Neilsmith

Hi all, I have just bought 1kg of pure powdered/ground aniseed ,not sure how much to add to a 25kg bag of feed as the powered bird puller we used about an egg cup full but a 5kg tub probably only has about 1 kg of pure aniseed in it. so was thinking a teaspoon, anyone tried it? at £13 thought it worth a go.

how do you fill them and stop water getting in?

We have a big metal storage bin with hinged lid by duck ponds that holds a ton, never had mould even left all year, were looking for a silo for the wheat this year for pheasants to keep near the pens.

The birds fly out during the day, not all probably about a third at a time then fly or walk back in pop holes to feed and roost most poults are nicely grown on but a few are small, it was an established shoot that my mate and me were guns on that shut down, so we took it over 3 years ago so still learning, it only had 2 pens, one 100 mts round total and the other about 60mts, we extended that to 100mts and built a new one 100mts, birds have been happy enough with hardly any tail pecking.

Thanks for all the advice, ill fill in a few answers that have been asked, birds are between 9 and 12 weeks old now, they were wormed just before we got them so will probably do this week. probably be on pellet for another 3-4 weeks until the 3 ton runs out, there is 810 birds in the pen with loads of natural cover in a wood and 600 in the other 2 pens. all pens over 100 metres round the perimeter, the wood pen is about 100 metres from 2 blocks of maize and millet cover on either side of wood/pen, one pen is only 10 metres from the same sort of cover, and the other has one block 100 metres away and another block 30 metres away, then we have cover crop 300 metres from all pens. about 10 acres in total, last year we fed rides cut through maize but lost loads to pigeons and crows/rooks, so we have bought another 40 blue feeders this year. our first shoot is 31st oct if birds look good and i go and check on the birds twice a day as im retired and only live over the road. i think i have answered most of your questions. our pop holes have been open from day one.

birds have been in pens 2 weeks now with plenty of feeders and waterers in pens, when should we start putting feeders around and in cover crops, a lot of the birds come out during the day now and we walk them back in at night to roost.

Hi all, Our 2000 poults are doing well with some flying out during the day then we walk them in before dusk to roost, the problem we have is some of the old cock birds from last year keep walking away from pens with lots of poults following like he is the pied piper until they are a long way from the pens and could be prey to Ginger who we keep down fairly well but you cant get them all, any ideas? Neil

If you want the most reliable and toughest 4x4 around you wont go wrong with a Landcruiser Amazon, mines done 250000 miles and just run in nicely, never let me down yet.

Hi all, looking forward to getting our 2000 pheasants and 300 duck next week after a big effort by out sindicate lads building another pen so 3 now, only problem is we bought 8 acres of maize seed but the drill ran out half way through a 3 acre cover crop, we bought 5kg of brown mustard seed and broadcast it on the bare 1.5 acres,2 weeks ago and chain harrowed it in, it never rained for a week then we had lots last sat and sun, how long do you think before we start seeing it grow? Neil

We use a 1000liter ibc tank at each pen and horse/cattle drinkers with ballcocks and 2" weld mesh to stop birds drowning.

A few of our guns are not renewing this year so we will ask a few who have asked in the past, it will be difficult if we are still in restricted lockdown as we have a couple of over 70s that might not be allowed out and the rest will have to be sensible.

thanks for replies, a few more have said they are in now so 7 now so ive just ordered 2000 birds for first week in august, now just got to decide on cover crop type, we are going to build another pen as we normally have 1200 birds, we have loads of herras fence panels so are going to use them.

Hi all, we have to order our birds now for end of july poults, only a few of our syndicate have given definite yes to this year as we don't usually start collecting money until may, do we just order them and hope. what are others doing? also need to get cover crop planted now what type should we get as in the past few years the farmer grew maize and left blocks in for us but it does not last that well, we are in Essex with clay ground. Neil

I might give the kongs a try, we havnt got any steps.ha ha.

Ranger all day for me, I have had the old model from new never let me down, when I finally get another it will be another one, saying that for shooting and towing my big caravan I have a Toyota Amazon 4.2 td. what a motor best car ive ever owned wish you could buy them new now.