A Ferrets Value ?

[Guest vin]

12 hours ago, mackem said:

Heard of them going for $150 in the states.

maybe we should ship them some over there... ?

[trigger2 3,100]

20 minutes ago, vfr400boy said:

Last year mrs made me an advert for ferrets put £40  on it , sold them all with in a week , when blokes turned up who was going to work then I offered them for free and they all gave me the £40 to put in little lasss money box, I get updates from the 6 I sold and all doing well , I think putting a good price on stops idiots ringing 

There’s plenty of wealthy  idiots about mate.

[Guest vin]

Some great replies and I knew I was right... thanks, chaps.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                           

[vfr400boy 3,120]

20 minutes ago, trigger2 said:

There’s plenty of wealthy  idiots about mate.

That’s true but it thins um out a bit , iv been happy with were my ferrets have gone , sold some a few years a go to a bloke up north and last year I had a knock at door and he brought me the 2 back and all his nets box and a sack of food be coz of a relasonship brake down 

[The one 8,396]

No sure if its the onset of old age or the summer , that turns me into a crabbit old man but i cant for the life of me see the use for angora ferrets  they cant even feed there young and they need to be fostered onto another jill and there showing pictures of a hob and a jill saying this is or prefered breeding and kits can be booked  and there proud as feck about the colours 

I saw a lassy i used to work beside selling kits on facebook and i asked her if she knew anybody that just had white working ferrets and she would ask round  her boyfriends shooting mates and she got back to me saying she was getting out of it and offered me 3 polecat jills  1 polecat hob and 1 Eu hob for £100 as she was fed up and embarrassed  by some of the folk that turned up at her door  if you saw the adverts you knew what she was selling and for how much  yet it was like a looneys day out some of the folk that turn up at her door 

I think the true working ferret will be kept in a small circle of folk clear of the infusion of show blood  and will hold its own 

[rabbit demon 301]

Most of the ferrets iv gifted or sold to guys that do a bit of hunting have been lost within the first year. Their attitude is just to get another one. A hob I sold to a pet home was given back to me a year and half later starved and biting. Even although I sat with the buyers for the best part of an hour making sure they knew what to feed him and how to look after him before they left. They got them too easy and dont care for them. Decided after getting that hob back if I ever breed ferrets again it will be for kits for me only and the rest are going ta ta. Too many of them being bred then mistreated from what iv seen. I bought a dog for ferreting for quid, got a locator and nets. which cost a fair bit. I only ever spent 25 euro on a ferret but i suppose I would pay up to 100 quid for a ferret if I knew it was going to be real good one.

[rabbit demon 301]

I got the dog for 80. 

[Guest vin]

If all goes to plan this summer I shall have a few kits from my best ever working hob and a very good mate's best working Jill.  These were bred last season and tried this season. All 12 of the kits have worked and the ones I have myself I have found to be exceptional.

I will be lining the father back to the daughters from the previous mating to keep the line tight as possible for this next litter.Any spares will be for sale. . . . But they won't be cheap and whoever does buy them will hopefully appreciate the time and effort gone into producing them.

I'm looking forward to next season already. . . I have honestly spent more time and effort on the ferrets than the dogs these last few seasons. The dogs just mark the holes and catch the bunnies, but you need a proper underground warrior to get them out from below in the 1st place.lol.

 

 

[Sirblessed 2,511]

41 minutes ago, vin said:

If all goes to plan this summer I shall have a few kits from my best ever working hob and a very good mate's best working Jill.  These were bred last season and tried this season. All 12 of the kits have worked and the ones I have myself I have found to be exceptional.

I will be lining the father back to the daughters from the previous mating to keep the line tight as possible for this next litter.Any spares will be for sale. . . . But they won't be cheap and whoever does buy them will hopefully appreciate the time and effort gone into producing them.

I'm looking forward to next season already. . . I have honestly spent more time and effort on the ferrets than the dogs these last few seasons. The dogs just mark the holes and catch the bunnies, but you need a proper underground warrior to get them out from below in the 1st place.lol.

 

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xy2BmgZdXDA

[rabbit demon 301]

I found when i was breeding mine tight the kits could be a bit hit and miss. I got 2 litters of beauties. The silver jills were real fast and game, moved more like stoats than ferrets and would tackle the dogs. The albinoes were good too except for one which was near micro, she stil works though. The last litter which had six in it had albinoes, poleys and silvers in it and were absolute crap compared to the first 2 litters. I got the poley hob from that litter vasectomised as hes no what id call a good worker.  Iv had one of the jills out a couple of times this season and she was doing ok, but she wouldnt go down the hole last time she was out, point blank refused to go in. I put her mum in she bolted one and I dug another.

[Phil Lloyd 10,736]

9 hours ago, vin said:

If all goes to plan this summer I shall have a few kits from my best ever working hob and a very good mate's best working Jill.  These were bred last season and tried this season. All 12 of the kits have worked and the ones I have myself I have found to be exceptional.

I will be lining the father back to the daughters from the previous mating to keep the line tight as possible for this next litter.Any spares will be for sale. . . . But they won't be cheap and whoever does buy them will hopefully appreciate the time and effort gone into producing them.

I'm looking forward to next season already. . . I have honestly spent more time and effort on the ferrets than the dogs these last few seasons. The dogs just mark the holes and catch the bunnies, but you need a proper underground warrior to get them out from below in the 1st place.lol.

 

 

Some sensible thoughts there Vin...

Facts are, it often costs a man a whole lot of time, effort and to some degree, financial outlay,..to produce a reliable line of working animals.

If a stranger wants to own something that has taken you a fair bit of effort to create,..then he must pay your price, or go elsewhere,..its no big deal.

My mind harks back to a time when ALL our ferrets worked,..as did our running dogs, curs, and terriers,...nobody I knew kept non-workers...

Why on earth would they...?

Nowadays,..(speaking personally)... I only keep pet/companion dogs, but my ferrets are still, 'lean and mean'...

Long may it continue.

 

[Sirblessed 2,511]

4 minutes ago, Phil Lloyd said:

Some sensible thoughts there Vin...

Facts are, it often costs a man a whole lot of time, effort and to some degree, financial outlay,..to produce a reliable line of working animals.

If a stranger wants to own something that has taken you a fair bit of effort to create,..then he must pay your price, or go elsewhere,..its no big deal.

My mind harks back to a time when ALL our ferrets worked,..as did our running dogs, curs, and terriers,...nobody I knew kept non-workers...

Why on earth would they...?

Nowadays,..(speaking personally)... I only keep pet/companion dogs, but my ferrets are still, 'lean and mean'...

Long may it continue.

Some companion dogs make bloody good workers too Just saying 

[tsteve9999 456]

I'm not so sure you need working parents. I picked up 2 jills this year that were owned by a guy that did some falconry but for some reason had 2 adults and 8 young and admitted he'd  barely touched them since they were born and rarely ferreted with the adults

Those 2 jills have had the best first season of any ferret I've ever owned, each one goes down and doesn't come back till they are sure there's no rabbits left. There's none of the pissing about at the mouth of holes or only doing the top part of a warren that I've come to expect from previous young ferrets I've had, if there's a rabbit in there it comes out. I think it's got a lot to do with the court I built, I grassed the floor and the ferrets have dug themselves tunnels from day 1, so it's nothing unusual when they find a ready made one for them to go down it. Only problem is it now looks awful because the grass is long gone, I keep thinking of concreting it over but they wouldn't get half the excercise they do now.

[Guest vin]

12 hours ago, rabbit demon said:

I found when i was breeding mine tight the kits could be a bit hit and miss. I got 2 litters of beauties. The silver jills were real fast and game, moved more like stoats than ferrets and would tackle the dogs. The albinoes were good too except for one which was near micro, she stil works though. The last litter which had six in it had albinoes, poleys and silvers in it and were absolute crap compared to the first 2 litters. I got the poley hob from that litter vasectomised as hes no what id call a good worker.  Iv had one of the jills out a couple of times this season and she was doing ok, but she wouldnt go down the hole last time she was out, point blank refused to go in. I put her mum in she bolted one and I dug another.

Yes breeding them too tightly can be a bit unpredictable etc..But this time around father back to daughter should be fine...I wouldn't put him back to that offspring though..That would be a bit too tight..lol.

The Hob has thrown good kits in the past to other Jills belonging to mates etc.But this particular line I've got from last year is way too good to waste.

[Guest vin]

1 hour ago, tsteve9999 said:

I'm not so sure you need working parents. I picked up 2 jills this year that were owned by a guy that did some falconry but for some reason had 2 adults and 8 young and admitted he'd  barely touched them since they were born and rarely ferreted with the adults

Those 2 jills have had the best first season of any ferret I've ever owned, each one goes down and doesn't come back till they are sure there's no rabbits left. There's none of the pissing about at the mouth of holes or only doing the top part of a warren that I've come to expect from previous young ferrets I've had, if there's a rabbit in there it comes out. I think it's got a lot to do with the court I built, I grassed the floor and the ferrets have dug themselves tunnels from day 1, so it's nothing unusual when they find a ready made one for them to go down it. Only problem is it now looks awful because the grass is long gone, I keep thinking of concreting it over but they wouldn't get half the excercise they do now.

Sometimes you just fall lucky my friend.  . . . I have a mate like that... He bought 2 hobs from a pet shop a few years ago. . . . .   they were monsters below ground and hard as they come. I remember bolting a vixen with them one day and they took a right beating from the cubs. . . . they were back on the job for rest of the day and a week later back on the warrens at work...although slightly swollen and one-eyed they never missed a beat. 

It happens with dogs too.

I'm just too old to take any chances these days and cannot put my faith in what someone tells me... I need to see it for myself.... lol

I've been ferret obsessed for a few years and I've tried the lot. . . . Gave them all a good opportunity to prove their worth and put shit loads of bunnies in front of them etc.

A good worker is like gold dust to me these days...lol