Partridges

Malxwal

Well-Known Member
We've a hundred partridges coming soon, just a wee bit of variety to our shoot.
I'd appreciate any tips for their welfare, best feeder types, feed, pen cover etc.
The ground the pen will be situated on has proven popular with the few native partridges previously, so I'm hoping, with a bit of advice, that we can get them to hang around !
 
Spiral feeders (set lower than for pheasants),water available at all times and I would be tempted to split the birds up into smaller numbers so that you don't end up with one big covey come shoot day.
I used to feed in between my feeders once a week too with a spinner.
 
In my previous job I released 8500 partridge and mine always preferred manola/top hat feeders to spring feeders; they are more reliable due to springs getting easily clogged up with small pieces of wheat straw which always seem to appear in 'blown wheat'.

The birds should be kept in pens containing the essentials food, water, shelter but I also put in whole small straw bales which the birds love to sit on and peck to find wheat you scatter on top. Try to give the partridges some dry dusting area under the shelter to keep their feathers in good condition. The top net of the pen needs to be very secure, they take off like mini missiles into the netting and can easily burst the net resulting in your birds being scattered over a big area.

A tip on siting the location of the hoppers and water in the pen.... Put it as close as possible to the entrance gate, this way you don't have to walk among the birds to feed/water them which would result in distressing them and in turn, start flying at stupid speeds into the top net and/or pen sides and hurting themselves.

Finally, just enjoy the experience! partridges are great little birds which are completely different in their needs to pheasants but I think this makes it all the more satisfying when they are screaming over the guns.....

Good luck!
 
Last edited:
Never penned mine Woollyback once they were delivered as poults except for 3 in a small pen(reduced the risk of them getting nicked in any numbers) near the release site.Didn't release in the numbers you did though but still a good few.
Had a straw bale at each pen like you used and dusting shelters.
I think once they are out and about the biggest thing to worry about is a lot of disturbance especially at times like dusk.
​Loved my time with partridges and I would gladly go back to that part of the job now
 
Mine were released onto high ground so they were fairly exposed to the elements. However, if the weather was good I would only keep them in the pen 1-3 days to minimize the risk of disease.

I forgot to mention in my previous post that if you are going to pen your birds, give them a day to settle then start letting small numbers of birds out 2-3 timed a day; the birds which remain in the pen act as call birds and the ones you trickle out should, in theory, stay close to their mates in the pen.

I am the same Perdix, I much preferred my partridges to the 12,500 pheasants I had as well. I found the partridges much hardier.... If there's a way to die, a pheasant poult will find it!

Malxwal, if you want anymore information, feel free to PM me. I might even have a few photos I could send you of my pen set ups and the habitat management we had to do to make best use of the ground.
 
Woollyback,pheasants like sheep seem to have it in their mind to die from the day they enter this world ! :lol:
 
Had good success with Frenchman mine go into 20'x10 ' pens manolas and water in and out of the pens .water auto fed from small tank for vits and meds ,shelter via bales with corrugated sheet .i used to put the pens in the maize but now put them on the grass margins beside the crop to keep the pen cleaner .add grit add lib on floor for scratting and have some house bricks handy as they love to mine out of the pen .electric wire x2 strands to keep the foxs and badgers out . I trickle out after the combines tractors and drills have gone and I have got on top of the vermin via the lamp as jugged up coveys are easy picks for the foxs at night .just another point put a bale near the pen for the released birds to get on and talk to thier mates still inside keeping them near the cover for your shooting .
good luck
​norma
 
Thanks for all this info folks, much appreciated, and I'll PM you Woolly, pics would be great. I'm used to pheasants and their requirements, but looking forward to the partridges.
I have manola feeders lined up as well as spring type, and I hope the same type of drinkers as the pheasants use will suffice.
Not sure I've seen small bales around these parts for along time, but I'll be able to get something to do the trick.
Now if I can only get some of the other lazy gits to get out with the lamp as well...
 
Last edited:
Have been reading more about the partridges, and it's occurred to me that we've been sticking mainly to pheasants on ground that just doesn't have the cover for them in any volume anymore. Farmers taken away much of the woodland and cover where our pens were, but there are plenty stubbles and drier ground with adjacent low cover.
From your experience, what types of crop/ground do they tend to dislike ?
 
If you've got bell drinkers, just hang a five gallon drum off of the release pen and run 5mm pipe from the bottom, up around the handle a couple of times then down to the drinkers. Syphon the water through and they work a treat.

I personally like 20x20 release pens with a partition and 100 birds each side. I then leave them all in about five days then block release one whole side. I then let the remaining birds have the whole pen for another five days before block releasing the rest. Alternatively for greater numbers but without further pens, you can leave the partition intact and alternate every couple of days- one lot in, one lot out.

I like big plump 12 week old poults- you should struggle to get your hand around them.

Biggest key to holding them is un disturbed roosting. They're quite happy out in the middle of a tightly rolled field of winter wheat on what looks like a Tarmac car park but only if disturbance is minimal.

if you've got stubble, get a cultivator or sub-soiler up the tramlines to give them some broken ground to hide in.

if you've got maize, pay careful attention to weed control and try and get it bare as can be under the canopy as its the umbrella effect they like.

Some people like to keep them on pellets for almost the whole season but I think they grow stale of them once they start foraging for themselves and I like to get some 'tailings' 'cracked' or 'cut wheat' (depending on what your farmer calls it) as they go mad for it.

I dislike tin shelters despite the obvious advantages for dusting as it concentrates birds into a tight area creating a disease risk and also a pinch-point for sparrow hawk attacks.
If they're not strong enough to spend a torrential night in a maize plot then either your poults or your maize aren't quite ready ;)
 
your birds will have been reared with manolas so use those , at least 1 in the pen and 1 of what ever else you use so they get used to the new type feeder . How ever you lay out your pen , feeders , drinkers , dust shelter , do the mirror image outside , dont keep them penned too long and if they look ill deal with it straight away
 
Back
Top