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English Partridge


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Hello all, I have y'day ordered 40 grey partridge eggs to go in the incubator (can't be deeling with those foreigners :P ).

 

I am going to put them in a pen up my mates farm, his son is going to look after them before we release them on the farm. Should be a nice bit of fun for us to rear them on and then release, and as a bonus we might get the odd shot over my dog. 

 

Has anyone got any tips on incubating and looking after them once hatched? My mate and his son have done chickens before many times and recently quail that I bought us. 

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22 hours ago, Lloyd90 said:

Hello all, I have y'day ordered 40 grey partridge eggs to go in the incubator (can't be deeling with those foreigners ).

 

I am going to put them in a pen up my mates farm, his son is going to look after them before we release them on the farm. Should be a nice bit of fun for us to rear them on and then release, and as a bonus we might get the odd shot over my dog. 

 

Has anyone got any tips on incubating and looking after them once hatched? My mate and his son have done chickens before many times and recently quail that I bought us. 

I hatched ebay Grey eggs with a decent amount of success. Kept them in a brooder under a heat lamp and dug them a square of turf up most days which they instinctively dusted in and they also went mad for ants and ant eggs. 

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3 hours ago, kennett said:

I hatched ebay Grey eggs with a decent amount of success. Kept them in a brooder under a heat lamp and dug them a square of turf up most days which they instinctively dusted in and they also went mad for ants and ant eggs. 

Cheers, my mates got a bunch of chicken chicks under a brooder at the moment, he said its cheaper to run than a heat lamp, but they go under it and it's nice and warm. It's like a little plastic square on stilts. 

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  • 4 weeks later...

Brilliant and more grease to your elbow.  I reared a lot of partridge under a home made brooder and they loved to get under it. Don't know if you can buy the heater wire now, but was simple to instal.   As said, Greys have a mind of their own and will either stay or clear off never to be seen again, plus I am told that released Greys do not seem to become 'wild' and rear chicks the next year.... that i can't confirm, just hearsay.

Keep the humidity up towards the breakout as well. Friend lost a lot recently because the shells had dried out and the chick couldn't get out.

Edited by Walker570
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Aye official Gwct advise on Grey's is the worst thing u can do if u have wild Grey's already is to release reared 1s.

Just don't survive and breed very well and sometimes the wild 1s which were doing ok pair up with them. So breeding rates decrease more.

 

I think Gwct were doing studies on both pheasant and partridge as to why reared birds are so poor at raising young.

1 theory is because always had food on tap in hoppers etc all there life they have no idea how to find high % protein food like bugs and beasties etc. 

Think they found tracked wild birds only need to feed for 30% of day while reared birds are feeding for 80% of day ( or something similar) so possibly of nests for too long or not in good enough condition before they sit.

 

If u can find a broody to put them in with would give u birds far more likely to breed. When u see checks raised under Brodie's there chasing and digging up worms from a very young age after watching the mother.

They experimented with feeding mealworms on like a tight drum type surface, so when they peck the surface it vibrates as if worms moving, gets birds used to eating moving bugs

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There’s no wild ones in my mates area so be nice to have some about. 
 

How long do they need to stay inside before they can go out into a release pen? My mate has a big trough that he’s just reared a load of chickens in and they’re going out this weekend so can move them from their small enclosure into a slightly bigger one soon. 
 

We are up to 20 so far. 
 

I have haygates super starter crumbs for game birds for them (27% protein) and then haygates grower/ maintenance pellets game feeds - when do I move them off the crumbs to the grower / maintenance food? 
 

thanks lads :) 

 

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Birds reared under bantams are always going to have the advantage over other captive reared birds. The hens know which eggs are good and which are bad, they chirp to the chicks when they start pipping, they know how to find wild food, they try and protect them from predators and they generally teach them how about bird life which can only filter down when it comes time for them to breed themselves. Whereas human reared birds only know that food comes from big blue barrels and that's about it. If I ever had a broody hen at the right time of year she'd definitely be the first choice. 

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On 18/06/2020 at 09:19, Benthejockey said:

Birds reared under bantams are always going to have the advantage over other captive reared birds. The hens know which eggs are good and which are bad, they chirp to the chicks when they start pipping, they know how to find wild food, they try and protect them from predators and they generally teach them how about bird life which can only filter down when it comes time for them to breed themselves. Whereas human reared birds only know that food comes from big blue barrels and that's about it. If I ever had a broody hen at the right time of year she'd definitely be the first choice. 

Plan for the future but at present we make do...

 

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  • 3 weeks later...

Good luck with it Lloyd, good on you.

We have a pair on our farm but not seen chick's for last two years. I've been hitting fox & corvids hard for last few months trying to help. Will start feeding around September. 

If no chick's next year I'm going to try foster some bantam reared chick's onto the wild birds on autumn 2021 to form a covey. 

Beautiful birds & I think we should all be doing a bit to help them out. Another reason I choose to be a member of GWCT.

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On 20/06/2020 at 17:26, Remimax said:

if you see em again after letting em go it will be a miracle

I performed a  'miracle'  every year for around 10 years then  !  I put down 200 greys every year and managed to hold them. I did foolishly accept 100 Redlegs one year and never saw them again though.  

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The Euston method is far more successful in i creasing grey numbers but you already need to have them on the ground. 

The chicks need sawfly larvae in the wild in the first two weeks, the oxalic acid prevents in infection in their throat. 

It's unlikely that your partridges will hang about. You can increase the likelihood by making sure your habitat is grade A top notch. Good hedgerows, wildflower margins, beetle banks, predator control etc. 

 

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