Mr pigeon Posted October 22, 2013 Report Share Posted October 22, 2013 (edited) Hi guys, we have a good number of spring feeders on our shoot and also I hand feed some areas. Do you part time guys feel you get better holding/return on your birds if they hand fed or fed by springs? Bearing in mind I'm part time I can only get to the shoot every other day. Cheers! Edited October 22, 2013 by Mr pigeon Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Arley Posted October 22, 2013 Report Share Posted October 22, 2013 Hand feed every time if possible. Our returns were better and we used less food but the cost of fuel going to the shoot everyday was too much. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rimfire4969 Posted October 22, 2013 Report Share Posted October 22, 2013 We have feeders as we like you can't be there everyday. But we do hand feed when we are there. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
KFC Posted October 22, 2013 Report Share Posted October 22, 2013 The shoot captain and I both use a repetitive two-note whistle when we arrive and we throw a couple of handfuls down as we go to fill the feeders. The birds come to the whistle and are holding pretty well. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wannabe_keeper Posted October 23, 2013 Report Share Posted October 23, 2013 Your shoot is very similair to mine. I go up every day after work as its only 10 minutes from where i live. We use spring drum feeders but i still hand feed. I buy wild bird mix from a local feed merchant in 25kg bags. Its about £9 a bag but well worth it. I then mix this with liquid mollasses... 5ltrs of this from the same place = £6.50. This sweet smelling gooey mixture of wild bird seed prooves irresistable to my birds. I have cut small patches in the middle of my crops and scatter a straw bail about once every couple of weeks. I can scatter some of this mix onto that, drive round the field and by the time im back the straw patch is full of pheasants. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
r1steele Posted October 24, 2013 Report Share Posted October 24, 2013 (edited) To be fair, hoppers in general are usually better if you are running it part time. As a fulltime job hand feeding (early morning and late afternoon) the main drives with possibly the odd hopper on the outside drives is usually best. Edited October 24, 2013 by r1steele Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jef Posted October 25, 2013 Report Share Posted October 25, 2013 Picked up a couple of bags of wild bird mix today and a gallon of molasses, watch this space..... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Elby Posted October 27, 2013 Report Share Posted October 27, 2013 I do both. Fed up with spring feeders clogging though. Have you thought about auto feeders? I find them good because it's like hand feeding from a hopper Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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