Joe's Permission

David and myself were very lucky to be invited to a little permission Joe has on the outskirts of Skipton. I was picked up from mine at 6 and reached Joes at around 6.30.
Once we had made the short drive to the land it was still dark, so we had a quick mooch round and decided that we would find a butty shop and waste a bit of time till we could see better. A few breakfast barms later and we were setting up at the first warren.

 As we looked down the hillside we could see rabbits running around and feeding near the warrens

The team were well up for a bit of bunny catching, and with the frost on the hills we could tell it was gonna be cold!

Some cracking warrens with a lot of walls to search, the rabbits round here feel a lot safer in the walls, but in this situation we use the small females and let them run between the joints. The tip tapping of the paws when a rabbit is about to bolt can't be described!!

This was the main warren on the far side of the above wall, you can see below how big it was!

We were setting a long net up all around the warren, any escapees from purse nets could still be caught then.

The holes went right under the stone walls and came out on the other side, at one point we thought we might have to dig under here!!

As you can see from this picture a lot of walkers frequent the pathway at the bottom of this hill, and with two of the warrens being right next to it, I imagined we were going to get a lot of grief, but not today, they were all really friendly and most stopped to chat, some even applauding as the rabbits hit the nets!
Our main problem came from a woman on the far bank of the river who permenently kept coming out and shouting abuse at us, telling me that the RSPCA had outlawed the use of ferrets in the catching of rabbits!!!!! Ho Hum, never mind!!

As with all good rabbiting forays a dig is usually expected, and today was to be no different, luckily we had nothing deeeper than four foot in the day, this one a mere two feet!......which was why I chose to dig mooha ha !!

And here was my prize, a nice fat rabbit with a nippy ferret at the other end!!

David had decided that all this rabbit catching was proving toooo much!!! and a lie down was in order.........oh wait a minute, he's moving stones under the fence!?!?!

Ahhhh, so he wasn't sleeping, he had located a ferret who had decided to opt for a take away!!

David was using his refined skills as a Jedi Master to calm this rabbit, he does get quite attached to them and I feel this may cause problems in the future........some people are just tooooo soppy when it comes to wild animals!!

 The end of the day shot, with 33 rabbits and a smile on my face I had had a cracking day, I think David had too but sometimes its hard to tell with that rugged look he portrays!!

Whilst gutting the rabbits we found a lot of fat encasing the offal, so I feel this winter hasn't finished yet, as Mother Nature has obviosly told the rabbits to build up ready for when its icy fingers take hold again!!








Thanks once again to Joe for letting us accompany him on his permission, and with a load of land signed over today when the farmer saw us doing what we do best, Joe has a nice little stock of rabbiting land!

Happy Hunting.