Beans

[Krico woodcock]

Well lads. How successful do you find beans to shoot pigeons over.  I never seem to have much success on them. Field of beans harvested yesterday,  I'm on field since 11 this morning and as I write this not a single pigeon looking to get in, or flying over. Even though there has been pigeons on sitty trees on field all week,  and myself and another lad shot 50 on it a couple of weeks ago,  now that they are harvested NOTHING 😤.. very hard to make sense of it. Ground covered in beans. 

[TIGHTCHOKE]

The WPs will be eating anything easier on their palate.

[Old Boggy]

I have found exactly the same. Before the beans are harvested when popping out of the pods, the pigeons seem to go for them. Once harvested , as Krico says, with beans all over the field, they show no interest. I have shot a field of standing beans and got 50+ on quite a few occasions, but once harvested on the same field virtually nothing. Most strange, but as Tightchoke said, perhaps more interesting food becomes available elsewhere once the beans are harvested, who knows? One of the vagaries of pigeon shooting.

OB

Edited October 14, 2023 by Old Boggy

[old'un]

In the past I have had some very good days on combined bean, this year there were more winter beans than I have seen for a long time but very little action on any of them, there's been more on the acorns than the beans, as been said, this time of year there's plenty of other food available to them.

[Wilts#Dave]

Oddly I shot three great bags on beans this summer, beginning of September when we had the hot spell I shot 93 (would have been another 50 if I’d started a bit earlier and stayed a bit later). 
The following week on another farm a good field I’d been watching when the beans were standing was combined and I shot 150 on the first visit and 140 the following week, they really wanted it…..being cultivated was the only thing that stopped me getting another bag! 
Very much depends on area / field though as other fields were untouched. 
Funny how differently pigeons behave, what keeps you on your toes I guess! 

[marsh man]

Our Beans like many others on the forum were no interest to what few Pigeons about this year , Why ? , same with most crops some will produce and others will be of no interest , as already said it is mainly what is in the area at the time and what the Pigeons have been used to , if you have got Pigeons about and your Bean field(s) is the only one on mainly arable land then there is a good chance you will get some shooting , whereas if you are surrounded by grain crops and say a few Pea fields then you might get a few on the odd field that is left alone but the timing window is fairly short , we have shot them once the pods turn Black and Beans start dropping out , then once cut until the first leaf germinate , mind you by then the land would normally be pulled up with another crop either in , or about to go in.      MM 

[Wilts#Dave]

6 hours ago, marsh man said:

Our Beans like many others on the forum were no interest to what few Pigeons about this year , Why ? , same with most crops some will produce and others will be of no interest , as already said it is mainly what is in the area at the time and what the Pigeons have been used to , if you have got Pigeons about and your Bean field(s) is the only one on mainly arable land then there is a good chance you will get some shooting , whereas if you are surrounded by grain crops and say a few Pea fields then you might get a few on the odd field that is left alone but the timing window is fairly short , we have shot them once the pods turn Black and Beans start dropping out , then once cut until the first leaf germinate , mind you by then the land would normally be pulled up with another crop either in , or about to go in.      MM 

Beans often produce good bags here due to them being one of the last crops cut and the other stubbles being long gone by the time they do (the later cut the better generally). Obviously as you say this needs to be in an area that holds numbers of pigeons! 

[Krico woodcock]

*Update*.. drove by field yesterday at 4 o clock,  on motor way so can see only for a couple of seconds,  but plenty pigeons on trees at field.  Might get a day on it Saturday,  going to have a proper look Friday..

[cardigun]

Hi Krico/W,

That's well spotted. I have often found that pigeons feeding on "hard" food often feed late.  Presumably the "hard" food stays in their crops and gut for longer.

[The Sipe-ist]

Wait until they have got wet and softened. It will be a completely different story then.

 

[Manymissedpigeon]

Hi all,

Up north we seem to have better days on bean stubbles than most. I have three farms who drill beans over a three week period and consequently combine over a similar spread. One farm pulls pigeons when drilled but nowt much when combined with the other two pulling birds after cutting until disced and re drilled. The main fields I shoot yielded a plus hundred day for me on a Tuesday and a sixty on the Friday. The following week again I picked thirty and, after a discussion with the wife over how much my carts were costing, did quite a few on the Friday again. This last field has only just been disced in on Monday this week ( drilled a bit damp I reckon)  with visible ‘treated wheat’ seed on the surface and not a pigeon in sight although a few rooks floating about.

We have a few farms that fatten beef and, once these are on intensive indoor feeding for the winter, we have hundreds of crows in and out of the feeding troughs and storage farms eating and fouling the cattle feed and the farmers don’t seem to be bothered if we simply sit in the motor amongst the buildings with a few deeks out on the feed bales and knock the birds down. Much better than my little gas heater in my hide! 
I found one farm yesterday hauling in ‘whole cut maize’ and that is the first of the maize to be cut round here so due to the impending heavy rain due this week, I’m hoping for a few good days on the maize stubbles as they usually pull both pigeons and crows.

My only disappointment this year was the peas with only one farmer putting in around twenty five acres, no pigeons when they chitted through, no pigeons at any time in their growingmonths and a totally empty sky over the field after they were harvested. I’ve never had peas that didn’t pull pigeons right through their growing cycle!

 

[marsh man]

Interesting post on how things vary from one county to the next , at long last we are now seeing Pigeons in fairly good numbers , where at the end of the Summer when you would expect a showing of young Pigeons we had next to nothing and I had a few afternoon bags from 10 to 20 without having at least one in the bag , where now they out number the old ones , at the moment the Pigeons are going on the land that are drilled and they could be eating what was in the field rather than what is going in , they are moving more or less daily and are not doing that much harm ,so with our next shoot only just over two weeks away for the time being they are left in peace . they are also getting on the thin patch's of Rape which is very early .

[Krico woodcock]

So on Saturday I gave the bean field one last chance.  With the added bonus my 7 year old daughter came with me to keep me company,  its first time she came pigeon shooting. We didn't get there to field till around 1 o clock as I knew no point in being early,  we set up hide,  put decoys out, then I fried sausages and white pudding,  with bread rolls, and just relaxed and enjoyed the grub  plus chocolate brownies,  waiting for pigeons to move,  and about 2.15 few birds stared to appear. Time to move jeep and get into hide.  Couple of birds came by and deyoyed,  they were in the bag, my daughter got good view of pigeons being shot,  then it went quiet again,  a odd bird was crossing the field but no intrest in field or decoys.  I shot a few more  pigeons, long crossing shots. At around 4.30 a good few pigeons were moving about,  but were very skittish,  and erratic.  No interest in our decoys or bean field,  I shot one more decoyin bird at 4.45. Called it quits at 5.10. 10 birds shot.  So conclusion,  pigeons have no intrest in beans where I am.  But myself and my daughter had a great day out,  she was a great little helper helping me set up hide, put decoys out and the same when finished,  taking down hide,  lifting decoys, and plucking their breast feathers off,  to be breasted. And to be honest I was a very contented man that evening even though I couldn't get to grips with them pesky pigeons.