Rearing pheasant without pens?

[stroller 341]

I spoke to a lad who doesnt use pens to rear his birds, gets them at a certain age and drops them in the wood with plenty of feed and he says they "Commune" better and that he gets an excellent return. Does anyone have experience of this method as i would be interested to learn more?

[paulus 26]

I spoke to a lad who doesnt use pens to rear his birds, gets them at a certain age and drops them in the wood with plenty of feed and he says they "Commune" better and that he gets an excellent return. Does anyone have experience of this method as i would be interested to learn more?

wouldnt it be easier to just leave enough breeding stock for them to repopulate naturally and just give them a hand via normal predation control and supplemented feeding to hold them

[Lab 10,979]

He obviously gets ex layers. Can be done but you need a very large piece of ground. Can't be done with poults.

[The one 8,463]

He obviously gets ex layers. Can be done but you need a very large piece of ground. Can't be done with poults.

 

With ex layers as well would you be hoping they raise a brood to hold them as well ?.

[Lab 10,979]

He obviously gets ex layers. Can be done but you need a very large piece of ground. Can't be done with poults.

 

With ex layers as well would you be hoping they raise a brood to hold them as well ?.

Well you would hope they could....maybe not so much that season as it will be late on and alot of the hens will be coming to the end of lay but possibly for next season. If your trying to run a decent shoot in this day and age you can't rely on wild stock though due to weather and bloody vermin

[paulus 26]

He obviously gets ex layers. Can be done but you need a very large piece of ground. Can't be done with poults.

 

With ex layers as well would you be hoping they raise a brood to hold them as well ?.

Well you would hope they could....maybe not so much that season as it will be late on and alot of the hens will be coming to the end of lay but possibly for next season. If your trying to run a decent shoot in this day and age you can't rely on wild stock though due to weather and bloody vermin

strangly enough they havent done to bad here this season considering the wet weather

[Lab 10,979]

He obviously gets ex layers. Can be done but you need a very large piece of ground. Can't be done with poults.

 

With ex layers as well would you be hoping they raise a brood to hold them as well ?.

Well you would hope they could....maybe not so much that season as it will be late on and alot of the hens will be coming to the end of lay but possibly for next season. If your trying to run a decent shoot in this day and age you can't rely on wild stock though due to weather and bloody vermin

strangly enough they havent done to bad here this season considering the wet weather

Whats the temperature been like beside you mate. I know it's been constant rain( as we have heard) but i believe it's more the cold wet weather that effects them more than just the wet. Afterall we are talking about a marsh bird here. This year it's been freezing at nights during the summer... Easy to work out with how quick my gas bottles were running low..easily 3/4 days short of what they should have been for the birds. At the beginning of October the birds were I pick up were still quite small....probably because the poor buggers are eating to keep warm rather than purely for growth reasons...:-)

[paulus 26]

He obviously gets ex layers. Can be done but you need a very large piece of ground. Can't be done with poults.

 

With ex layers as well would you be hoping they raise a brood to hold them as well ?.

Well you would hope they could....maybe not so much that season as it will be late on and alot of the hens will be coming to the end of lay but possibly for next season. If your trying to run a decent shoot in this day and age you can't rely on wild stock though due to weather and bloody vermin

strangly enough they havent done to bad here this season considering the wet weather

Whats the temperature been like beside you mate. I know it's been constant rain( as we have heard) but i believe it's more the cold wet weather that effects them more than just the wet. Afterall we are talking about a marsh bird here. This year it's been freezing at nights during the summer... Easy to work out with how quick my gas bottles were running low..easily 3/4 days short of what they should have been for the birds. At the beginning of October the birds were I pick up were still quite small....probably because the poor buggers are eating to keep warm rather than purely for growth reasons...:-)

the temprature in the main has stayed above freezing however the birds were very late in going down i was still seeing half grown poults in october/november. there is also a plentifull food supply still as theres fields of barley and wheat that havent been harvested due to the ground being to soft to get the combine on or in some cases even a tractor.

[The one 8,463]

Heard a few shoots have moved over to ex layers due to price and some get a late second brood off and it all helps

[stroller 341]

ex layers dont tend to hang about my experience of them is they are released and gone! The chap im talking about gets poults at 9 weeks puts them down and feeds well he loses a few but he says they keep together really well. it sounds too good to be true if it worked so well why isnt everyone doing it? he doesnt have a big shoot either

[danw 1,748]

Guess it's how you see the pen isn't it are you trying to keep the birds in or are you keeping vermin out?

 

I know for fact poults won't all get up to roost in the first days to wood fox and badger would love that with no pen round they poults wouldn't they.

[DIDO.1 22,615]

He obviously gets ex layers. Can be done but you need a very large piece of ground. Can't be done with poults.

 

With ex layers as well would you be hoping they raise a brood to hold them as well ?.

Well you would hope they could....maybe not so much that season as it will be late on and alot of the hens will be coming to the end of lay but possibly for next season. If your trying to run a decent shoot in this day and age you can't rely on wild stock though due to weather and bloody vermin

strangly enough they havent done to bad here this season considering the wet weather

Whats the temperature been like beside you mate. I know it's been constant rain( as we have heard) but i believe it's more the cold wet weather that effects them more than just the wet. Afterall we are talking about a marsh bird here. This year it's been freezing at nights during the summer... Easy to work out with how quick my gas bottles were running low..easily 3/4 days short of what they should have been for the birds. At the beginning of October the birds were I pick up were still quite small....probably because the poor buggers are eating to keep warm rather than purely for growth reasons...:-)

 

Birds can also be quite small this year as a lot of the wheat has a low bushell weight due to the growing season it had.

[Lab 10,979]

ex layers dont tend to hang about my experience of them is they are released and gone! The chap im talking about gets poults at 9 weeks puts them down and feeds well he loses a few but he says they keep together really well. it sounds too good to be true if it worked so well why isnt everyone doing it? he doesnt have a big shoot either

if he rang me and said "I'd like some poults, I don't have a pen but they'll be alright" I'd say "get them somewhere else!!"...

[mudman 14]

I know of a keeper who releases pheasants into his partridge drives the same way, 10 x 10 pens, put twenty in one day, release the next and top up with another 20 until each maize strip has a few hundred poults out. No roosting cover except hedgerows.

[Lab 10,979]

I know of a keeper who releases pheasants into his partridge drives the same way, 10 x 10 pens, put twenty in one day, release the next and top up with another 20 until each maize strip has a few hundred poults out. No roosting cover except hedgerows.

Bye bye pheasants............