Soaking feed overnight?

[sodylt1]

A keeper local to me swears by soaking split maize & corn overnight before adding spice and casting out in to rides, with the idea that this pulls & holds birds.

Has anyone head of this or doing the same??

 

Cheers.  

[scotslad]

The best way is to try/experiment for ur self.

 

Almost every keeper will have his own tricks he swears by, they might work for him or atleast he thinks they work for him so that's all that really matters.

Generally, Split maize on its own does work, hand feeding straw rides does work, althou almost every shoot is different so sometimes wot works for 1 might not work as well elsewhere

Is he just soaking it in water??

In my area the ground is so wet it wouldn't make any difference but I could mibee see some logic if ur in a very dry area as it might save him putting drinkers out all over and keeping them going all year. Birds would get plenty moisture from the food alone

 

Personally I don't think spice makes any real difference, I still put it in some hoppers but only 50% in the main woods/drives and they don't go down any quicker than the straight wheat hoppers.

But I have heard all sorts of wonder stories and returns purely down to adding 'spice', most FT  keepers I know don't use it, GWCT can't find any difference in returns (althou not down a massive ammount of studies either)

[kennett]

I mix my wheat and split maize up with aniseed oil a couple of days before I use it, to give it time to stew. I then use it to spread through key points in my drives. No idea if it makes any difference but it makes me feel happier and the birds always seem to have some in when I check their crops on a shoot day

[sodylt1]

Thanks for the replies, much appreciated.

I have been using 'bird puller' and aniseed for the last couple of seasons but also not convinced of benefits but makes me feel better. Soaking split maize & wheat with the spice in the mix was a new one on me. I couldn't see how broadcasting the resulting 'stew' loosely in to specific areas would give any benefit?? 

 

Cheers!

[kennett]

My thinking is it keeps them busy scratching about for the yummy bits, rather then walking up to a feeder, getting a crop full and wandering off

[scotslad]

2 hours ago, kennett said:

My thinking is it keeps them busy scratching about for the yummy bits, rather then walking up to a feeder, getting a crop full and wandering off

I think most keepers would agree with that above, a good straw ride will do more good than anything and the birds will spend time scratching about looking for food.

Or equally feed in a decent bramble patch or some other decent cover the birds can scratch about in and feel safe from predators/weather

Even watching chickens in a run spend all day scratching about despite having a hopper of food on tap.

I think many of these potions and lotions are like fishing flies/tackle and designed to attract the keeper more than birds

 

Try throwing a bucket or 2 and some straw in 1 of ur drives and see if it does draw any extra birds in or not,  but wit pheasants u never really know if its the year/weather/natural feed/pheasant strain/ or wot u've done if u have a good or bad shoot/season

[BelgianHunter]

I've heard of chickenfarmers used to soak their wheat, and let it sit until it started to germinate. At this moment they gave it to the birds. I was told because of the germination, it now contained a certain vitamin, vitamin E. This vitamin would improve fertility in the chicken eggs.