6.5x55SE Posted October 6, 2016 Report Share Posted October 6, 2016 I've been very lucky over the years and shot Geese in some weird places and on unusual feed eg Greenland Whitefront high up mountains where you would only expect to find Grouse these was feeding on Bog Mertal and tubulars. Pink's on Rape and in the middle of Unharvested Sugar Beet in hard weather . Today i received another call from a Estate expecting news of more Pink's had arrived But NO it was about a problem I'd never heard of or seen before. Pink's are hammering the unlifted Beet ??? My Never reply was met with some choice words.After calming down it was explained in the middle of the Beet a probably 60 yard square Pit Hole had been filled in but do to recent Rain has Flooded the area and for what ever reason several thousand Pink's have found this to there liking and eating the Sugar Beet still in the ground . When put off their are going onto surrounding Stubbles BUT within minutes piling back onto the Beet. As you can imagine the Estate is not best pleased. My plan fishing umbrella covered in camouflage netting in the Beet as they are coming in far too high from surrounding hedges to the middle of the Large field. Fingers crossed for another Unusual First Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cant hit them all Posted October 6, 2016 Report Share Posted October 6, 2016 I've been very lucky over the years and shot Geese in some weird places and on unusual feed eg Greenland Whitefront high up mountains where you would only expect to find Grouse these was feeding on Bog Mertal and tubulars. Pink's on Rape and in the middle of Unharvested Sugar Beet in hard weather . Today i received another call from a Estate expecting news of more Pink's had arrived But NO it was about a problem I'd never heard of or seen before. Pink's are hammering the unlifted Beet ??? My Never reply was met with some choice words.After calming down it was explained in the middle of the Beet a probably 60 yard square Pit Hole had been filled in but do to recent Rain has Flooded the area and for what ever reason several thousand Pink's have found this to there liking and eating the Sugar Beet still in the ground . When put off their are going onto surrounding Stubbles BUT within minutes piling back onto the Beet. As you can imagine the Estate is not best pleased. My plan fishing umbrella covered in camouflage netting in the Beet as they are coming in far too high from surrounding hedges to the middle of the Large field. Fingers crossed for another Unusual First on farm down my way they have 150 greylags doing a morning feed on sugar beet to but then ********* off. Wish you luck in taking a few and hopefully pushing them back to somewhere that's not bothering the estate Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Walker570 Posted October 6, 2016 Report Share Posted October 6, 2016 Like the umbrella idea. Best of luck. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
6.5x55SE Posted October 6, 2016 Author Report Share Posted October 6, 2016 Thanks you Both for the comments. Myself and Brother used the Umbrella Method to good effect on Large Pea fields for Pigeon. Be interesting to see the effect it has with Pink's main objective is Stop the Damage. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
anser2 Posted October 6, 2016 Report Share Posted October 6, 2016 I would jump on your pinks Boyd before they get really hooked on the unharvested beet. Some Years ago this happened of a 100 acre field of beet over the christmas period when there was nobody around to scare the geese off. 20,000 pinks destroyed the field in a couple of weeks leaving not a blade of green anywhere and every beet root was eaten down to 6 inches underground. The whole crop was lost. Its a rare event and something the geese do not usually do , but its something the geese should be discouraged from doing otherwise the farmers will no longer accept the pinks in any numbers on their farms. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
6.5x55SE Posted October 6, 2016 Author Report Share Posted October 6, 2016 Robert YES I've had the problem in the past but has always occurred during a prolonged period of Snow/Hard weather when just the tops was exposed and as you stated they Ate the Beet right into the Ground. But I've never known them to do this so early in the season or in Mild weather. As you well know unless the Geese get on the Cereal Crops i just Flight the Geese but unfortunately on this occasion I've got to get them off the Crop ASAP and pray it's a One off situation and NOT the beginning of a new trend. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
marsh man Posted October 7, 2016 Report Share Posted October 7, 2016 At the moment they have only just started on the beet campaign , but they have at least made a start and lorries are now running into the factory. Our biggest problem is the beet fields on the marsh , once it is lifted the ground is diced over and next years wheat is drilled straight away then the geese find it in a matter of days and that's where the problem start , Last year we had a area of beet land that had been drilled down on the marsh where a local club have got the shooting rights , the geese found it within days and numbers soon built up into a few 1000 , it got to the state where the bag restriction number was lifted , the other local club could share the same land while the geese were doing the damage and I was given some cartridges by the farm manager to go down there a put a few shots over them more or less every day , the farms around the boundries were then faced with the same problem with them resorting to firing rockets over them , gas guns , scare crows and even sending there gun dogs over to put them off , So you can see while we welcome them each year , for some of the land owners they are a total nightmare . Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
scolopax Posted October 7, 2016 Report Share Posted October 7, 2016 (edited) Shoot a few and a gas gun should sort the problem surely? Or are geese wise to that technique ? Edited October 7, 2016 by scolopax Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
anser2 Posted October 7, 2016 Report Share Posted October 7, 2016 The best answer Richard is to educate the farmers to leave the fields for a few weeks before drilling, the geese get a feed of wasted beet, the fowlers get a bit of sport and the farmer does not lose any seed from next summers wheat crop. Pie in the sky I guess. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
6.5x55SE Posted October 7, 2016 Author Report Share Posted October 7, 2016 Shoot a few and a gas gun should sort the problem surely? Or are geese wise to that technique ? I wish it was that Easy Richard unfortunately the Gas Guns are a waste of Gas and personal energy. I've learnt over the many years I've dealt with problem the thing the door understand and dislike is when 1-2 or 3 of their Skien falls to earth following a Bang. Having said that This morning ( happened a lot over the year's ) several Pink's was probably 80-100 yards away i shot 2 Pink's from a small party which fell on the Stubble my 2 Black Lab's retrieved them all the Pink's done was fall silent with heads held high minutes later they was back feeding. Having shot 7 this morning and packed up as the Pink's returned in small party's i just walked into the Beet and sent my Lab's effective after a couple of days fingers crossed they'll be content feeding on the Stubbles Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
marsh man Posted October 7, 2016 Report Share Posted October 7, 2016 The best answer Richard is to educate the farmers to leave the fields for a few weeks before drilling, the geese get a feed of wasted beet, the fowlers get a bit of sport and the farmer does not lose any seed from next summers wheat crop. Pie in the sky I guess. In theory you are right Robert , this last month have been very dry and the farm have had to irrigate the land before the rape seed went in and have just rolled the new wheat fields , whereas if the land was wet like it was a few years back when the tractors were pulling each other and some of the beet was left all winter in water then they would never be able to get a drill on there due to the wet conditions. I wish it was that Easy Richard unfortunately the Gas Guns are a waste of Gas and personal energy. I've learnt over the many years I've dealt with problem the thing the door understand and dislike is when 1-2 or 3 of their Skien falls to earth following a Bang. Having said that This morning ( happened a lot over the year's ) several Pink's was probably 80-100 yards away i shot 2 Pink's from a small party which fell on the Stubble my 2 Black Lab's retrieved them all the Pink's done was fall silent with heads held high minutes later they was back feeding. Having shot 7 this morning and packed up as the Pink's returned in small party's i just walked into the Beet and sent my Lab's effective after a couple of days fingers crossed they'll be content feeding on the Stubbles One of our main problems is most of the surrounding fields are to there liking and to be honest shooting a few don't seem to make that much difference in fact the only thing that eventually moved them off was when other landowners started to lift there beet then the problem was theres and not the farmers where I was asked to keep them off. One bird worse than geese to keep off a crop ( Rape ) is Swans , with the protected order on them you are limited to what you can do and they seem to know it as well . I have walked them off one field , then the next and so on , then time I have got back to my motor and get the flask out the first ones are coming back off the river to go straight back to where you have just put them up from . also when everything get drab and dark a few Swans stand out like a sore thumb on a rape field making it easy for Swans lifting off there roosting grounds to see them miles off and before you know it the field is full of them and this will continue till the following Spring . Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
6.5x55SE Posted October 7, 2016 Author Report Share Posted October 7, 2016 John nip into your Agricultural Store and Buy some Bird Scarring Rockets they'll shift both Mute and Bewick Swans but unless you want to lose your geese DON'T use them on Geese I'm sure Motty and Muncher will confirm the effects Rockets have on Geese Scares the Absolute POO out of them Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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