Petrol can ferret box

While mouching about with the dog, I came across a chap walking with a useful looking bedlington lurcher and a plastic petrol can. Coming alongside I could see the petrol can had been converted into a ferret carrying box. A clever way to carry the ferret .

Ferreting and Devon Ditches

An invite from work saw the Botwood clan winding our way up to the edge of Exmoor on a sunny cold Saturday to try the ferrets out on a small holding.  The hedges were really difficult. We only had purse nets with us and, to be frank, this was useless.  Rabbits holes went through the banks and popped up inside six foot wide hedges.

We netted as many as we could get to and tried out Llinos' ferret.  This is a small polecat ferret, which is incredibly biddable, Llinos having spent so much time taming her down. You can see from the photo we also had barb to contend with.

 We worked our way round the hedges but never once made contact with a rabbit, so either someone else has been hunting here or disease has taken hold.

We used hemp nets which are far superior to the nylon nets often bought.  The nylon nets seem to be attracted to every brier and thorn in the hedge.  Every time we used one it came away in a tangled mess.

At least we got to work all the ferrets and had a good walk on a lovely day.

Disastrous ferreting trip

Went out for the first ferreting trip of the season yesterday (15th September 2012)  My daughter was trying out her new ferret; a small jill with light polecat markings. To cut a long story short we found that the rabbit were still in cover and the buries were unused or so covered in brash that they could not be netted.  It was one of those places where there was any amount of  sign, but it just did not feel quite right.  Later I found out that horrible disease myxi was ravaging the area.

However  we turned our hand to foraging and gathered up slows, for slow gin and blackberry's and apples for hedgerow jelly. Below are the results.

Five and a half pounds of Hedgerow Jelly.  Great on toast.

The recipe I followed can be found at:

http://www.eatweeds.co.uk/blackberry-jelly-recipe

I had to simmer the jelly for a lot longer than the recipe said though.

Making a ferret carrying box

Building a ferret carrying box.

I tend to make solid things, 30 years ago I made a ferret box, its big, heavy and uncomfortable to carry, so when my daughter needed her own ferret box, I was determined to make her 'a really good one'. Surfing the net I found super pictures of ferret boxes, some better than others but very few instructions or plans for making your own. Plenty on ebay for a price. I eventually found a rough plan and adapted this to build my daughters carry box.

The Box finished up 15'' Long, 9'' in depth and 7.5'' in height. It had two compartments, and doors opening on the top. It also had a bow back which is supposed to make it more comfortable to carry.

The bow back I was assured from website reading can be achieved by using 3mm Ply. Do not buy ply it will not bend and will break! So much for websites. The following pictures show the development of the carry box. It did end up light and it is nice to carry.

The main construction uses 9mm exterior ply board which is glued and nailed at joints. The bow back was formed using thin tongue and groove (I used pine cladding) which gave the necessary give to form the bow.

First picture is of the top and bottom cut out using a jig saw, bow is 3'' deep at the middle point.

The picture below shows the various components laid out, it does also show the 3mm ply shortly to become fire wood when I tried to force it to bend.

I cut two small doors in the top of the board and attached hinges and fasteners.  I used the jig saw slowly lowering the blade onto the ply which then will cut through without having to make the usual pilot hole.

Last photo is of the completed box being tested by one of my ferrets.

 I am quite pleased with it.

Entering Young Ferret

New Ferret Entered.

Went to try a few holes at a friend's place today, lots of rabbit sign but none present in the small buries there. There is lots of cover so I assume they are staying above ground except to escape foxes or just running through to play. After running my experienced jill through a small bury, I introduced my new ferret, born last summer, to a small hole at the bottom of the bury, she went down with now hesitation at all and worked her way through methodically coming out without hesitation.

Here she is coming out with out a glance backwards. There are few things more annoying than a ferret which hovers at the entrance and bobs back inside every time you put your hand down to pick them up. I think the secret of making them willing to march out is plenty of handling and no dogs diving in to scare the fitchuk. 


The field was covered with sign that rabbits are there but as soon as they suspect being hunted they dive into an old scrub oak wood, and like brier rabbit they are more than at home in the midst of the bramble patch.

Ferret locators are one of the best things ever to hit the ferreting world. I well remember the nightmare of trying trying to use a line hob. Most of the time I seemed to end up digging him out because he had got the line caught around something, or had wandered through most of the warren before finding the jill and dead rabbit. I still have my original Deben receiver and it works as well ow as when I first bought it some 30 years ago. 


 When digging down to a ferret, you of course dig to the side and not directly on top as this may cause a cave in or with heavy handed diggers may chop into the ferret. I find that the act of digging will usually get the ferret moving anyway and she can be picked up. Where it is crucial is when the ferret has gotten herself trapped in a hole by killing a rabbit and blocking the hole. A ferret has to be dug up fairly quickly as the heat build up and danger of suffocation increases with time. Season is coming to an end again, and once again I have not spent enough time working my ferrets, but there is always next year.

Transporting Ferrets

While I was lugging my ferret box around I once again pondered why I carry such a heavy lump of wood around with me. I made it when in my late teens out of ten millimeter marine ply, I didn't have proper hinges so I used old leather from a dog collar which enabled the lids to move and it was fastened with more leather scrap pieces from an old game carrier. It has double compartments large enough for four ferrets. It usual load however was two jills in one side an a liner hob in the other. For small outing it contained a jill on one side with nets, ferret finder and odds and ends in the other side. It is painted with what ever needed using up so it looked more or less camouflaged, and finally its carrying strap was 'borrowed' from an old luggage bag.

A quarter of a century later I am still lugging it round, the only thing replaced has been one of the lids, which rats ate through one summer. So I suppose I have grown to like it. It is solid enough to sit on and ponder life while waiting for a laid up ferret to surface, or to serve as a solid lunch table.

Over the years I have tried all sorts of means of carrying my little pugs round. I bought a smart canvas bag with air holes and a draw string top. It was light and rugged but I found it was not very practical for anything but the shortest ferreting trip. It now houses my long net.

I found my ferrets soon realized that if they were quick they could turn themselves round and stick their heads out before I could close the drawstring, in addition if I did not tie the top really tightly they would work their way out. I was also never really happy with my ferrets in a bag, they seemed a little vulnerable to clumsy boots treading on them and cold and wet causing discomfort.

I had one jill who would happily go to sleep in the pocket of my Barbour, this was ideal in many ways; ferret in one pocket nets in the other. The problem with this was when I hung my coat up she would jump out and wander off to do her own thing, this was not so good.

Popular culture has it that ferrets can be kept down trousers, why anyone would want to do this is a mystery to me, and probably has more to do with the fevered imagination of those who do not hunt, they must assume we are all insane.

At the other end of the scale are the beautiful bow back ferret boxes that can be purchased from suppliers such as http://www.falconfabrication.co.uk/ which produce a really light plywood box, or if you prefer modern materials, http://www.dogtran.co.uk/ferret_boxes_cat-106 do a polypropylene which is light washable and look really good, proper hinges and catches and everything. I am far to mean to dish out the cash they want for these boxes so I guess I will stick to my old solid box and tell myself carrying the extra weight helps me to lose inches round my waist.