Releasing adult pheasants

[ollie]

Myself and a mate of mine are thinking of releasing a few adult pheasants this winter on a bit of ground that we have the shooting of. The ground is mainly rushy ground, with bramble ditches so the cover isn't too bad. The pheasants are sold as adult birds reared from poults (not ex layers) and sold in September or October when they are nearly ready to be shot.

 

However, we are not putting a pen in this shoot, we are thinking of putting down some feeders and releasing the birds into the wild. How does everyone think they will fare? As there is not a pen do you think that they will all wander off.

 

We are only gonna get 30 or so and it is just to mix up with the woodcock shooting, so we're not going to great expense.

 

Would like to hear everyones thoughts.

 

Cheers

[Outlander]

Its worth a go but dont be dissapointed if you never see them again. They are prone to having a wander if things arent to there liking and of course the odd fox will have his share.

[Scully]

I don't know what the price difference is between ex-layers and the birds you buy, but ours are only £2.75 (?) each if I recall.

We release ours into a pen but another shoot 5 miles away just release their birds into the undergrowth. We both get good returns but we both feed well, and both pieces of land have trees for the birds to roost in away from predators.

[ollie]

There is trees on the shoot but no large wood. The thing is, our syndicate shoot is about 2 mile from here, so they might actually wander onto there. It's an experiment this year to see how they fly on this land and we might consider doing a pen in future years.

[rjimmer]

There used to be a piece(by Archie Coates, i think) in the Eley Shooter's Year Book about releasing ex-layers, hoping they would lay again that season. It advocated releasing into a pen, in undergrowth, as it was getting dark so that they didn't just fly away.

[Scully]

There is trees on the shoot but no large wood. The thing is, our syndicate shoot is about 2 mile from here, so they might actually wander onto there. It's an experiment this year to see how they fly on this land and we might consider doing a pen in future years.

It's got to be worth a go.

[scotslad]

I'd say a complete waste of money. Ur releasing birds at an age where they just want to wander and will have no natural 'hefted' instinct to that area unless ur habitat is supereb it may work but even with good big thick hedge bird do wander along them rather than through them so can quickly wander of ur ground

 

It will depend on masssively wot ground u have and the habitat and wot surrounds u. Unless u actually ring the birds u will have no idea wot ur shooting, releasing 30 birds ur realistically expceting a return of 10ish i bet u could go out and shoot that without releasing any birds

 

I'd just stick some hoppers out and feed it. see wot happens for a year or 2. Be better off spending the money u'd spend on birds putting ur feeders out now and hoping some wild birds breed succesfully on ur land, wouldnae take that many broods to make 30 birds

[Grandalf]

Not worth the effort without a pen unless you have fantastic cover.

If you had loads of birds on the ground and released - then the new ones would probably stay with the others.

On their own - they'll just wander off.

[ollie]

Thanks for the replies lads.

 

I'd say a complete waste of money. Ur releasing birds at an age where they just want to wander and will have no natural 'hefted' instinct to that area unless ur habitat is supereb it may work but even with good big thick hedge bird do wander along them rather than through them so can quickly wander of ur ground

 

It will depend on masssively wot ground u have and the habitat and wot surrounds u. Unless u actually ring the birds u will have no idea wot ur shooting, releasing 30 birds ur realistically expceting a return of 10ish i bet u could go out and shoot that without releasing any birds

 

I'd just stick some hoppers out and feed it. see wot happens for a year or 2. Be better off spending the money u'd spend on birds putting ur feeders out now and hoping some wild birds breed succesfully on ur land, wouldnae take that many broods to make 30 birds

 

We had intended ringing them just to see how many we shot.

 

The problem with the area is that there is only our syndicate shoot within a 10 mile radius, so there are very few wild birds about. This is partly the reason why we wanted to put out a few, so that in years to come when we are out for a rough shoot we may come upon a pheasant or 2.

[scotslad]

U'd mibee be surprised how many birds are about if u put some feeders out. Chuck a few feeders out the now and see wot u see in over few months, hungry time for birds and with the low cover should be easy seen if any there. If there really isnae many near it will not cost u much in feed. And u will still have time to decide wot u want to do for the season

 

I alos know of some small shoots that do almost everyhing the oppisate of the 'rule book' but get away with it as the only shoot for miles so no feed anywhere else so birds do stay

If ur not putting birds down u really will need to feed all year or atleast till may so hopefully get some wild broods coming throu, otherwise u could shoot the ground out if no wild replacements coming in.

Have heard of folk releasing pheasant in partridge pen type set ups with a roof net and temp pen sections

[Mr pigeon]

Our first season we released 70 ringed ex layers straight into cover at dusk. 6 days shooting returned 13 birds that were ringed. Three seasons later two more of these birds were shot. I suspect there is still one or two around still. If your prepared to get a zero return then what's the harm?

[CharlieT]

 

Have heard of folk releasing pheasant in partridge pen type set ups with a roof net and temp pen sections

 

This is the obvious way forward.