Should I send down one ferret to chase out another?

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Should I send down one ferret to chase out another?

Locators are generally the best method for retrieving lost ferrets from burrows.

By Edward Cook

Thursday, 02 October 2008

One of my jills killed a rabbit below ground and refused to come out. Should I have put a hob or liner ferret down the burrow to chase her out. Does this ploy work or is it an old wives' tale?

Ferrets
EDWARD COOK says:
Personally speaking, I find it's best to fit locators to all my ferrets rather than follow the route suggested by your friend.

Although they don't always work 100% of the time they are normally pretty effective.

If one should fail while a ferret is underground it's a simple matter of letting another ferret work through the burrow in the hope it will lay up with the lost ferret.

It should then be a straightforward job of digging down and retrieving both of them.

If this ploy fails then it's always worth having another ferret to hand that doesn't get on with his companions.

In human terms this critter would be deserving of an asbo - an animal that frightens the pants off the others and scares them out of the burrow.

Sod's Law says that a ferret will lay-up when darkness is just about to descend - such problems always happen on 'the last burrow of the day' when you really should have packed up and gone home!

I wouldn't recommend using a 'liner' - it's an outdated approach that's been superseded by battery-powered locator systems which are a lot less hard work.

If all fails and night falls you will have to block up most of the holes and put cage traps over the others in an attempt to catch the missing ferret by morning.