Do pigeons really like rape .

[Harnser]

Over the many years that i have been pigeon shooting i have found that shooting over rape has all ways been hit or miss .Fabulous days or a waist of time . Ihave allways wondererd if pigeons really like rape .They seem very easily put off and willing to feed on any thing else .This time of the year with the spring drillings underway the birds will soon leave the rape and go for barly and wheat seed .Now spring drillings can be really good shooting .Rape scores the pigeons stomachs and makes them **** more ,look under any sitty tree around a rape field and you will see the resulting white mess on the ground .

My theroy is ,pigeons will feed on rape whilst there is very little other more fancifulfood about .After they have gleaned the stubble fields and taken all the acorns ,beech nuts and berrys . I think they take the rape because its there and there is nothing else about .Its a survival crop that they can get hold of when times get lean . But are quick to leave when a better food becomes available .On one of my farms they have left the rape and are following the seed drill round . What do you think . Harnser .

 

Now shooting rape stubble is a different matter .

[mossy835]

25 years ago when i worked on a big estate we used two shoot pigeons all day on rape,but over the years they seem two gone off it a bit must be warmer, where winters are not what they were,on my fields of rape they seem two take it and leave it

Edited February 29, 2008 by mossy835

[Zapp]

Over the last few years I have seen more and more birds feeding in meadows in late winter, when before they would have been hard on the rape. I wonder if with the warmer and earlier springs mean that shoots are coming through sooner and there is simply alternative food around earlier in the year.

 

Zapp

[Catamong]

Over the many years that i have been pigeon shooting i have found that shooting over rape has all ways been hit or miss .Fabulous days or a waist of time . Ihave allways wondererd if pigeons really like rape .They seem very easily put off and willing to feed on any thing else .This time of the year with the spring drillings underway the birds will soon leave the rape and go for barly and wheat seed .Now spring drillings can be really good shooting .Rape scores the pigeons stomachs and makes them **** more ,look under any sitty tree around a rape field and you will see the resulting white mess on the ground .

My theroy is ,pigeons will feed on rape whilst there is very little other more fancifulfood about .After they have gleaned the stubble fields and taken all the acorns ,beech nuts and berrys . I think they take the rape because its there and there is nothing else about .Its a survival crop that they can get hold of when times get lean . But are quick to leave when a better food becomes available .On one of my farms they have left the rape and are following the seed drill round . What do you think . Harnser .

 

Now shooting rape stubble is a different matter .

 

Harnser,

 

You're dead right, I believe they don't actually like eating rape, but they have to because there's nothing else available.

 

They much prefer such indigestables as acorns & ivy berries, I don't think rape offers them much in the way of nutrition..??

 

Cat.

[the hitman]

Basically OSR keeps them going in the winter months , when seeds and berries are scarce. As soon as the spring drilling starts , they leave the rape alone, but return to it when the drilling is over, perhaps its more palateable in spring.

[loopy bunny blaster]

depends if they are pigeons from essex ! bum bum tish

 

 

 

 

 

ive seen a few on there in the past, not large numbers though, maybe 20

[Mungler]

They are picky and like it when it's not bitter (early or late crop).

[henry d]

A month ago, with the game season in full swing, the pigeon were visiting the feeders and were as fat as butter. However a lot of estates here have pulled the feeders into the catchers and the pigeon have either the last of the stubbles, where they have to compete with the guzzling geese and even these are now on grass 99% of the time now, or they eat the emerging shoots from weeds and the larger rape leaves and from the birds I`ve shot this week they are a lot lighter and less meat on them. Game dealer is paying 10p more for them though

 

I think the ideal diet for them is mixed grain and shoots as they both are higher in protein, rape etc. is just greenery and low in nutrition for the winter cold etc.

[CARBINE]

We don`t have rape over here but last week I noticed the pigeons were feeding on a stubble field that had just been spread

with cow muck last week I also noticed last summer the farmer had spreaded Half of a stubble field and the pigeons were feeding only

on that half :)

[henry d]

Cow muck sprouts weed seeds quick in the spring due to heat and a plentiful supply of nutrients, thats what they want the good protein rich sprouts nowt else

[anser2]

The pigeons in my part of Norfolk have been feeding hard on rape since late October. Even the spring drillings have not drawn them away in any numbers. In the past 2 weeks since drilling has started we have had no strong feeds on the drillings and all the birds I have shot have been on rape. Maybe the dry weather over the past month has provided an ideal seed bed and the drilling has left little corn on the surface.