i took my opurtunity and got hold of her after she had walked out after her latest wander she set upon me like she was a wild beast. she took a bite of my finger thats gone to the bone when i finally released her she sented me and screamed like she was in a gin trap constantly trying to latch onto me hand in the pocess. i stuck ger back in the box and left her to settle for a while. once i had picked up the nets i took a look inside the box and there she was docile as usuall waiting to get back to work not even bothered when i went to take the collar off her.

 

so a pretty eventfull five hours in total with no rabbits but bloody sore fingers

 

what ammazes me though is that this ferret has never even shown signs of being agreesive even the kids play with her or any time ive worked her before i think she was either in the zone or been seriuosly spooked. and now it looks likes shes gonna play peek aboo all the bloody time

 

give the youngster a nother quick run down a 4 holer and she took to it like magic no bolters but she got the idea. but at least i got out lol pictures are of the hedgerow i was working the small set i gave the young one a run in and my bloody finger

 

better luck next time i hope

[KittleRox 2,147]

Sounds as if sometings happened in the warren, rats maybe

[muddy210 34]

possibly rats shes usually so placid but shes a proper busy bee when shes working so ive put it down to being spooked or just over excited

[Ideation 8,217]

Aye mate, sounds like she had a ruck with something down there and got wound up badly, could be anything mate, i'm sure she will calm down next time.

[stealthy1 3,964]

Sounds like she has met up with a big buck, didn't want to leave it, but didn't want another kicking, stick another experienced ferret in with her next time and let her get her own back

[muddy210 34]

this hole popping lark shes into at the minute is bloody annoying aswell but i think she was just so busy trying to get them out, thats why i left it so long to finally get hold of her dont want to get her into bad habbits cant be doing with a peek a boo ferret does me bloody head in.

[stealthy1 3,964]

this hole popping lark shes into at the minute is bloody annoying aswell but i think she was just so busy trying to get them out, thats why i left it so long to finally get hold of her dont want to get her into bad habbits cant be doing with a peek a boo ferret does me bloody head in.

 

 

I would just leave her to get on with it, she'll get bored with it before you will, I've a couple of jills that do that at the start of every season, first trip out all they want to do is roll in the soil, but once they get it out of their system they work their fannies off

[tegater 789]

I had a similar thing a few weeks ago but without the biting. This Jill was working a big warren, and when she came out of one of the holes, I picked her up to move her to another. She screamed this horrendous sound as if she was in pain, so much so that I instinctively let her go. I wondered if she had an illness, or was in pain, but I have since examined her and she appears fine.

I can only think it was a protest at havin been picked up, but I am really not sure. She never did it again that day, or, since.

[muddy210 34]

tegater after all the messing about she had done i didnt put her down again due to not wanting to wait another couple of hours lol

but what a hell of a scream she had on her you would have thought id pulled her leg off or something. off this week so she will get another run out got a few small warrens to have a dabble with so should be ok as to getting her back atb muddy

[gnipper 6,953]

I had a hob that was soft as anything at home but mental when he was out working, screaming hissing and biting brute, my mate took him off me (I was about to do the decent thing) as he reckoned he could tame him and proudly told me he had done and showed me tickling him under the chin etc when I was at his house until the next time he worked him that is and he did the same again and again , some ferrets are just temperamentally unsound and there's only one thing you can/should do with a nut job wether its a dog or a ferret.

I hope your jill stops playing up and doesn't end up like that mad silver beast I had.