Beans

[Minky]

The Mrs and I went for a walk earlier and several fields have been sown with the small tic  beans for animal feed.  There were quite a lot of beans on the surface and they had just started to shoot the root.  The fields were grey and there were lots up in the surrounding trees.  I would love to shoot there but there are  a group of blokes who shoot there.  I don't even know who farms it. 

I am out shooting tomorrow but I will try to find out. The problem nowadays is that everywhere is BIG outfits and not small farmers that you could go and have a chat with. 

Edited September 14 by Minky

[TIGHTCHOKE]

You can ONLY try.   

[clangerman]

nearest farm should know who owns as a new face would tackle it by just asking to keep them of for the day 

[marsh man]

If the blokes are part of a syndicate then it is unlikely you will get the go ahead with Partridge shooting already started and the long tails are only a couple or so weeks away.

Unlike years ago where the owner farmed his own land , nowadays a lot of land is contracted out which can make it hard if the contractors have the right for vermin control , not sure how you would stand if you had the right to shoot the farm but you would be shooting over someone else's crops  , this is where asking the contractor come into play , he might be only to happy for someone to keep an eye on his crops , by asking you have got nothing to lose and everything to gain . MM 

[B686]

I had a little drive round today found some rape that had been direct drilled into stubble there was actually a fair few pigeons on the fields probably not feeding on the rape yet . Long story short I found out who farmed it spoke to the farm manager who’s words were “ I would love to say yes to someone who wants to shoot on it over winter but it’s all paid for as a syndicate and the only time anyone will shoot this crop is when it’s ******* stubble.”  
It’s not a game shoot just people pay the owner good money but only show up when the shooting is easy . I guess money talks . He did take my number as he did say they have other land that isn’t paid for but no rape this year.

[TIGHTCHOKE]

19 minutes ago, B686 said:

I had a little drive round today found some rape that had been direct drilled into stubble there was actually a fair few pigeons on the fields probably not feeding on the rape yet . Long story short I found out who farmed it spoke to the farm manager who’s words were “ I would love to say yes to someone who wants to shoot on it over winter but it’s all paid for as a syndicate and the only time anyone will shoot this crop is when it’s ******* stubble.”  
It’s not a game shoot just people pay the owner good money but only show up when the shooting is easy . I guess money talks . He did take my number as he did say they have other land that isn’t paid for but no rape this year.

Well, as you say money talks and we used to have an awful lot of land we couldn't shoot as foreigners were paying for it all year round and maybe coming over once or twice  a year to actually shoot it.

[B686]

50 minutes ago, TIGHTCHOKE said:

Well, as you say money talks and we used to have an awful lot of land we couldn't shoot as foreigners were paying for it all year round and maybe coming over once or twice  a year to actually shoot it.

Yes the same on this farm Greeks. Theres also a farm where my mum lives where i grew up only live about a mile away now field of rape the other year was getting hammered I asked the farmer but he said land is rented out to a wildfowling  club no one shot it  the field got hammered. As soon as it was cut people were shooting it. 

Edited September 14 by B686

[marsh man]

1 hour ago, B686 said:

I had a little drive round today found some rape that had been direct drilled into stubble there was actually a fair few pigeons on the fields probably not feeding on the rape yet . Long story short I found out who farmed it spoke to the farm manager who’s words were “ I would love to say yes to someone who wants to shoot on it over winter but it’s all paid for as a syndicate and the only time anyone will shoot this crop is when it’s ******* stubble.”  
It’s not a game shoot just people pay the owner good money but only show up when the shooting is easy . I guess money talks . He did take my number as he did say they have other land that isn’t paid for but no rape this year.

We haven't had your problems with Pigeons as most of our local farmers would sooner have people they can rely on rather than a few bob in there pockets and never see anybody when they are needed .

With wildfowl then we have got a slight problem , I say slight as most of the land the oversea buyers buy don't really affect us as the local fowling clubs have got a fair bit of decent land , the ones who have bought some excellent flight ponds come from Italy and they are reported to be very well off , I knew the chap who sold them a load of ponds that border each other so they could be shot in any wind direction made him a offer which he would had been daft to turn down , They also tried to buy some marshes very close to the ones I shot on before the owner died , the locals heard they were going to flood the marshes and arrive in a helicopter to shoot them early in the mornings , this was soon turned down at the council meetings and thank god nothing came of it .     MM

[Minky]

Well what happened.??  The next day the Mrs and I went for a walk over the same fields as we had done.  The weather was about the same, it was about the same time of day and again there was no one out on the fields to disturb them and there wasn't a single bird on the fields.  There were still quite a lot of beans laying on the surface, so why the complete lack of birds.??  none up in the trees,  None flying over the fields.  Now I've only ever tried to shoot over beans once before.  This is because the farms didn't plant any to shoot over.  AND that was very similar.  The field was on a pair of good lines and I had decoyed pigeon on basically dirt.  In that instance wheat had been there but the whole lot had been disced.  I think that I had shot near eighty that day.  Now I thought that I might have a good day over the beans but the whole area was devoid of a single bird.  I set up and there wasn't anything.  I even got to that point where an insect was out front and I raised the gun thinking that it was a bird way out on the horizon.  Really odd.  Now in this instance the birds knew the beans were there and they soon came back to feed on the field as we walked on and down the road parallel with the field.  could it be that the beans had gone bitter or something.

[kitchrat]

21 hours ago, Minky said:

Well what happened.??  The next day the Mrs and I went for a walk over the same fields as we had done.  The weather was about the same, it was about the same time of day and again there was no one out on the fields to disturb them and there wasn't a single bird on the fields.  There were still quite a lot of beans laying on the surface, so why the complete lack of birds.??  none up in the trees,  None flying over the fields.  Now I've only ever tried to shoot over beans once before.  This is because the farms didn't plant any to shoot over.  AND that was very similar.  The field was on a pair of good lines and I had decoyed pigeon on basically dirt.  In that instance wheat had been there but the whole lot had been disced.  I think that I had shot near eighty that day.  Now I thought that I might have a good day over the beans but the whole area was devoid of a single bird.  I set up and there wasn't anything.  I even got to that point where an insect was out front and I raised the gun thinking that it was a bird way out on the horizon.  Really odd.  Now in this instance the birds knew the beans were there and they soon came back to feed on the field as we walked on and down the road parallel with the field.  could it be that the beans had gone bitter or something.

Time of day problem? Around here, nothing has been happening in the morning, except a bit of courting etc. Feeding is a afternoon thing. (well it was, I expect it will soon change)

[Minky]

21 hours ago, kitchrat said:

Time of day problem? Around here, nothing has been happening in the morning, except a bit of courting etc. Feeding is a afternoon thing. (well it was, I expect it will soon change)

Possible, but both days were about the same time...2pm (ish). In the days that have followed, I have driven past the field I have pulled up in the gateway and glass3d the  there hasn't been a single  bird on the field or flying over

[marsh man]

42 minutes ago, Minky said:

Possible, but both days were about the same time...2pm (ish). In the days that have followed, I have driven past the field I have pulled up in the gateway and glass3d the  there hasn't been a single  bird on the field or flying over

Are the loose Beans hard , soft or breaking into leaf , we found they were not interested when they were first combined as they seemed very hard , after a few days they soften up and then the Pigeons started to hit the Beans , then once they stated to get a leaf on the Pigeons were no longer interested , you might also have a variety of Beans that pigeons are not keen on and have you got any got any Pigeons near at hand , Pigeons around here have now started on the Maize crops that are smashed up for Winter livestock feed just another reason you might find them thin on the ground .  MM

[Minky]

The beans are like a small  broad bean. They are grown for animal feed.  I think that they are known as tick beans. ( I don't know because I didn't work in farming and the farm where I shot only ever grew them once.  We just called them beans,...) some of the beans in the local fields were just starting to push up two leaves and the ones on the surface had just split or some were just showing the tap root.  I did pick up a couple to show the neighbour as she was asking about them.   I'll take a picture of them and post it later.

Edit.  She chucked the beans in the bin.  Beastly woman.

Still it's not really about what sort of beans, it's more about why they didn't  turn up next day or not at all.  I'd not be happy to have set up the next say for nothing.  I've done that before.

Edited September 21 by Minky

[kitchrat]

17 hours ago, Minky said:

The beans are like a small  broad bean. They are grown for animal feed.  I think that they are known as tick beans. ( I don't know because I didn't work in farming and the farm where I shot only ever grew them once.  We just called them beans,...) some of the beans in the local fields were just starting to push up two leaves and the ones on the surface had just split or some were just showing the tap root.  I did pick up a couple to show the neighbour as she was asking about them.   I'll take a picture of them and post it later.

Edit.  She chucked the beans in the bin.  Beastly woman.

Still it's not really about what sort of beans, it's more about why they didn't  turn up next day or not at all.  I'd not be happy to have set up the next say for nothing.  I've done that before.

Ok then, are you sure no one else shot them after you left? Like a farm hand after work? OR, they found a better offer up the road. I agree with MM, they do seem to be fickle with beans and don't seem to hit them as soon as they are harvested. However, they do hit them when drilled, when they are still hard, however there may be less other food sources available then. I had a wonderful array of bean fields to play with this year, at 1st there was little interest, then we had some wind and rain which exposed the lost beans very well and interest grew. Then, the next door wheat fields got cut and they moved there (I got quite a few off it), now they have gone to being widely scattered over both crops with nothing to concentrate them and are hard to decoy. However, just across the road is OSR, with companion-sown buckwheat. Last year I had a good day in early November when they were going mad for the buckwheat. The farmer thought they were after his OSR, so I was doing a great job!!

[kitchrat]

On 21/09/2024 at 17:57, marsh man said:

Are the loose Beans hard , soft or breaking into leaf , we found they were not interested when they were first combined as they seemed very hard , after a few days they soften up and then the Pigeons started to hit the Beans , then once they stated to get a leaf on the Pigeons were no longer interested , you might also have a variety of Beans that pigeons are not keen on and have you got any got any Pigeons near at hand , Pigeons around here have now started on the Maize crops that are smashed up for Winter livestock feed just another reason you might find them thin on the ground .  MM

AS you say MM, on the bean stubble round here, they didn't show much interest when freshly cut and it didn't build up much when wind and rain exposed/softened them up. Then it got cultivated, twice, and there were a number still on it but widely scattered. Funnily enough, now the beans are sprouting, numbers are building to the point that I may have to shoot it! Just goes to show that there are no hard and fast rules about pigeon shooting, except that there are no hard and fast rules.

PS NO interest at all on cropped maize!

Edited September 25 by kitchrat

[Old Boggy]

1 hour ago, kitchrat said:

AS you say MM, on the bean stubble round here, they didn't show much interest when freshly cut and it didn't build up much when wind and rain exposed/softened them up. Then it got cultivated, twice, and there were a number still on it but widely scattered. Funnily enough, now the beans are sprouting, numbers are building to the point that I may have to shoot it! Just goes to show that there are no hard and fast rules about pigeon shooting, except that there are no hard and fast rules.

PS NO interest at all on cropped maize!

Different to your area, there is so much maize grown around here, the pigeons are on it but spread over so many fields that decent bags are hard to come by.

My last trips out barely got into double figures but nonetheless were still most enjoyable.

Just had a look round this afternoon and there were 20 or so feeding on each field of maize stubble and the same on those fields already disced, so nothing to get too excited about as we know that they have too many options for a feed to keep them concentrated on one particular field.

By the time my next trip comes round all will be disced and pigeons will still be down feeding as the cobs are mashed up more by the discer and more readily available, but again spread over too many fields.

I did note however that they are returning to one of my favourite woods late afternoon, so that might be my next venue. 

OB

[marsh man]

1 hour ago, kitchrat said:

AS you say MM, on the bean stubble round here, they didn't show much interest when freshly cut and it didn't build up much when wind and rain exposed/softened them up. Then it got cultivated, twice, and there were a number still on it but widely scattered. Funnily enough, now the beans are sprouting, numbers are building to the point that I may have to shoot it! Just goes to show that there are no hard and fast rules about pigeon shooting, except that there are no hard and fast rules.

PS NO interest at all on cropped maize!

No you are dead right , some areas will shoot well on Peas and another county they can show little interest , this would be the same with most crops , with your Beans now being cultivated twice the Pigeons might be finding the loose Beans that were not exposed to the weather , time our farm get round to chopping the Maize up there is very little else for the Pigeons to feed on and the Maize stubble can provide some shooting , again it need to be well clear of any game strips if not you would be entering a no go area , funny ole game is this Pigeon shooting lark