Releasing Ex Laying Pheasants

[Diygamekeeper]

Hello, got a little shoot and we are putting down 400 poults down and i we are getting 250 ex layers too but i would like to know the best way of releasing them? Do you trickle them out a bit like partridge (net the pen) or put them in the pen clip a bit of the wing? They are coming in the next few weeks and wanted to make sure we try and get the best return on them. Cheers in advance

[rjimmer]

There used to be a piece on this by Archie Coates in the Shooter's Year Book. He advocated releasing them as it was getting dark into thick cover so that they didn't just fly away. If you are doing it in a netted(top) pen, then you have thought about that. Your vermin control should have been good, because these hens will be susceptible. The idea was that these hens would raise a late brood, so the resident cocks must have access to them. Ex-laying hens are notorious for wandering.

Edited May 25, 2016 by rjimmer

[Diygamekeeper]

Yer i have heard that, i have brought some holding blocks to see if that has any effect. Yes we have a few cocks still about from last year as im still feeding the brids from last year in a few feeders. So hopefully a few broods would be nice, but not holding my breath. Any ideas than holding blocks to stop the hens from wondering off? Have you ever put ex layers down? Whats percentages do you get back? Thanks

[Scully]

Ex-layers aren't usually in the best condition when you receive them, or in our case when we collect them. They often have bald patches on their backs and can be susceptible to pecking from other birds, so they need room to spread out.

We just release ours into a pen which is around 100 meters by 50 metres with supplies of food and clean water. They soon learn to roost. We keep them in there for a couple of weeks and then open the pop-holes and they will then wander in and out at will.

A mate just releases his into the wild.

[Jim Neal]

Bottom line is you can't expect them to stay in a habitat they don't find attractive to stay in, so you need to be realistic about where your pen is sited.

 

The best you can do with ex-layers is make the pen as suitable as possible, start them on medicated pellets if they haven't already been given them and weaned onto wheat at the game farm, and make sure loads of clean water is available. Make sure your bob holes in the pen are built well, allowing free entry into the pen but not so easy to walk out of. Feeders around the outsides to hold the ones that get out. Visit the pen twice a day to begin with, try to walk them back in. Dog them in from further out. Some will maintain that clipping the wings is best to keep them in the pen, I have seen with my own eyes how many get out immediately so I personalyl feel it's silly to deprive them of the abiklity to roost or escape danger. Bit I'm outvoted on my shoot so they will still be clipped.

 

Most important, keep fingers crossed!

Edited May 25, 2016 by Jim Neal

[Scully]

I'm of the same opinion regarding clipping. Landowner wanted ours clipped when we first started, but I argued that if we had them clipped then our pen needed to be bullet proof, and as it's a working farm that couldn't be guaranteed ( cattle have holed it in the past ) and after taking advice from the NGO who advised against clipping, we haven't done it.

We face our crates into thick cover within the pen and when all are in place open the doors starting with the crate furthest into the pen and working our way out. We just open the crates and leave them for a couple of days.

We have found that birds are most likely to jump the fence if they are cornered and left with nowhere to get out of the way when we go in, so we take it slow until the birds get used to us or they have room to slink off into cover.