Partidge gamekeeping

[Ultraxs]

Hi everybody, I hope your all well.

 

I am thinking about running a small shoot next year and want to know a little more about partidges as I think it may suit my ground a little better than pheasant as I dont have any woodland.

I am wondering what to do in terms of positioning of pens.

where to fly them too.

how do they know to fly there.

 

This ground is shown below this is potentially only for 1 drive. 

My boundaries for this ground is in red and I have cover crop in green pen. 

The complete field with cover crop is in a slight valley 

 

 

Any help would much be appreciated.

[Stephen-H]

You could try drive them from the main green pen mark which I imagine your pen & cover crop is to the other cover crop across that field. Having feeders in each cover crop to try hold them & feeders along the boundaries. Although if the ground is flat you might struggle to get any height on them perhaps walked up shooting might suit the layout better then trying to drive them over guns

Just a guess I've no real experience of game keeping etc sure someone on here will be able to advise you on it. 

[CharlieT]

It's going to be hard going on such a small parcel of land. 

All you could do is, as the previous poster said, is to site your pen in the central cover plot and fly them to the other, with the guns standing towards the middle of the field. That would make most use of the trees to give the birds some height and cover to aim for. Only feed the birds in the plots. 

I would be tempted to put a pen and feeders in each plot so that they could be flown both ways, giving a drive in the morning and another in the afternoon. 

[Konnie]

If you keep a few call birds in a release pen, if needed you can drive French partridge over your boundary, I've seen them return within half hour of the drive being shot if they are happy there. 

[williamwansbeck]

The big red fence should stop them flying off.

[Lloyd90]

How many acres is it? 
 

Put down a mix of partridge and pheasant and have a walk around rough shoot! 

[WalkedUp]

I would probably put down a maximum 25 partridge and 25 pheasant on such a small parcel and then hope that there are neighbouring shoots for the birds to wander in and out of. You would probably get 2 or 3 mornings out of it walked up for 2 men. If the shoot is on your doorstep then go for it, if you have to drive a fair way then it’s not going to be worth the effort with pens and feeding. 

[cardigun]

Partridge Keeping is a big subject, and no quick reply to your question.  One of the main problems on your land is lack of cover.  Partridge roost on the ground, and are very susceptible to Fox predation.  One way to mitigate some of this is to put your birds out in small lots, say 20/30 in fully fenced pens, with roofs on. Put the pens next to good cover, like Kale/OSR/Maize, with a double electric fence round it about a metre or so,  away.  Release your birds in small lots, say 5, and put a feeder outside the pen and a straw bale to sit up on.  The birds in the pen should re-call the birds on the outside, who will roost along side the pen, hopefully fox safe. Release further lots each week till most are outside, but leave a few in the pen to act as callers.  They have the cover crop to run into when disturbed, and should adopt the area as their home territory.

Give this a try with one lot, and see how it goes.  You must visit the pen daily to keep the electric fence working, and top up the feeders.  If you get any attacks, try to deal with the culprit.  Good luck.