going to be a tough season

bignoel

Well-Known Member
going to be a tough season on keepers this year with all the rain we are getting ,i was looking at what is surpose to be game strips yesterday and they are bald ? and with the first shoots only 8/9 weeks away ,i guess theres a lot of unhappy keepers around .
 
Any idea what the rain has done to the grouse this year? I know from speaking to a friend down south they have lost an awful lot of young Grey Partridge...
 
:cry: here's one hey ho there is always something after two record years something has to give ,glad I'm ten years here and it's not my first season on a new shoot then I would be shi-ing myself
 
finally convinced my farmer to plant some new cover crops, barley, kale, quinoa, etc. - planted 6 weeks ago, only barley is showing about 3-4"!!! F***...bugger..

yep, bet some keepers are not pleased, chicks will be suffering too!
 
Had to speak to our poult supplier "nicely". Put back the delivery a few weeks. Lucky he's a mate.
 
Pheasant poults arriving in about 12 hours time, partridges in a couple of weeks. Hope they like flooded fields for cover. Not good at all.
 
I'm lucky as I'm only (ONLY???) a part time keeper so my job doesn't depend on it, but similar to Norma, after 2 record years I'm not too optimistic about this year so far. Just waiting until the ground dries out so I can re-drill the covers!
 
well!
4500 pheasant due this week hopefully with webbed feet, game crops not in as to wet for tractor at beging of june! and still cant get on them as they are like a swamp.
my grouse moor not great broods down to avarage of 5 chicks by the look of it but will have better picture in 10 days when i start my counts.
on a plus side all my partridge dont arrive untill end of august so hopefully its dried out by then if not i would have finnished building my ark.
 
had my poults 2 weeks now and doing ok.
you have to knuckle down and get on with it, and im glad that this is just a small by invitation type shoot.
part time keepering means you can enjoy the fruits of your labour and earn a living doing your full time occupation.
 
2 thirds of our covercrop is ok , the other 15 acre is weedy and slow growing, am used to long hours in the rearing season but this constant rain is getting wearing now, been lucky so far but had a few close ones, am totally knackered and wishing i had been an electrician or plumber or something most days, my wife is starting to complain about not seeing me for nearly seven weeks, my little girl thinks i am uncle daddy, most testing rearing season i have ever had
 
finally convinced my farmer to plant some new cover crops, barley, kale, quinoa, etc. - planted 6 weeks ago, only barley is showing about 3-4"!!! F***...bugger..

yep, bet some keepers are not pleased, chicks will be suffering too!

We put in a similar mix of Kale, Quinoa, Buckwheat, Millet, Mustard, Tritecale... & like you only the Tritecale made it through the ground.

The rest of the seeds must have rotted in the ground with the cold/wet weather.

So we just broadcast rape over the bald patches to fill it out & provide the birds with quick growing cover.
 
All my drilled covers this year are **** all that has come up is the chickory. And this will be no good till next year lots of bald plot the utopia whent down today finger crossed
 
My covers are as bald as me at the moment, had poults in on the 5th, they are all doing good. Ducks in tomorrow, ponds look fantastic this year, almost empty last year so some good to come out of all this Rain.
 
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