Moving feeders

[Mr pigeon]

Hi guys,

 

I have ex layers in my pen that frequent two drives. First drive is by the pen and second drive is 200yards away. When should and how do you guys move/remove feeders to get birds up to the second drive? Cheers hope that's not to confusing!

[Scully]

Do you mean you only have enough feeders for one drive? If so I don't really know what to suggest other than hand feeding by broadcasting it around second drive.

If we want to move a feeder to another point we just do it, the birds will find it,or you could move it in stages,but if you don't have enough feeders what happens to the other drive from which you've just moved it?

I think broadcasting would do it,but the pigeons and crows may get there before your birds.Sorry if I've misunderstood.

[r1steele]

Put a couple of feeders onto the feed rides where you want your birds to go and then start to gradually move some feeders from your pen towards the other drives in small stages until they have found the new feed rides and are feeding on them confidently.

[Mr pigeon]

Ah sorry probably wasn't clear enough. We have feeders around the cover crop on second drive and feeders doted in a line up to these from the pen. What I meant was do you guys take feeders out of the pen and put them somewhere else or stop feeding to get the birds away from the pen? Or even reduce the number of feeders in the pen but still keep feed in these? We have six feeders in pen at the moment. Hope that helps cheers.

[r1steele]

Eventually remove them from the pen as the birds will come off the roost and go straight for their feed. If you leave feeders in the pen it means your birds will remain in the pen rather than being in your drives. The whole idea is to feed the birds away from your pens and eventually drive the birds back. Hope this helps

[Scully]

With having ex-layers on our rough shoot ,once the pop holes are opened in early July we stop putting feed in pen feeders so our birds rarely return to the pen anyhow.These are the only feeders we have out until the season starts proper or weather deteriorates badly.I suppose it depends on whether you intend to 'drive' your pen or not.

On our syndicate,which are six week old poults,feed is put in pen and then as they start to wander on a permanent basis, feeders are spread throughout the shoot but ones in pen are left to empty.We drive both our pens on the syndicate shoot simply by allowing dogs to go through.

[Mr pigeon]

Yes we do "drive" the pen, do you guys think after 6 weeks or so of being fed in the pen, the birds would go back there even if there was no food anymore?

[r1steele]

Sorry I didn't realise that you used your pen for a drive. Wherever you intend to drive your birds from should have feeders to keep them in the drives.

[Paul223]

As your using the pen for a drive feed the pen and the second drive, dog in from the surrounding areas into to both, the birds will soon start to wander, you just need to condition them to think the drives are, for now, their only safe haven, if you have enough hands dog in at odd times of day rather than just in the evening

[Scully]

Yes we do "drive" the pen, do you guys think after 6 weeks or so of being fed in the pen, the birds would go back there even if there was no food anymore?

If there are 'sitty' trees in your pen they may go back to roost;some do,then wander off in search of breakfast when it gets light.

[part timer]

I leap frog hoppers from pen to drive and make sure I only feed whear I want the birds to be at least three weeks before the first shoot

[Mr pigeon]

Am I right in saying then that three weeks before the start of your season there is no feeders between your pen and where you want the birds?

Sorry new to this.

[r1steele]

Your feeders should all be on your drives so that all of your birds are on your drives. If you have feeders elsewhere it means that your birds aren't feeding on the drives where you need them so when it comes to a shoot day your birds could be anywhere. There's no point feeding birds in the wrong areas.

[part timer]

No I put feeders in the drive and leep frog others from the pen to the drive. On this subject how long do others only feed the pen for?

[r1steele]

No I put feeders in the drive and leep frog others from the pen to the drive. On this subject how long do others only feed the pen for?

Sorry Part Timer I don't think you got what I meant (me being a bit useless explaining myself). Do the same as you have said about putting feeders onto drives and then leapfrogging from the pen, but if you don't intend using the pen as a drive there's no point feeding the pen once the birds are feeding confidently where you need them as they automatically come off the roost and head for food. As for how long to only feed the pen? It depends on your birds, once they start to explore away from the pen and are big enough and strong enough, start feeding the leapfrogging way and gradually remove feeders that have been set between the pen and the drives from the pen side until they are feeding where you need them. You can tell by the amount of feed being used from your hoppers if the birds have settled where you want them and when to stop feeding pens etc. Every pen can be different time wise depending on how warm a pen is or how much cover there is, but you can usually tell by how your birds are behaving as to when to stop feeding a pen. Hope this was a bit more helpful to you

[Mr pigeon]

So let me get this straight.

 

I have feeders on my cover crop which is part of the drive.

 

I have feeders spaced between pen and cover crop, as these are being used I then stop the ones nearest the pen and one by one stop them up to the cover crop.

 

Since my pen is part of a drive I was going to stop feeding in the pen but carry on using the feeders around the outside of the pen.

 

Hopefully by doing this it will get a few birds up onto the 2nd drive cover crop.

 

If I haven't got that correct please say so.

 

Cheers

[r1steele]

Sounds about right to me. Feeders on your cover crop drive and feeders at your pen drive and gradually lose the ones in between. Hope all goes well.

[scotslad]

Not trying to complicae things further but u could actually just scatter a bit of wheat by hand up the hedge in the long grass /hedge bottom towards the other drive, doesn't take a lot (althou will depend on how many birds u've got) once or twice a week might be enough to get the birds pecking and walking in right direction. start at pen side and gradually extend how far u spread it as the birds eat and move up the hedge.

U could do this as well as moving the hoppers or (depending on the birds) possibly just hand feed the hedge and not bother with hoppers on the hedge and just have hoppers in both ur drive woods. All depends on the birds and situ sometimes they will travel no prob's others it takes longer, just got to try different things and see wot works best for u.