The Unintended Keeper ( Diary of a keeping blagger )

[Stavross 15,203]

11 minutes ago, BenBhoy said:

You're welcome  

I’ve told some of the members they have people like you to thank for this season, not me and all my hard work

[BenBhoy 4,706]

16 minutes ago, Stavross said:

people like you to thank for this season

Shotgun shiť cunťs???

[Stavross 15,203]

So the birds are in, finally, and they look good, the lad who dropped them off said they are 6 weeks, so if this is true then he knew we weren’t getting them on the date he first said, ether way they are in now and we’ll just have to make the best of it, I hung around for a few hours on the lookout for a fox, I didn’t see any, I can never work out if that’s a good thing or not, I did see quite a few deer of both flavours, it’s about time the rules were changed to allow shooting with NV and thermal because I could clearly identify each animal through both devices, there was also a few pigs about, at one point I had a big humbug running towards the caller, they are an absolute menace and do far more damage than the foxes up there, but rules is rules I’ll be back up tomorrow to check on them and then I’ve had people asking if I want a hand feeding, I don’t mind when they first go in as everything is in and around the pens, I like to take full control once I start feeding into drives

[BenBhoy 4,706]

Fingers crossed for you mate. In that circumstance I'd definitely say less foxes the better. You're bloody right about brock, absolutely detest the twať. I always dislike bringing the cattle back in, but 6am yesterday saw humbug stupidly bumbling in-between all the beasts, consequences could be very costly. 

Edited September 2, 2022 by BenBhoy

[Stavross 15,203]

Back up today and looking at them he’s given us birds of different ages, the ones in the forestry pen are all the same and seem happy enough in the pen, when I got to Gordon’s pen, well I never even got to the pen there was a good number wandering the track near the farm, not ideal seeing as they have just gone in, I walked what I could see back into the cover at the rear of the pen and hopefully they’ll hear their mates and head back around the pen,the birds that were out on the track are bigger than most of what’s in the pen some even starting to colour up, so while none of this is ideal, I’ll just have to work with what I’ve got,  I’ve got one of the members going to do the same this evening 

[Stavross 15,203]

So the lad has just been up to walk them in, he said everything seems to have made its way back to the pen and I believe him, he’s the longest serving member of the shoot and no idiot, so I can rest a little easier tonight and I’ll go up first thing tomorrow and he’ll walk them in tomorrow evening and with a bit of luck they will realise where they live

[David.evans 5,323]

In that case stav , I’m surprised you had to buy any birds at all  the way Ben shoots 

[BenBhoy 4,706]

14 minutes ago, David.evans said:

In that case stav , I’m surprised you had to buy any birds at all  the way Ben shoots 

I was gonna think of a witty comeback....but yeah, I'm no George digweed!!

[David.evans 5,323]

I know your a great shot anyway Ben , stav told me , and said that he was jealous

[BenBhoy 4,706]

Just now, David.evans said:

I know your a great shot anyway Ben , stav told me , and said that he was jealous

It was first time I'd used that gun. I wasn't used to double trigger. It was quite windy. The birds kept trying to fly away. I'd had prawns for lunch. My pants were a bit tight. Erm.....any other excuses???  

[shovel leaner 7,650]

14 hours ago, Stavross said:

Back up today and looking at them he’s given us birds of different ages, the ones in the forestry pen are all the same and seem happy enough in the pen, when I got to Gordon’s pen, well I never even got to the pen there was a good number wandering the track near the farm, not ideal seeing as they have just gone in, I walked what I could see back into the cover at the rear of the pen and hopefully they’ll hear their mates and head back around the pen,the birds that were out on the track are bigger than most of what’s in the pen some even starting to colour up, so while none of this is ideal, I’ll just have to work with what I’ve got,  I’ve got one of the members going to do the same this evening 

Having done some rearing myself, I would guess that the birds you have got are the “back ends”. When we caught up the  birds and crated them up for delivery to shoots any  that were poorly feathered or small  went into a separate pen and were given a bit longer to develop. These then went on to smaller shoots that didn’t want to put the birds down early. There  could be a week or so difference in age but not much more . 
            Did you have them clipped ? I bet the birds you saw up the track hadn’t been clipped. 
      By my calculations, your birds will be 19 weeks on the 3rd December. I would put a “ boundary “ day in before that to keep the guns happy, without disturbing the main drives , with instructions to only shoot well developed birds or last season’s ( the ones Ben missed , I hear there are plenty)

[Sausagedog 7,381]

18 hours ago, BenBhoy said:

It was first time I'd used that gun. I wasn't used to double trigger. It was quite windy. The birds kept trying to fly away. I'd had prawns for lunch. My pants were a bit tight. Erm.....any other excuses???  

If two triggers are complicated for you mate just load one barrel at a time until you get the hang of it

[Stavross 15,203]

12 hours ago, shovel leaner said:

Having done some rearing myself, I would guess that the birds you have got are the “back ends”. When we caught up the  birds and crated them up for delivery to shoots any  that were poorly feathered or small  went into a separate pen and were given a bit longer to develop. These then went on to smaller shoots that didn’t want to put the birds down early. There  could be a week or so difference in age but not much more . 
            Did you have them clipped ? I bet the birds you saw up the track hadn’t been clipped. 
      By my calculations, your birds will be 19 weeks on the 3rd December. I would put a “ boundary “ day in before that to keep the guns happy, without disturbing the main drives , with instructions to only shoot well developed birds or last season’s ( the ones Ben missed , I hear there are plenty)

Going off what he told me they will be 19 weeks around the 25th of November, nothing is clipped, that’s why the buggers are all over the place, when I was there today 70% of them had hopped the fence at Gordon’s pen and were in the bracken and brambles, I had that horrible sinking feeling when I got to the pen, even though I couldn’t see many I had a good idea where they were and when the lad went up tonight he said there was a lot back in the pen ( he says a lot but there’s only 300 and you can soon lose 300 around there ) and around it, these are the problems we have been hobby keepers, not being able to be there all the time or even at set times, but ( get ready for a terrible saying) it is what it is, and if we get a few good days in December I’ll be happy, my plan is to do a day possibly the second Saturday in November but it will be a couple of drives over the piggeries at the wildies I’m feeding now

[shovel leaner 7,650]

13 minutes ago, Stavross said:

Going off what he told me they will be 19 weeks around the 25th of November, nothing is clipped, that’s why the buggers are all over the place, when I was there today 70% of them had hopped the fence at Gordon’s pen and were in the bracken and brambles, I had that horrible sinking feeling when I got to the pen, even though I couldn’t see many I had a good idea where they were and when the lad went up tonight he said there was a lot back in the pen ( he says a lot but there’s only 300 and you can soon lose 300 around there ) and around it, these are the problems we have been hobby keepers, not being able to be there all the time or even at set times, but ( get ready for a terrible saying) it is what it is, and if we get a few good days in December I’ll be happy, my plan is to do a day possibly the second Saturday in November but it will be a couple of drives over the piggeries at the wildies I’m feeding now

They look well feathered , with nice tails . All I did was count forward 13 weeks as he said they were 6 week yesterday . You will know yourself when they are ready to shoot  . What’s the weather look like up there , have they had dry nights ?
 

[Stavross 15,203]

3 minutes ago, shovel leaner said:

They look well feathered , with nice tails . All I did was count forward 13 weeks as he said they were 6 week yesterday . You will know yourself when they are ready to shoot  . What’s the weather look like up there , have they had dry nights ?
 

When I spoke to him he said they are 7 weeks, they do all theirs on a 7 week cycle, we got the very last of them, they look really well, as they always do from him, since they went in on Thursday they had 2 dry/warm nights, tonight it has shot it down for a couple of hours