ROE HEADS-PHEASANT FEEDERS

bauldy bob

Well-Known Member
Hi there,
I was wondering what you guys think about the link to large roe heads and pheasant feeders,my pal who knows a lot about roe reckons if it wasnt for the feeders the standard would drop dramaticaly!!
The subject came about when last year I shot a buck with huge cornets then had skinny little antlers,(will look it out and try to post pic)
it came from the edge of our shoot where the feeders were left to run out about end of december,there was no pheasants there and deer were constantly knocking them over!!!
keen to see what you guys think-[/b]
 
HI, on our shoot they were becoming a real pest,my mate was an official measurer for roe in scotland and helped write the annual roe report for scotland in shooting times untill recently,and reckons there is somtimes even yearlings of medal standard coming off big eastates!!
he says he has seen huge heads ,but they dont have the weight or density they should gather by age,
I can see his point ,but I think it has more to do with milder winters and the farmers leaning toward winter crops.
but saying that I live in an arable farming area, is there anyone outhere from a hill or dairy area with no crops to feed on in winter notice a difference between areas with a lot of phesants and those with none?
 
On an estate where I worked previously there was a roe doe that came to a feed ride to eat wheat every day, when she had twin bucks one year their first heads were both perfect minature six pointers which was virtually unheard of for the area.

I distributed KNZ blocks all over the estate for a couple of years and had very little interest in them from roe deer, in several cases I had a block only feet from a feeder full of wheat and while the roe were hammering the wheat from the feeder they didnt appear interested in the block at all.

So they certainly loved eating wheat and I would suggest that in my experience it did seem to improve their quality aswell. I've never seen a Roe suffering ill effects from eating wheat-unlike sheep :rolleyes:
 
I dont think they fill up on wheat but they certainly like it,my old man got one a coupleof years ago it wasnt a kick in the arse off a bronze and it was just over a year old,we surround the feeders with ryelock fencing now to keep roe off them,it also gives the pheasants some protection from ambush agaist buzzards and gosshawks
 
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