spanj Posted December 16, 2012 Report Share Posted December 16, 2012 hi guys i work on a game farm and run a little shoot. i myself had ex layes this year we put down 125. we shot 24 on the only day we had so far. but there are alot more about but they are harder to keep on the shoot as we dont have any game cover just small hedge rows. we reared 30,000 pheasants poults for other people they all said ' i tried ex layers once they all ******** off' so guess it is poults ! our shoots much the same as yours, always used ex layers with very mixed results. This year we decided to use poults............. result, they've ALL disappeared despite holding round the pens pre season Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
al4x Posted December 16, 2012 Report Share Posted December 16, 2012 Lots depends on neighbours and your ground, work on habitat and cover crops and make sure they always have food and water and you are half way there. We had our third day yesterday and the return is up to 62% we do gain birds but have held birds well. Bearing in mind on the same ground the previous syndicate struggled for 30% we are quite pleased Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Scully Posted December 16, 2012 Report Share Posted December 16, 2012 Lots depends on neighbours and your ground, work on habitat and cover crops and make sure they always have food and water and you are half way there. Totally agree,and in my experience applies equally whether you have ex-layers or raised from poults.Our rough shoot (ex-layers) is just ever so slightly behind our driven syndicate(raised from 8 wk old birds)in numbers shot,despite there being 12guns in the latter as opposed to 5/6 in the former.It will be interesting to learn what the end of season numbers are. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Alycidon Posted December 27, 2012 Report Share Posted December 27, 2012 Poults is the best way to go. Habitat management is also vital to hold those birds. Warmth and cover are the two key issues. Always have plenty of feeders that are full !!, I have between 3 and 10 x 45 gall barrels per drive, water is also important in a normal year. Game plots, these can be planted under Countryside stewardship schemes, so your landlord gets payment for these from the govt. Arrange your poults to arrive about the third week in July, expect to pay £3.50 or so. Get your food (pellets) from the rearer, no shock in changing brands then. Arrange for some medicated pellets about 2 weeks after release as a gapes outbreak is likely. Keep a tight grip on winged and other vermin, I am just starting to set some fox snares in outlaying areas, Larsens and Fens will come out in Febrauary/March. Rat poison I am currently deploying by the wheelbarrow or seem to be. A Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
scotslad Posted January 3, 2013 Report Share Posted January 3, 2013 My personal preference would be for poults everytime, and doubt i'd ever change , Generally speaking the advice is a bird should be around 20weeks at time of shooting to be fully mature and flying well althou size/bird density off pen and the ammount off pellets u feed them plus the weather all can effect when there ready to shoot. If ur a smaller diy sydicate and shooting in oct or early nov isnae important u could hold off gettin birds till 3rd week Aug or even slightly later, (the latest i've released was 22nd Sept not ideal but some sort off mix up/fall out with the then shoot captain and game farmer, far from ideal and not advisable) but if ur happy walking boundries for small bags off 'long tails' slightly later may suit u better aswell as prob suiting the gamefarmer better as all the big shoots will want there birds that busy 2-3 weeks in july. Sometimes gettin ur birds later means they wander less as by time get the wandering bug the days are getin consderably shorter We experimented 2 seasons ago gettin birds earlier and only delivery date available was around mid june came the 18th, came on great prob shootable by sept easily, but an awful lot of work feeding and holding them for all that extra time, cost us a lot more in feed than usual far to early and too much work for the type off shoot it is. Ideally i would get them around mid aug but i'm busy on grouse at that time so like to get them around that busy time 3-4th week june so they are settled down a bit Also my advice would be dinae start to big it can be quite a lot of work and big financial outlay for even 200 pheas, u will prob have more enjoyment having a couple of informal days with ur mates and dogs and learn as u go rather than putting the pressure off bag numbers/let days and high expectations on u atleast till u learn the ropes and the ground. Thoose of u who favour Ex-layers How do u get ur returns any tricks to holding them? The only shoot i know which had any success kept them in a roofed pheasant pen for a good while and basically treated them like poults walking them back to pen and dogging in later on, it also helped they shot both sides off an upland valley with no neighbours so birds would have to wander a long way over cold open hills to find feed and roosting cover. They could probably jist turn the birds out off crates and they would still show a decent return Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mr pigeon Posted January 6, 2013 Author Report Share Posted January 6, 2013 Hi guys just an update to let u know that up til now we have shot 20%. It is my first year of keepering and first year of putting birds down. We only put down ex layers and with two days left can hopefully improve on our %. Cover crops were rubbish in most places and weather hasn't helped. No shoots around us so what we have shot is our own birds. Our syndicate is mainly old boys that enjoy a day out more than a big bag but stats are as follows: Day 1 17 birds 114 shots Day 2 18 birds 142 shots Day 3 13 birds 101 shots Day 4 17 birds 111 shots Day 5 26 birds 99 shots Day 6 17 birds 77 shots Can I have people's honest opinion to our results, we are planning for next year and I would appreciate honest constructive views and advice. Thanks Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
scolopax Posted January 6, 2013 Report Share Posted January 6, 2013 Honest opinion!! Your guns are **** shots!! should be looking at 1 bird for every 3 shots for 'average' birds. We have shot 25% of the released pheasants and should be 30+% by the time we finish, all poults, but only a small spot, and unfortunately this year an island of bare earth in a sea of stubble. Shot to kill ratio 1 in 3. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pontbeck Posted January 6, 2013 Report Share Posted January 6, 2013 If you shoot another 35 birds you will have returned about 30%. Not wanting to be critical but I regard anything under 40% as poor. I`v`e never heard of anyone being successful with ex layers. I`m sure your return would have been better with poults Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mr pigeon Posted January 6, 2013 Author Report Share Posted January 6, 2013 I agree with the shot situation but taking that into account do u think that is a good return for ex layers with the year we have had? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Scully Posted January 6, 2013 Report Share Posted January 6, 2013 (edited) Overall your shot to kill ratio is therefore 5.9 so far this season,which isn't good. Anything over 40% is considered good,and last season we had a return of over 50%,and it looks like we may do just less than that this year but we nay be shooting one day less.We only put down ex-layers and we've always done well with them. How many did you put down,what sort of land have you,and what sort of covercrops did you grow? Did you just release your ex-layers and leave them to their own devices? Edited January 6, 2013 by Scully Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rogerk9 Posted April 5, 2021 Report Share Posted April 5, 2021 On 06/12/2012 at 23:06, Scully said: We only have ex-layers on our rough shoot as raising poults is too labour intensive for us;we simply don't have the time to walk them in on a regular basis,but on the syndicate where we all chip in with the keepering,we buy poults only,and I can't say we do anything differently really.Habitat is similar;mixed woodland with some marshy bits,plenty of cover and well lit openings,and plenty of feeders. The only differences I can think of is we get fully grown ex-layers before the end of June,and poults early August.We don't walk in ex-layers,once released they're on their own;poults are walked in each day. If you can commit the time needed,then get poults;if it doesn't work out,then next season get a mixture.We are more than happy with our ex-layers,and so to answer your question we would undoubtedly choose the ex-layers. If your shoot has the terrain to present birds the way you want them,then in my experience ex-layers do perform. Scully, would it be possible to have a phone conversation with you regarding ex layers please? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Scully Posted April 5, 2021 Report Share Posted April 5, 2021 7 hours ago, rogerk9 said: Scully, would it be possible to have a phone conversation with you regarding ex layers please? I would think so. I’ll get back to you tomorrow. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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