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We were given some wheat a few season ago, which had barley mixed in it. The pheasants would pick out the wheat and leave piles of barley under the feeders, which then got wet and mouldy. I think they would eat barley at a push, but if your neighbours are feeding wheat you may struggle to hold them. If it was me, I would pay extra for some wheat.

 

If its for ducks, they seem to love barley.

 

I haven't tried feeding oats at all

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If it is pheasants Wheat every time or you will loose them to some one who is feeding wheat if its ducks then barley is fine.

Not in our experience. We had returns of 88% last year; admittedly they may not all have been our birds, but if they strayed onto our land they were fed barley.

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I know of shoots that do get away with feeding barley and do do well, but generally they fall into 2 types either upland shoots with no neighbours and little other habitat so birds have no food or cover anywhere else so little choice of wandering OR shoots next/near to larger commercial type shoots who could probably put no feed out and still shoot a high % of 'there' birds.

 

Any lowland shoot will struggle feeding barley, esp if u have neighbours feeding wheat, i was always taught never to scrimp on pheasants food if u want to keep them as they can be fussy eaters

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I know of shoots that do get away with feeding barley and do do well, but generally they fall into 2 types either upland shoots with no neighbours and little other habitat so birds have no food or cover anywhere else so little choice of wandering OR shoots next/near to larger commercial type shoots who could probably put no feed out and still shoot a high % of 'there' birds.

 

Any lowland shoot will struggle feeding barley, esp if u have neighbours feeding wheat, i was always taught never to scrimp on pheasants food if u want to keep them as they can be fussy eaters

Again, not in our experience. We're in the valley bottom and although we have neighbouring shoots they are all small DIY shoots like ours.

There are two bigger shoots two or three miles away but they literally drive birds towards each other on alternate shooting days and on certain drives share the same fields to pick up. It is very rare we find any of their birds on our shoot.

The two small DIY shoots which border ours ring their birds but the most we've ever shot was three in one season (one of our guns wishes it were more as he shoots in that syndicate now and then as a guest and really enjoys ringing them up to tell them and then handing back the rings) and our birds often roost on another shoot across the river but always fly back across to feed on ours.

We've had this rough shoot for five seasons now and we have never fed anything else but barley for the simple reason we can buy it off the landowner ( and therefore no transport costs ) on whose land our rough shoot is. Believe me, if we thought it didn't work we would be buying wheat.

My nephews shoot about five miles away put down ex-layers as we do, and the first year tagged them all. At seasons end they had shot more birds than they released (only 50) but none were tagged. They feed wheat.

I'm no expert and I'm not trying to prove a point, I'm simply telling it as it is. For others to dismiss it simply because they do it differently doesn't really help anyone. I don't think anyone can say for definite what will happen, but can only go on experience.

I would agree that those bordering big commercial shoots would probably benefit even if feeding pineapples, or indeed, nothing.

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Not dismissing wot u say but i'd say ur very lucky and in the minority and must be blessed with good ground/woods or on sunny side of valley, it can be done as u prove. Do all ur neighbours feed barley too?? Most books and advice from basc/ngo/GWCT all suggest wheat is better

 

If barley was anywhere near as good as wheat why does everyone pay the extra for wheat? A larger shoot could make substantial savings some years by buying barley when there is a big price difference.

 

Simple way to do it would be buy a small bit of wheat and fill some hoppers with wheat some with barley/oats near to each other and see wot ur birds prefer, if u want to be really scientifc then change the feed around so it is just not because a hopper is in the prefered site. I would not mix them in the hopper as u will get piles of the less favoured lying below the hopper. Some shoots u may well get away with barley, i often feed barley thou closed season if a big price difference

All shoots are different and wot works on 1 will not neccesarrily work on another. But when u've paid all the money for birds a few tonns of wheat shared between the guns is not much cash really

 

I have done something similar with spice as a few guns at 1 point thought spice was some sort of 'miracle' and would transform the shoot, i filled some with spice and so me without, still do so the birds have a choice, if i'm honest notice very little difference sometimes the spice 1 will go down first but more often more due to site

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We may just be lucky, but if that is the case we've been lucky for 5 seasons now. I have no idea what our neighbours feed but our driven syndicate feeds wheat; we had 48% returns if I recall.

We're in the NGO but have never asked for advice regarding feed and when we first started the shoot we had an old grain silo around a quarter full of old barley, some of which was quite mouldy, so we put it in what feeders we had. It only lasted a season and then we sourced some wheat seven miles away but he was a rip off merchant and so it was decided we would buy barley from the landowner at the going rate ( he is also a shoot member and pays an equal share ) which would have the advantage of no transport costs either, and that's what we've done for the past three seasons.

Unless something drastic happens I don't think we'll really feel the need to experiment with what feed the birds like best.

With all respect if we listened to all those who told us we needed this and we needed that and ex-layers were no good as 'they'll all burger off at the drop of a hat', and those that don't run off will simply run around without getting into the air, we wouldn't have a shoot.

It's not a prestigious high bird shoot with beaters, nor indeed 'proper' drives ( with one rather dramatic exception ) it's just a walk about with close friends. I don't think we've ever shot more than 25 birds in a day but we love it, and have brilliant days out. Some of us are exceptional shots, some of us are not, with one bloke firing an entire box of 25 for 1 bird, but he still had the broadest smile.

We had one or two birds from neighbouring shoots on walkabout days to begin with, but felt it wasn't the done thing to just put out feeders to attract others birds, so bought some crates and then our own birds each season, and have taken it from there. It was really quite a 'suck it and see' shoot to start with, but we manage the habitat as best we can, erected a huge pen, do a little pest control which consists solely of fox control, have thinned out some woods, now have over 30 feeders going throughout the season over 600 acres and now and then even see the occasional wild brood skulking about, but at the end of the day it is primarily a working farm.

Six of us chip in 150 quid a year.

To anyone thinking of starting a small DIY shoot, I would say go for it; there is nothing to lose and everything to gain. Just get on with it best you can and don't let anyone put you off.

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  • 4 weeks later...

My shoot is on a farm with a large commercial grain store so I get everything free.

I have tried every thing on the pheasants wheat, barley, oats, rape seed and wheat works if all of the above is mixed they will pick past all else apart from wheat.

The duck ponds get the other plus peas and beans which they love, but even they leave the oats !

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Speaking with my animal nutritionist hat on, wheat is the preferred feed for poultry for a variety of reasons.

 

Wheat is far more palatable, is digested much more efficiently, thus a greater feed value by weight and more energy. Nutritional research suggests that poultry feed should contain no more than 20% barley.

 

Personally, I would choose wheat over barley every time unless the barley was free.

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