News

KEEPING TRACK

<strong>Q) I ferret some large warrens and am often alone when doing so. The problem with this is that I am afraid of losing a ferret if it wanders off while I am busy. How can I avoid this?</strong>

Would you like to speak to our readers? We offer sponsored articles and advertising to put you in front of our audience. Find out more.

A)If you cannot ferret larger workings safely and effectively without the help of a friend or two, then perhaps you should leave them until you can. However, until you have extra eyes, hands and ears, here are a few tips that may help you. Work out the start and finish of the warren and, if possible, tape a ferret finder receiver, switched on, to a spade or stick at the furthest point you want your ferrets to go. Once they have wandered or worked their way down to this point, the receiver will start bleeping.

I have used this trick over many years to avoid losing ferrets. It is important to remember, however, that the bigger the warren, the more ferrets will be required to work it successfully. So many ferreters become disheartened when one or two ferrets are working a 60 or 70-yard warren and they are not catching as many rabbits as anticipated.