pheasants for small shoot

[liftboy1 0]

Hi all, I have very little experience with rearing etc. I have a permission of say 50 acres which consists of a lot of woods, open fields that are not looked after with lots of hedges. The farm no longer works. I Shoot here because there is normally loads of snipe, woodcock and rabbits and its within walking distance. I have been given permission to put some pheasants down on the farm, now how do i go about this? Should i go for poults or ex-layers, I would prefer ex layers, but i do have a lot of time in the evenings with dogging in. There are very little foxes on the ground also. What sort of number should i buy also, its just for me too have some fun on weekends.

[Ideation 8,216]

50 acres is pretty small mate, with x-layers you will have a hell of a time. Maybe try sticking a pen right in the middle and try a small ish number of poults and feed it to f**k, but i think you will find they will be off the land pretty rapidly.

[liftboy1 0]

the problem is its all trashy aswell. partridges?

[comanche 2,990]

Its true what Ideation is saying . Fifty acres is a mini-shoot. One fox prowling through or some other disturbance would send your birds scurrying .

Ex-layers often seem like the cheap and easy option but they do seem to have "Incredible Journey "tendancies. Which of course is why they are cheap .

You could put a few poults in a little pen but even if you make your own feeders and drinkers when you start factoring-in the cost of posts and wire ,and the essential electric fencing the expense starts to become unbalenced with potential results.

With the right sort of ground cover,a bit of feeding and not too much disturbance its quite possible to hold a few birds on a small area like yours but do the costs justify the sort of results you might reap ?.

 

What might be worth trying is to buy a bit of wheat and knock-up a few feeders to see if you could attract a few wild birds to the area.

[liftboy1 0]

ye commanche that is not a bad idea. Its a very rugged hardy area, its ideal for rough shooting as you have to work very hard for game, I did see a wild cock pheasant up the ground last week. To be honest there is never anyone there, i am the only person who walks the ground there isnt many foxes there either. There is more farms either side but i havent had chance to pop up for a chat about permission yet. so atleast if they stray they will stray on to my other ground.

[ferreterjohn 0]

ex layers, tend to wonder off a lot more than, birds that see the wood as home. i recommend 150 poults in a pen, and your be looking at a 33 percentage return and your be looking at 50 birds your be shooting.

[davegilly 1]

Yes, but like what has been said before, 50 acres is a very small area, i suppose putting down 100 poults (meaning you'l only shoot 30 odd, as 30% is a good figure) then feeding the area a lot, and well, maybe putting some sort of bird puller down, they poults won't have a need to wander, but imho ex-layers will be off on there travels really quickly. Especially of charlie decides to wander through one night

 

Just my opinion

Dave

[ferreterjohn 0]

davegilly, you tell me that 50 acres is very small. but your opinion is pritty the same as mine with 50 birds less and 3% less

[danw 1,748]

To be honest mate on 50 acres as you have I would set up 10-15 feeding stations with straw a hopper and access to water to hold any "wild" birds then just spend time on vermin.Have a trap line you check on a night and just enjoy it for what it is rather than invest a heap of time and money looking after a handful of pheasants that you may or may not get a return on

[Ideation 8,216]

To be honest mate on 50 acres as you have I would set up 10-15 feeding stations with straw a hopper and access to water to hold any "wild" birds then just spend time on vermin.Have a trap line you check on a night and just enjoy it for what it is rather than invest a heap of time and money looking after a handful of pheasants that you may or may not get a return on

 

 

And THERE is your answer i think mate.

 

Any local shoots to you? Might attract more birds than you think.

[liftboy1 0]

I should be alrite because the neighbouring farms have given me the go-ahead today and the nearest shoot is roughly 25 miles away. And hopefully should have 5 hens and a cock bird given to me aswell!

[Tatezi 0]

great thread, is it really right to encourage eachother to coax pheasants in from neibouring shoots, I'm not judgig here, dont get me wrong I am undecided on the matter, i just know that a neighbouring gamekeeper might not take to kindly to it, nor would we if a significant proportion of our birds vacated our areas and where shot by a neighbou, especially one we might not know or get along with...

 

just a thought,

 

that being said, i think the advice is sound, do you not have any resident or migratory woodcock/snipe or wildfowl in the area, you could always invest moretime into improving the habitat for them and vermin control, as mentioned this will have inevitable benefits for the wild population of pheasants as a by-product...

[liftboy1 0]

listen mate, I dont have a neighbouring shoot hence the thread, if there was i would be on it.

[comanche 2,990]

great thread, is it really right to encourage eachother to coax pheasants in from neibouring shoots, I'm not judgig here, dont get me wrong I am undecided on the matter, i just know that a neighbouring gamekeeper might not take to kindly to it, nor would we if a significant proportion of our birds vacated our areas and where shot by a neighbou, especially one we might not know or get along with...

 

just a thought,

 

that being said, i think the advice is sound, do you not have any resident or migratory woodcock/snipe or wildfowl in the area, you could always invest moretime into improving the habitat for them and vermin control, as mentioned this will have inevitable benefits for the wild population of pheasants as a by-product...

Its true that if there were neighbouring shoots it would be a bit "off" to start luring them onto your patch. You'd probably find the surrounding Keepers less than helpfull whereas if they knew that you were putting even just a few dozen down they would'nt feel aggrieved and would be pleased that there was'nt a sanctuary for vermin in their midst .

As Lift boy has made clear though, there are no nearby shoots .

If there were it might just be a little more worthwhile setting -up a little pen and releasing a few of his own . In these circumstances there would be an overall benefit due to a bigger area being Keepered,vermin controlled over a wider area and a bit of give and take as far as birds were concerned .

Edited May 9, 2011 by comanche

[Ideation 8,216]

great thread, is it really right to encourage eachother to coax pheasants in from neibouring shoots, I'm not judgig here, dont get me wrong I am undecided on the matter, i just know that a neighbouring gamekeeper might not take to kindly to it, nor would we if a significant proportion of our birds vacated our areas and where shot by a neighbou, especially one we might not know or get along with...

 

just a thought,

 

that being said, i think the advice is sound, do you not have any resident or migratory woodcock/snipe or wildfowl in the area, you could always invest moretime into improving the habitat for them and vermin control, as mentioned this will have inevitable benefits for the wild population of pheasants as a by-product...

 

 

I wasn't suggesting anyone try to coax any one elses birds, just observing that once you stick feeders up to feed YOUR birds you sometimes get a surprising number of visitors depending upon how near and how well / badly run any other shoot is. It's just a fact of life, and also works both ways.