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Ex-layers


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The land owner of one of our rough shoots wants to introduce some pheasants to his land;pens are already in place from the previous landowner,but he doesn't have the time to tend poults and suggested ex-layers.I have to admit I wasn't too keen on the idea for various reasons;poor flyers and risk of disease being two of them,but I shot on a shoot this last season that had a lot of ex-layers and to be honest I was surprised as to how well they flew.

Any opinions and advice would be appreciated.

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i realy think a bird is a bird unless its carrying shot they will fly well if presented properly, their may or may not be slight diffrence in breeds, but i cant tell and neather can many others. the only problem with ex-layers is they can wander like hell i know a few small farms that have last 500 birds overnight they just buggerd off

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Same again here. We took all ex-layers the first year of our DIY syndicate, but used poults in subsequent years. We seemed to retain more birds with the poults, but there's always the arguement that we knew a bit more about what we were doing each year as our experience grew.

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The problem with ex-layers is a lot of people tend to think that because they're mature the are a ready made pheasant so can be chucked onto the land and, no surprise, they wander because they have no sense of "home".

 

Introduce ex layers onto ground using a pen, acclimatise them to where there is nutrition, water, sunlight and shelter and trickle them out when releasing and chances are they'll hold ok.

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The problem with ex-layers is a lot of people tend to think that because they're mature the are a ready made pheasant so can be chucked onto the land and, no surprise, they wander because they have no sense of "home".

 

Introduce ex layers onto ground using a pen, acclimatise them to where there is nutrition, water, sunlight and shelter and trickle them out when releasing and chances are they'll hold ok.

 

Some good advice fella, and a lot to do with the type of land you are releasing them on to.

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hHi there,

i put 300 ex layers down on my diy shoot last year.... the whole lot were lost within a few days.

 

I will still buy them again due to the price but you must ensure that you have plenty of game crop around to hold them. . . I was also pondering putting a net over the pen this year to have them settle for a few days.

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Hi os, I clip all my laying birds before they go onto the laying field. They are still clipped enough when I sell them on not to fly out of the pens and do grow back in time for the season. One of my customer managed to get 65% return last year, not many neighbouring shoots either.

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We got both poults and ex-layers last season(Different pens). We have had ex-layers before, and, yes, did lose quite a few, BUT last season, got them clipped(bad weather stopped this happening before) and they produced the best shooting throughout the season. They were so settled in one of the pens, I had to lift the internal tunnels off the fox grids.

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We got both poults and ex-layers last season(Different pens). We have had ex-layers before, and, yes, did lose quite a few, BUT last season, got them clipped(bad weather stopped this happening before) and they produced the best shooting throughout the season. They were so settled in one of the pens, I had to lift the internal tunnels off the fox grids.

 

 

yep, I'm going to buy some more this season but clip them to let them settle first.

:good:

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Also its a good idea to keep them on pellet for a couple of weeks to a month, helps hold them and build them back up.

Same here.

Usually they have been started to be weaned off pellets and back onto corn ........... cheaper for the breeder, or it was, last year :hmm: Kept the last lot on for a month with, starting:- about 15% corn mixed with poult pellets(slightly more protein than maintenance, seems to help them to feather up quicker) and increased over the month to full corn(With plenty of grit and water available). Water can be more importent than feed, especially in a hot summer :blush: , plenty of natural seed around, but not much water.

If your not getting a lot, unless you've got a friendly farmer, a good tip, try to get some sprout stalks with leaves, cabbage, kale, not rotten, they love em

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Nothing wromg with ex-layers like said put over the guns right they will fly aswell as any other pheasant but also like said they like to ****** off a bit to much for alot of shoots :good:

 

We used to supply ex-lay mallard at the end of the season and most would be able to fly having moulted, next years stock being clipped and the pens de-netted ready for snow. We suggested that we pulled the feathers on one wing to give the birds a chance to settle in to their new homes. One guy was insistant that they were left as is and so we took him over a thousand and set about releasing them gently onto his pond. Just as his young son came tearing through the undergrowth on a quad the keeper said ' so when you reckon these will be alright to shoot then?', everybird on the splash got up almost vertical and went like cruise missiles and my colleague turned round to him, lit his pipe, looked up and said ' about now mate '. I was in tears. Poor old boy never saw them again, the remainding 4 crate we pulled and released.

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