Up wind or down wind ? Top or bottom ?

[liongeorge 7]

I've been ferreting for quite a few years now and still have'nt come to a firm conclusion on this one. Is it best to enter your ferrets on the down wind side of a bury so they can smell out the rabbits better or on the up wind side so the bunnies bolt earlier cos they know what's coming. I tend to go for thedown wind option.

And with a burry on a steep slope is it better to enter them in the top or bottom.? As they tend to bolt down hill I usually start them off at the top giving the rabbits a chance to bolt down hill more easily , is this a good theory?

 

Would be very interested to hear your views.

 

George

[tegater 789]

I generally just spread the ferrets about. i.e. if working 3 ferrets on a burry at one time, I will go left, centre and right.

I personally have no preference for whether they go uphill or downhill. I believe that alot of the time, rabbits will move around under ground, and there is a lot of randomness, to what goes on.

 

What I have noticed though, is that a large proportion of rabbits will bolt downhill, but that is probably because I nearly always stand above the burry.

 

I have no doubt that others will have a completly diffferent view.

[The one 8,398]

Usually each end of a burrow or at the bottom as i find they will climb but dont like going down a steep slope

[Ideation 8,216]

I agree with what has been said above.

 

If ferreting large warrens, we try a spread, usually at the end and middle, to try to squeeze the rabbits out.

 

They do also tend to like to bolt out of the lower holes if the warren is on a slope.

 

However, 90% of the time i enter the ferret in the hole that the dog is indicating the rabbit / s are nearest to, and find that this speeds the whole process up, as the ferret is immediatly on the rabbits trail.

 

You can often predict where they will bolt though, as they do seem to know where the safest escape routes are, such as the hole under the thick holly tree, or down in a gully etc.

[stealthy1 3,964]

I enter ferrets at one end, but in different holes, my idea being that the rabbits are forced out of the other end of the warren and cant back track because the mustelid army is marching up behind them, thus leaving them no choice but to bolt, a mate I ferret with sometimes, swears by the in at each end method, but we seem to dig more, I put this down to the rabbits going deeper to escape the ferrets and getting bottled up in stopends, hence the dig, and for some reason he has more doubled up rabbits in a stopend when we dig, perhaps someone can be more scientific about point of entry

[Marsh Lad 321]

Ideation is right, drop your ferret in right on the strong mark. As he said it does speed things up.I treat large deep setts the same. One at the mark and one down wind at the other end of the sett.

[KittleRox 2,147]

I just stick mines in any hole, I,m no that fussy