DIYers; what have you got planned?

[Scully]

I would be interested in what others who run small shoots have planned prior to the next season.

Thinning out of our woods to allow the sun to get to the ground and establish ground cover is ongoing on ours, and we have plans to create windbreaks to make some of the smaller coppices warmer at ground level using Canary grass and willow. Cover crops are limited as land is still in stewardship schemes but Labrador and Setter will get used in those small places we can sow it.

We also plan to double wire the lower parts of our pen and buy some proper pop-holes. We had thought of electrifying the perimeter but livestock would probably destroy it in time, and those pop-holes we do put in will only be able to go in on sides the livestock can't get to. It's a working farm after all. The work on the pen is all dependant on getting the rest of the syndicate to show up to do some work; they always without fail turn up on shoot days but are often 'busy' on non shoot days.

Our feeders are still out although we aren't topping them up on as regular a basis as we do throughout the season, but we ensure there's food around for those birds which depend on it, and when we bring in the feeders (we find leaving them out all year turns them brittle and condensation forms inside) we'll empty them and replace the springs with those rigid feeders, although just yesterday I discovered a pile of feed under one feeder with a rigid feeder on it; just the sort of thing we fitted them to prevent, so don't know what's been going on there.

Our predator control consists of lamping for foxes chiefly; we don't trap or snare anything as we aren't always able to check them as required; we all work and even though landowner is in syndicate he is simply too busy to do likewise, so we don't bother. We do have a couple of trail cams however, which come in very handy, and allow us to plan our foxing outings with a minimum of wasted time.

What are you doing? Just over 3 months time we'll be picking up our birds again!

 

 

 

[ollie]

We are putting a new pen on our syndicate this year and putting down more birds than last season.

 

The cover in our shoot is really heavy, so we plan on thinning out a lot of that to make it easier on the dogs.

 

Finally, we have problems with corvids eating out pheasant feed throughout the year, so I am gonna make a concerted effort to decoy them when the sylege fields are cut.

[Alycidon]

At the moment laying laurels, I do a few a year. Then Larsens and trapping, toying with laying a few snares but we have a massive badger population so I think that would be more trouble than its worth.

 

Feeder wise I have several to rebuild repair, mainly rotting wooden legs. As these come in I will be filling in the spring holes and reverting back to side slits but with galvanised covers over the top of the slots to stop some of the water running into the slits.

 

One of my friends had a few hours looking for the first fox of the year at the weekend.

 

A

[Scully]

 

 

Feeder wise I have several to rebuild repair, mainly rotting wooden legs. As these come in I will be filling in the spring holes and reverting back to side slits but with galvanised covers over the top of the slots to stop some of the water running into the slits.

 

 

A

A small shoot I'm a member of doesn't use springs or anything else at all, and just cuts slits in the bottoms of the barrels. It's not a bad idea really so long as the pickle isn't too small, as it prevents deers and badgers from emptying them and the rain doesn't get in, but merely drips off he sides.

[Woodbepigeonshooter]

We seem to have a lot of birds left from last season so we are still feeding along the stream of the shoot and in the pens.

 

The four pens are in good nick so the feeders being repaired and clearing the woods to allow the light through are key.

 

Vermin shoot Saturday but more of an excuse to catch up with the other guys post season

[ColinF]

We've been given permission to plant out an unused corner of the farm, to help develop a new drive. We planted 240 shrubs last week, and need another 100 or so to finish it off. There is also an old railway embankment running through the shoot which is the basis for two drives, and that could also do with some planting to improve the cover for holding birds.

 

We also have very heavy cover in parts of our wood, and we will be having a couple of work parties to cut some paths through the worst of it. We are very lucky that most of our beaters will also turn up to help with the work.

 

During February and March we have had weekly roost shooting sessions. Although we haven't seen many pigeons, we have shot around 20 crows each week, which should put a dent in the local population. I've been running a few fenn traps, which have accounted for plenty of squirrels, a few rats and the odd stoat. I will start with the Larsen trap as soon as the clocks change.

 

Most of the feeders are empty, but I have continued feeding in the wood. Hopefully that will help hold the birds, and some will nest there in the next month or two. The pens have survived the winter and only a few small repairs are required, we might extend one of the smaller pens if time allows.

[Scully]

We also have an old abandoned railway track running right through our rough shoot, which provides fantastic cover for all manner of wildlife but apart from putting a few feeders adjacent there's not much we can do with it as it obviously belongs to someone ( a group of weekend rail enthusiasts whom we don't see anymore ) and holiday makers use it as an unofficial footpath now and then as a short cut to and from a small caravan site.

We also seem to have quite a few birds left and are still feeding to a certain extent, but will bring some of the perimeter ones in this weekend while we have a stile fixing stint.

[cocknee]

A small shoot I'm a member of doesn't use springs or anything else at all, and just cuts slits in the bottoms of the barrels. It's not a bad idea really so long as the pickle isn't too small, as it prevents deers and badgers from emptying them and the rain doesn't get in, but merely drips off he sides.

I do the same except I drill about a dozen 11mm holes in the bottom instead of slits, it works extremely well.

[shalfordninja33]

Our shoot has a drive that is predominantly Artichokes of which about a third at one end is largely bare and patchy.

 

My father in law and his friends have had a clear out of their allotment sheds and given me an assortment of seed boxes containing wild meadow flowers, turnips, mustard and assorted other things.

 

I'm going to mix all the seeds up and scatter them over the bare patches, showers are forecast over the bank holiday weekend which will hopefully wash them in a bit, If they grow great! if not we haven't lost anything.

Edited April 30, 2015 by shalfordninja33

[Scully]

Our shoot has a drive that is predominantly Artichokes of which about a third at one end is largely bare and patchy.

 

My father in law and his friends have had a clear out of their allotment sheds and given me an assortment of seed boxes containing wild meadow flowers, turnips, mustard and assorted other things.

 

I'm going to mix all the seeds up and scatter them over the bare patches, showers are forecast over the bank holiday weekend which will hopefully wash them in a bit, If they grow great! if not we haven't lost anything.

Sounds good. We planted quite a few Willow 'whips' a couple of weeks ago, in an attempt to keep the wind from whistling through our smaller woods (copses really) and though some have wilted a bit I think they'll recover.

Our Larsen seems to be working ok, we're finding pheasant eggs in increasingly larger numbers and just yesterday I ordered our ex-layers which we'll be collecting early June. Time flies.

We haven't planted any cover crops yet.

We removed some frog spawn early April from mates garden pond and deposited it in ours thinking ours was a bit sparse. We may have jumped the gun somewhat as we had loads of the stuff a couple of weeks ago and there were frogs all over the place going at it like a fiddlers elbow.

[shalfordninja33]

Sounds good. We planted quite a few Willow 'whips' a couple of weeks ago, in an attempt to keep the wind from whistling through our smaller woods (copses really) and though some have wilted a bit I think they'll recover.

Our Larsen seems to be working ok, we're finding pheasant eggs in increasingly larger numbers and just yesterday I ordered our ex-layers which we'll be collecting early June. Time flies.

We haven't planted any cover crops yet.

We removed some frog spawn early April from mates garden pond and deposited it in ours thinking ours was a bit sparse. We may have jumped the gun somewhat as we had loads of the stuff a couple of weeks ago and there were frogs all over the place going at it like a fiddlers elbow.

 

Some of our woods were quite cold last season as the farm had cut back the smaller trees and brambles on the outsides following the harvest, although we're going to leave them for this year as the additional light that's now getting in will hopefully encourage the smaller trees and Brambles on the outside to grow.

I'd be interested to hear how the Willow whips work out as one of our Syndicate members works for a timber company that plants many more trees than they cut down and is probably something we could get hold of very cheaply.

 

I find the out of season work just as enjoyable as the shoot days themselves, the drives change slightly every year as nature and the farm go about their work. Equally some of the changes that we made 2 or 3 years ago are only now beginning to come to fruition, it great to see the progress.

 

Although with work and a young family my time is limited, when its not cold it's great to get the kids out with me, they love being outdoors, whilst their too young to be out for extended periods in the middle of winter, they're more than happy to be out with me the rest of the time and love 'helping' if you can all it that!! with the stuff I have planned.

Edited April 30, 2015 by shalfordninja33

[Scully]

Had another look at the Willow whips tonight and they seem much perkier. Incidentally you don't need to buy willow, if you have a stream or even a gully of sorts on your land there's a good chance there'll be some growing from which you can simply cut thin 'whips' on a sharp angle and about a metre in length and stick them well into the ground.

Now that everything is coming into leaf I have walked each hedge in which we planted 2000 saplings in double rows last spring, and am well chuffed to find only three which haven't struck. They look great; I hope I live long enough to see the benefits.