Pheasant stocking density
- Thread starter jall55
- Start date
Rhodesianjess
Well-Known Member
Depends on the land you have. If it's grass fields with severely trimmed hedges and the odd spinney, not many. If it's rough hedges with lots of rough bits,mixed hardwood timber, plenty of cover then you really can hold them.
Always remember that it's winter cover that you want, what looks good in summer may be totally different when the leaf is off and the wind is whistling through. Plus,as the season progresses, the amount of birds per acre should hopefully take a tumble. Unless of course your guns can't shoot straight
Always remember that it's winter cover that you want, what looks good in summer may be totally different when the leaf is off and the wind is whistling through. Plus,as the season progresses, the amount of birds per acre should hopefully take a tumble. Unless of course your guns can't shoot straight
On a 2000 acre estate with arable farming, game covers and big woodland blocks we used to shoot on fifteen days. Our average over the season would be 300 per day so roughly 2.25 birds per acre.
One a shoot of 3000 acres all big woodland along high banks, with perhaps only 400 acres of grass fields a different kettle of fish. An awful lot of dogging in to hold them but twenty five days of between 4 and 5 hundred. Roughly 11000birds so 3.5 to 4 birds per acre.
One a shoot of 3000 acres all big woodland along high banks, with perhaps only 400 acres of grass fields a different kettle of fish. An awful lot of dogging in to hold them but twenty five days of between 4 and 5 hundred. Roughly 11000birds so 3.5 to 4 birds per acre.
On a 2000 acre estate with arable farming, game covers and big woodland blocks we used to shoot on fifteen days. Our average over the season would be 300 per day so roughly 2.25 birds per acre.
One a shoot of 3000 acres all big woodland along high banks, with perhaps only 400 acres of grass fields a different kettle of fish. An awful lot of dogging in to hold them but twenty five days of between 4 and 5 hundred. Roughly 11000birds so 3.5 to 4 birds per acre.
Thanks Ratel
Thats how many you have shot though not your initial density - which if its shoot a third - lose a third and keep a third - would be considerably higher
Thankyou though
You did ask " how many per birds per acre of land you shoot" so you got it.
Initial density is what the ground can hold and it's "Hobsons choice" and very dependant on the actual ground, labour, topography and a thousand other things including Keepering skills. I always worked on 40-45per cent returns when hatching and rearing my own so you can work out my initial densities on two estates.Multiply acreage with amount of birds wanted to be shot per annum, then half, multiply by the first number you thought of times by the square root of the head keepers appendage then lie.
In my experience if you ask the shoot owner, shoot captain , agent , keeper you will get a different answer of how many birds are released
In my experience if you ask the shoot owner, shoot captain , agent , keeper you will get a different answer of how many birds are released
Sustainability is the key. You're always going to get happy wanderers, but over-stocking will accentuate that. Those cocks need their space! The stock ratio, as has been said depends on things such as how much woodland, what type of woods and, really, how much woodland edge you have, pheasants being woodland edge loving creatures. Of course you can increase the population to unsustainable levels for a short period through providing lots of feeders and a strict regime of dogging in. Drinkers help too if there's no natural water supply, especially in dry spells. But there comes a point when too many pheasants will decimate the flora, insect and small rodent populations. Think of the state of a release pen. Long grass, dandelions, buttercups, etc. before you put the little blighters in. A veritable unspoilt little meadow. Then a few short weeks later, much of it looks like The Somme. Of course you won't, and can't get an accurate answer and the only way to gauge is by experience of each piece of land. There'll come a point when the return percentages start to drop and you've got to think whether it's worth it.
I'm surprised nobody has mentioned the question of how many and how often you want to shoot?
For what it's worth, on our little syndicate we put down less than 1 per acre of the total ground we lease. Plenty of feed, water and cover hold them well enough in the places we want them but we're only shooting every other weekend with a bag of 10-20. Birds that wander make for interesting walk about days on boundaries, etc, when we're short of Guns for whatever reason.
Different kettle of f̶i̶s̶h̶ pheasants on the big commercial shoot where I like to go beating. Huge acreage and even huge-er number of birds released to produce 3 or more 200 bird days per week!
For what it's worth, on our little syndicate we put down less than 1 per acre of the total ground we lease. Plenty of feed, water and cover hold them well enough in the places we want them but we're only shooting every other weekend with a bag of 10-20. Birds that wander make for interesting walk about days on boundaries, etc, when we're short of Guns for whatever reason.
Different kettle of f̶i̶s̶h̶ pheasants on the big commercial shoot where I like to go beating. Huge acreage and even huge-er number of birds released to produce 3 or more 200 bird days per week!
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