The changing fashions of ferreting equipment
By Jackie Drakeford.
WITH the season at an end, except for the few of us who ferret in summer, it’s a good time to overhaul our equipment, mend what needs mending, replace what can’t be fixed, and take a look at what innovations are coming onto the ferreting scene. Ferrets haven’t changed since I first started working them a scary number of years ago but ferreting methods and ferreting equipment have.
Mostly these changes have been a huge improvement, sometimes simple fashion. On occasion, certain equipment has ceased to be available or easily found, for instance regarding the ferret locator. There are still people who are happy to work their ferrets without a locator, using a line ferret or employing a big hob or feisty jill without the line, and trusting its assertive nature to find and drive out the missing one.
This is very much a case of some methods working everywhere and others only on certain terrain, for few would risk a ferret without a locator in the huge deep buries that some of us work. The locator box itself is very different now from earlier models, a change that was rather thrust on the ferreting world without consultation, and some of us have never taken to it while others consider it a much better option.
Similarly with ferret collars. While these certainly needed improving, opinions differ on whether the new ones are actually what was wanted.
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