Pheasant feed..

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Malxwal

Malxwal

Well-Known Member
Folks, the medicated pellets are running out, and it's only a matter of time until they start nipping at each other, so they'll be needing out. I'm looking for advice on a pellet to feed them for a wee while before putting them onto wheat, good stuff, prices etc. Obviously I'll be buying local, so limited as to the prices I can get, but a recommendation on the right pellets would be great !
 
Poults will be about 11-12 weeks when the medicated grower feed runs out. used to just put them straight onto wheat after that, but thinking of trying some spiced release pellets with some wheat ?
Just having a looky at Sportsman and Glenesk stuff, but if any alternatives you reckon are the bees knees ?
 
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Malxwal don't bother mixing the pellet with wheat. The pheasants will eat the pellet And waste the wheat you will just find heaps of wasted wheat under the feeders. What I would do is put a 1/4 - 1/2 a bag of pellet in the feeder with the wheat on top so as the pellet runs out they have slightly spiced wheat to get use to.
 
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Our poults are similer age now I have put 2 feeders outside the pens and put starter pellets in one and good wheat in the other they change over on their own in a few weeks of their own accord.
any feeders away from the pen is filled with corn.
last year once the birds went onto corn they would not eat pellets they started to go stale in the feeders and i was left with several bags of expensive pellets so dont buy too many pellets we get through about 40bags to 1000 birds.

Just got in from morning round nice to see birds come down from roost and start feeding.makes early rising worthwhile and of course the roe out .
 
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Aye, cheers folks. As you say, it's been our experience that the birds will just pick the pellets and dump the wheat. The it's the other way round, and the pellets left were wasted. Maybe just a few bags to tint the wheat, or we have aniseed oil which would flavour the last of the pellets and the wheat.
About the corn, what is it you use ? I think we enquired about corn only to find it very expensive ?
 
roedeerred said:
Our poults are similer age now I have put 2 feeders outside the pens and put starter pellets in one and good wheat in the other they change over on their own in a few weeks of their own accord.
any feeders away from the pen is filled with corn.
last year once the birds went onto corn they would not eat pellets they started to go stale in the feeders and i was left with several bags of expensive pellets so dont buy too many pellets we get through about 40bags to 1000 birds.

Just got in from morning round nice to see birds come down from roost and start feeding.makes early rising worthwhile and of course the roe out .
Click to expand...
Blimey we feed at least 2 1/2 tons to a thousand birds ,probably why mine feather up so well !
​Norma
 
Must admit i'm with Norma here, i always work out pellets on 21/2T per 1000 but on our wee shoot the 350 poults have ate 50 bags already, and just gettin onto the wheat now, i'm going to have to buy some more to keep the grey partridge going. Never had birds eat so much and ther still just 13-14ish week old

Never thought of it like that Eyefor, but thats 2.5kg over 6-8 weeks when there are hopefully enclosed in a pen so have access to no other food and are growing rapidly as well as moulting, u will put out 10kg off wheat every bird too for the rest of season and ur never far away. Seems quite a lot really

Must admit thou the birds are looking cracking i would be quite happy shooting the hens already, and cocks are fairly changing colour now. Some off the pens still in the pen look full size fat pigs, but some of the other birds that have been gettin a hard time off my dogs are flying really well.
 
Our birds, 350 as well originally (now 346) are about 11 weeks, and we've near gone through 1 1/2 ton of grower 2 pellets, although a few bags have gone to the 220 (218) partridges.We've had the pheasants since they were 6 & 1/2 weeks old. The pellets should last until they're about 12-13 weeks and then onto wheat.
Do you lads have them on wheat before or after they are getting out and about ?
 
Sorry folks I should have said our birds come 8to 9 weeks streight into open pens and both wheat and pellets are in feeders outside the pens with pellets in the pen they looked ok this morning except in one pen dam**** bussard floating round thankfully there is standing wheat outside the pen and plenty of cover in the pens.
 
I never mixed wheat and pellets as I found once the birds knew there were pellets there somewhere they would waste the wheat for a pastime. Once the pellets were within a week or so of running out I would start spreading a small amount of wheat by hand then put any residues of pellets into pellet only hoppers filling the rest with wheat. there would be a bit of waste to start with but pheasants won't starve themselves and things soon settle down.
 
Feed pellets in my pen the whole time and hand feed wheat to the covers with some hoppers .i put scratch feed on the pen floor and some straw as this is what they find in the covers .birds roost in the pens and come off to the covers for food I feed the same time 7 days a week then so I see what's using what drive wise and hey presto come shoot day you have a good idea where yr birds are .works for me .in the end for the sake of a few quid pellet is worth the extra £ I'm in no hurry to get them off it and my boss prefer the better quality bird this produces .wheat ain't too much cheaper really .
​norma
 
Used to hand feed my poults.
Got the 3rd week in June-ish a around 6-7 weeks old and kept them on pellet only for about 1 week.
During the second week I would mix 1/3 bucket of wheat in with the pellet,third week 2/3rds and would carry that on until the pellet ran out.
Things were kept on a tight financial rein as the days shooting(starting in November) were for non-paying guests only and so the game shooting was run at a large financial loss for the bosses pleasure.
Then after 12 years I managed to get the partridge keepers job and the world became a less stressful place :lol:
 
The partridges are a new experience for me, and we got them at about 12 weeks old a couple of weeks ago. Hoping to just release them in small groups progressively over the next three months. I'm really hoping they'll be a success, as there's a few pairs of wild ones going about, and the ground we have has less ans less cover and roosting for pheasants.
Feed-wise, when would your partridge be onto wheat ?
 
I feed pellet in the pen then on release un medicated pellet in hopper outside pen and wheat in the covers and of course fresh water .
​norma
 
you professional full time keepers may be able to answer this one what can i do to deter the 3 bussards that were circleing over the partridge pen when I went to work at 8.30am I called to speake to a farmer whos land we shoot over and whilst discussing where he had seen fox/deer etc we both saw them overthe pen.I was late for work again:oops:
 
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