How many pheasants per feeder?

[Mr pigeon]

Hi guys as you might of gathered we are starting our new shooting season soon, in fact we are underway with preparations already.

 

What I'm asking is how many feeders do you guys put out on drives?

 

Pen 1 will contain 250 birds and feed three drives.

 

Pen 2 350 birds and three bigger drives.

 

Pen 3 200 birds and two drives.

 

We have maize/millet in every drive (varying in size) and will put down round bale straw rides in each also.

 

Is it best to locate feeders in cover crops or round edges?

 

Do we only want feeders in our drives not round boundaries or do we want both?

 

Sorry for all the questions but its a big learning curve.

Thanks and I look forward to more useful advice!

[scolopax]

Feed the birds around the pen to begin with but as they start to find their feet quite quickly leap frog your feeders to where you want your birds to be on a shoot day, i.e the cover crops.

 

one feeder for every 10 - 20 birds at a rough guesstimate, although we do try to hand feed a bit every day if we can, just a bucket into a split bale of straw, but the feeders are their main food source as we cannot guarantee getting up to the shoot every day once the nights draw in.

 

we had one out lying wood which only had four feeders in, all big 55 gallon drums, due to the distance involved in carting wheat, and to be honest it did not seem to make any difference to the amount of birds it held, there were always plenty!

[webber]

Feeders in release pen = 1 : 20 poults

Feeders out on shoot 1 : 10 birds

 

Not the best idea to feed boundaries, but sometimes needs must.

 

webber

[al4x]

some of these figures would be quite funny on professional shoots putting down 5-10000 birds and 1000 feeders for them

 

Simple answer is there isn't anything set in stone, its more important that they don't run out than you have a set number. After that location can dictate the number, we will usually have 2 in each piece of cover minimum. Then a few in each piece of woodland, in our main pen there are 4 feeders and 250 birds put down.

[B725]

As Al4x says nothing is set in stone just make sure they are full as the birds will soon go else where.

[scotslad]

I'd say the guidlines given aren't far away as guidelines go, and do know some shoots with 1000's of hoppers out, but to be fair most shoots with fuull time keepers will be on whistle or spinner.

 

I often have more hoppers than the guidlines for the simple reason we're a diy syndicate if a hopper spring is blocked and onother goes empty without noticing that drive will be poor next shoot day if only a couple off hoppers in it (when i first joined my shoot most drives only had 1 or 2 hoppers in them, no good in my opinion as often empty), i like 5+ hoppers in a wood/drive even small ones, gives u a bit off breathing space if u can't get up to fill them immediately, the more hoppers the less they need filling, have a work party with plenty off helpers early on get all hoppers filled to gunnels u would be surprised how long they can last on a smaller shoot.

 

As al4x and b725 the most important thing is that there are always full and springs etc not blocked, i believe the more the better

[WGD]

some of these figures would be quite funny on professional shoots putting down 5-10000 birds and 1000 feeders for them

 

Yes but commercial shoots are keepered with feed rides being fed daily from a quad mounted hopper or similar.

 

One feeder per 15 birds has served me well, but more importantly get decent wheat. A lot of stalks will block the springs and they aren't any good if they're not running!