Strange warrens

[gollum 1]

Hi folks, I just got permissions for a golf course which to quote the Course manager is "infested" with rabbits.

Walked around with him and sure enough there is evidence of rabbit carnage everywhere. The areas off the fairways and greens are oak, birch and rowan heaths with a good foot of leaf litter sitting on a very sandy soil. Seems perfect rabbit habitat to me, secluded from the human activity by gorse screens and rarely if ever walked over even by the groundsmen. Unsurprisingly there are literally hundreds of holes mainly surrounding the mature trees and using the root systems to create large burys. I couldnt believe my luck and was full of expectation on my first trip out today with the ferts. BUT...after spending 6 hours on several burys I only managed to bolt 2 rabbits!! 1 used the infamous hidden pop hole that I'd missed but I got the other 1 which was a hefty brute that bolted so fast it tore my 4z nylon net. (still got him though )

 

Its really strange, on the most promising looking bury there were fresh droppings outside most of the holes and I was sure it was going to put a couple out at least but nothing at all appeared. I tried the Hob after the Jill failed to bolt any but still nothing...this was the same on most of the burys.

 

I get the impression that the rabbits are moving around from bury to bury and maybe I was just unlucky today but I was really surprised at getting so little sport.

 

Has anyone else come across this type of thing? The burys are quite deep, a couple went below the range of my Deben (16foot) but I was tracking the ferts as they worked and for sure they were being thorough or so it seemed to me anyway.

 

Anyone got any ideas? I don't want to think my ferts are being lazy and they certainly seemed to be putting the mileage in underground, both pooped now and fast asleep after all the running about.

 

These rabbits are itinerants...No fixed abode it would seem But If I was a rabbit I would feel very safe setting up a permanent residence in any of the burys I tried...

 

What am I missing folks?

[sue 1]

you might be better going back with a gun and lamp on that one,well thats what i would do

[lamper12 30]

well mate if i was you i would enter 2-3 maybe 4 ferrets because the bunnys will give 1 ferret the run around in such a big set jmo,,,

 

atb lamper12.

[richie 1]

after spending 6 hours on several burys I only managed to bolt 2 rabbits!!

 

 

Its really strange, on the most promising looking bury there were fresh droppings outside most of the holes and I was sure it was going to put a couple out at least but nothing at all appeared.

 

 

having fresh droppings at all entrances doesnt always mean the warrens are heavily occupied. depending on what equipment you have, you could always make a few visits at night & quickly scan the area with a lamp or nv unit.

 

not that i make a habit of it each time but when i want to monitor a set after ferreting it i back fill every hole & to keep regular checks to see just how active the set is, then when i return i send the ferrets down the open holes, then when finished i back fill again..

 

you say it took 6 hours to do a few sets, did you place nets at every hole ?

[mole trapper 1,706]

One of my holiday park jobs was like this, there is an artificial bank, it screams to be ferreted, all the holes well padded etc, you net it up and hey presto, zilch. Go there at night and you see the rabbits travel through it on their way across to the field behind in the nice thick blackthorn hedge. Rabbits arent daft, they know that they are vunerable in such open easily accessable buries.

[jimi 0]

I would say that 1 ferret is not enough to bolt the rabbits from a big warren,you need at least 4-5 ferrets if it is a large warren.

 

JIM

[Rolfe 2]

I have a large golf club contract and like you the buries are situated under 500 year old sweet chestnut trees. These too are often hard to bolt rabbits from and what may be happening are the rabbits are jumping up on to ledges inside hollow points of the trees........ and away from the ferrets attention. On several occaisions i have heard rabbits running quite high up in the hollow tree trunks..........just a thought.

 

Rolfe.

[andy s410c 63]

I used to go to Mount Grace Priory North Yorkshire as a teenager & that is exactely the same riddled with holes as the ground is very soft if you lent on a young tree it would uproot .We would get only a few rabbits even tho the dropppings,bark stripping,runs,etc has to be seen to be believed.We worked 4 ferts at a time & netted up with everything we had & it was a slog the warren(s) just to big & probalies deep with the ferts getting the run around all day.After you,ve had a few outings im sure you,ll get to suss out whats happening there as previously quoted pehaps you need a couple of more ferts to get them moving....

[gollum 1]

after spending 6 hours on several burys I only managed to bolt 2 rabbits!!

 

 

Its really strange, on the most promising looking bury there were fresh droppings outside most of the holes and I was sure it was going to put a couple out at least but nothing at all appeared.

 

 

having fresh droppings at all entrances doesnt always mean the warrens are heavily occupied. depending on what equipment you have, you could always make a few visits at night & quickly scan the area with a lamp or nv unit.

 

not that i make a habit of it each time but when i want to monitor a set after ferreting it i back fill every hole & to keep regular checks to see just how active the set is, then when i return i send the ferrets down the open holes, then when finished i back fill again..

 

you say it took 6 hours to do a few sets, did you place nets at every hole ?

 

Thanks Richie, well..Im kind of on probation at this place. The course manager is a great bloke, very friendly etc but the Club sec who I am yet to meet is understandably conscious of having an "unknown" non-golfer wandering around on their property. Consequently the course manager is escorting me across the fairways and to the warrens and coming back on an hourly basis to "see how im getting on" and if i want to move to another area. So I am spending ages trying to locate all the bolt holes which are very well hidden under leaf litter in many places. (still managed to miss 1 though )This coupled with avoiding the odd ball whizzing overhead.... I want them to see me as thorough at least if not exactly successful though it is early days. The backfilling idea I will try next time but the amount of leaves on the ground is so much that if anything I am trying to leave the holes more visible. I guess i could fill the tunnel but leave the opening still visible with a little care. I don't think I can ask to wander around at night just yet but given time it would definitely be a good idea which I will suggest. Some have suggested I use 2 or more ferts which I reckon might help but I have my doubts about the possible consequences...I can imagine a middle aged female golfer having a heart attack were 1 of my ferts to run on to the fairway as she wanders past discussing the merits of her latest shot

 

G

[richie 1]

the ground, is it covered im brambles or is the ground clear with fallen leaves covering the entrances ?

 

depending how much you want to work at clearing the warrens & is it for a bit of sport or to keep the land owner satisfied will depend on how much preperation you will have to do.

 

quite often i visit a section the week before i ferret it to clear all the under growth. i sometimes take the petrol hedge cutters there & spend a few hours or more cutting brambles away & other times i just need to spend time raking away fallen leaves out the way so i can see the entrances, but you will always end up missing the odd bolt hole.

 

its always a good idea especially when you have a section that has excessive holes that would take for ever to net up is to throw a long net around the area & zig zag through the area. or just net up 1 or 2 in every 3 or so holes to save time as you will end up catching the rabbits by backnetting them, its all trial & error.

 

let us know how you get on.

[para1 11]

I have been ferreting for years and i still cant tell if a hole is occupied or not. If my dog don't mark it , no matter how good it looks I walk away.You can't beat a good dog

[Malt 379]

We've had that problem all season round our way. The rabbits seem to all be living in the bushes & hedges.

[COMPO 54]

I was always told and led to believe that the holes with large amounts of droppings in the entrance were not the main warrens but satellite/play warrens that the rabbits may use to hide in during the day and to breed, play etc...

 

You may have better luck in any larger warrens that are in better cover?

 

I wouldn't net all the holes either, i would use longnets/stop nets and criss cross the warren.

 

tell the groundsman that you need to check at night to see where the rabbits are living, and then tell him that you will be able to ferret the largest populated warrens and do the best job &quickest job, that should sweeten him upto walking with you and a lamp on an evening

 

Good luck,

Edited February 9, 2008 by COMPO

[Guest Bigbob]

I would also run a night over the course at night to get a true count of the rabbits on there .Last week i went lamping with my rimmy on a course across the road and shot six rabbits i ferreted it yesterday burrow ranging from 22 holes down to three holers and got 5 rabbits .Theres rabbits there but they mostly live in the rough above ground

[gollum 1]

Hi all, thanks for the advice and suggestions.

 

Golf course update

 

14/02 Upon arrival at the course the course manager told me that the previous day he had been walking his ferret, honestly it follows him around like a dog I kid you not along the boundary of one side of the course and apparently as the fert dashed in the holes rabbits literally flew out in all directions So...off I went to the very same area and sure enough lots of holes and sign everywhere. Netted up, entered ferts......NOTHING! Not even a bolter. Not 1. We had a good old chat and he tried his fert which I nicknamed "the otter" cos its huge, but same result...nothing. A good bit of head scratching and we agreed that it was likely that due to there being so many buries and warrens on the course that if they felt threatened in any particular area then it made sense that they would move on to another bury. So the following day I planned to do some clearance of a gorse and bramble infested bit of rough that looked good.

 

 

 

15/02 After 2.5 hours removing brambles and raking out all the leaf litter that obscured pop holes etc, the set looked very promising and again I thought I would be on......but only 1 bolted despite a thorough working over from my 2 ferts. (Jill was pulling nets so it could be down to the noise of me resetting them). I discussed with him the suggestions that you good folks on THL had made and we agreed that next week it would be longnet and all ferrets on!

 

21/02 This time we chose a gorse screen that is effectively an island...there was one other patch of gorse close by and it was between this and my chosen bury that I set up the long net. I pursed the obvious Bolt holes but didnt make any noise raking or clearing, and instead of entering the ferts to holes, we just put them down near obvious runs and let them follow scent and pick holes on there own. This time we had my hob and Jill and "the otter". All was quiet for about 20 mins and then suddenly bang out flew one to the net, then another. Shortly after the otter caught one which I think was relieved when I despatched it..... and then my hob also collared one. So 4 this time after a double blank last week! Much back slapping and general merriment/relief and it would seem that the extra ferrets + long net and only few purse nets combination has done the trick. Ive ordered another 450 yards of 4z sheet netting from Advanced Netting (good folks by the way) and next week should have enough (300 metres 100% bagging) net to completely encircle most of the gorsey areas of rough that I think are holding.

 

So, many thanks to you all for the suggestions, its paying off being patient and trying different things. Interestingly one bolted away from the long net, across a fairway and in to smallish gorse bush. (20 feet around maybe). At the end of the session I had a wander over and examined the bush and found plenty of sign....so I looked at a few other similar sized gorse bushes and more sign... I think that the rabbits here are living above ground quite a lot and using all the available cover however small. They are probably fairly used to the idea of humans wandering past, its been a golf course for 20+ years, and my guess is that they simply move on when harrassed.

 

I'll let you all know how the long netting goes next week.

 

Cheers.

 

G.

 

Does anyone in the south have any Jill kits ready to go? I definitely need more ferts