BenBhoy
Well-Known Member
Glenn looks ready for bed at half 4!
THE PRETEND KEEPER
- Thread starter stavross
- Start date
stavross
Well-Known Member
Yeah, he’s a tired bast*rd
everyone was the same, as soon as you get back to the pub they all start nodding off 
Back to reality today, feeding, loads of birds at the forestry pen and the back side of Gordon’s pen, also a lot out on the fields, I’m a bit sick of this good weather now, I just want it to change to keep them in the woods and harden them off, it was T-shirt weather today up there, which isn’t good for the end of October
stavross
Well-Known Member
First job today was bagging wheat up, I was joined by the old man, sadly his dementia is progressing, but at the moment he still knows who I am and still tells me stories from times gone by, we had a laugh, he has great stories, it’s such a shame that his short term memory is shot, although with the way the world is now maybe it’s not a bad thing to not be able to remember new things
Next it was up to feed, there was plenty about and they are looking well, I left them a little longer this time and I could tell they were hungry by the noise of empty spring feeders being rattled as I travelled through the shoot. It was good to see birds in all the drives on a warm and sunny afternoon in November
a week tomorrow is the second day and what I would say is the start of our season after stirring them up a bit last week 
Next it was up to feed, there was plenty about and they are looking well, I left them a little longer this time and I could tell they were hungry by the noise of empty spring feeders being rattled as I travelled through the shoot. It was good to see birds in all the drives on a warm and sunny afternoon in November
a week tomorrow is the second day and what I would say is the start of our season after stirring them up a bit last week First job today was bagging wheat up, I was joined by the old man, sadly his dementia is progressing, but at the moment he still knows who I am and still tells me stories from times gone by, we had a laugh, he has great stories, it’s such a shame that his short term memory is shot, although with the way the world is now maybe it’s not a bad thing to not be able to remember new things
Next it was up to feed, there was plenty about and they are looking well, I left them a little longer this time and I could tell they were hungry by the noise of empty spring feeders being rattled as I travelled through the shoot. It was good to see birds in all the drives on a warm and sunny afternoon in November
Our 4th day tomorrow and just in from having got a vixen so happy days
Not sure if asked you before Stav - but why do you let the feeders empty ? - do you think it keeps the birds there ? Im the other way every feeder is rammed and i hand feed most days too
stavross
Well-Known Member
I don’t let them all run out, an old keeper I used to do a bit with showed me that in a woodland shoot he would let feeders run out in certain areas, mainly around roosts, then keep feeders full in the drives to keep the birds moving around the shoot, it works well when you can’t be there every day, I still hand feed as well, because I know what feed is where throughout the season I can tell you where the birds are going to be and at what time of the day, if we had open fields and game cover it would be done differently, but this way works up here
BenBhoy
Well-Known Member
You almost sound like you know what you're doing!!!I don’t let them all run out, an old keeper I used to do a bit with showed me that in a woodland shoot he would let feeders run out in certain areas, mainly around roosts, then keep feeders full in the drives to keep the birds moving around the shoot, it works well when you can’t be there every day, I still hand feed as well, because I know what feed is where throughout the season I can tell you where the birds are going to be and at what time of the day, if we had open fields and game cover it would be done differently, but this way works up here
Can't wait to be up with you in few weeks mate!
stavross
Well-Known Member
21 more sleepsYou almost sound like you know what you're doing!!!
Can't wait to be up with you in few weeks mate!
As long as it sounds like I know what I’m doing
I’ve been playing at it for quite a while now and I’ve made a few mistakes and learned from them, best thing to do is listen to other people and what they do, try it, and if it works for you keep doing it, if not, try something else, I don’t think there’s one best way to look after flying chickens, just what works best on your land
21 more sleeps
As long as it sounds like I know what I’m doing
I’ve been playing at it for quite a while now and I’ve made a few mistakes and learned from them, best thing to do is listen to other people and what they do, try it, and if it works for you keep doing it, if not, try something else, I don’t think there’s one best way to look after flying chickens, just what works best on your land
Stav
Can i be so bold then and suggest - brim the feeders - dont let any birds get hungry as once they move they take some getting back
Dont want to overstep the mark bud - honestly i dont - but maybe try it next year ?
Just in from our fourth day and its been ace - really funny
Great birds - rubbish shots - but so long as it a clean miss who cares !
On the fallow tomorrow - got an invite to shoot Wednesday and putting a duck flight on for the beaters friday and beating for a friend Saturday
Happy happy
Great birds - rubbish shots - but so long as it a clean miss who cares !
On the fallow tomorrow - got an invite to shoot Wednesday and putting a duck flight on for the beaters friday and beating for a friend Saturday
Happy happy
Phil fox man
Well-Known Member
Just woke up after our 2nd day.
Woke up on the couch in the man cave with 3 damp spaniels on me.
It's funny how they know to wait near the man cave door after a shoot day.
Woke up on the couch in the man cave with 3 damp spaniels on me.
It's funny how they know to wait near the man cave door after a shoot day.
stavross
Well-Known Member
Your not overstepping the mark mate, I’ll happily take any advice, we used to keep the feeders full but what I found was come the start of the season you would have a couple of really good drives around the pens and the rest were often a letdown, after the keeper telling me to try doing this I’ve found that the pen drives are still good and I’m seeing much better numbers in my other drives
Your not overstepping the mark mate, I’ll happily take any advice, we used to keep the feeders full but what I found was come the start of the season you would have a couple of really good drives around the pens and the rest were often a letdown, after the keeper telling me to try doing this I’ve found that the pen drives are still good and I’m seeing much better numbers in my other drives
What i do Stav is not feed the pen areas at all - but just feed in the specific drives - in the specific flushing points - birds then tend to be there and fly back to the pen area - roosting areas . It has spread birds to every drive in our shoot - The other thing we do - or dont do - Is try and beat every inch of the land
The birds need some safe areas of refuge - these areas will then feed your drives too
stavross
Well-Known Member
I do something similar ( but in a different way that suits the layout) my drives change over the seasons, early on the pen drives work well especially forestry pen, come the end of December when the cover around that pen has gone that drive is done, I also have a couple of ruff blocks that allow the birds somewhere safe ( well the clever ones anyway ) in the later part of the season these become drives, if I’d of started out here I would of put the pens in different places because the way it is now you can’t drive the birds back towards the pen, I would of thought this is a mistake a lot of little shoots make, always driving them from the pen, on my mates shoot they have a pen in a little wood that has cover about 250 yards away which they push towards the pen, doing it this way means they hold their birds very well, I’m limited to what I can do at mine, I can’t have game cover or ponds, you just have to work with what you’ve got
stavross
Well-Known Member
Up to feed mid morning today in readiness for Saturday, it was damp, foggy but still too warm, double figures is no good this time of year. The birds are ready now unlike the first day so hopefully they’ll fly well enough and we won’t see some of the questionable shooting we seen last time 
stavross
Well-Known Member
A great day was had by all, everyone had some shooting and didn’t get carried away, selecting birds that were worthy of raising the gun to, it wasn’t big numbers ( around 30ish ) but they were proper birds today
The guests we had today had some of the best shooting throughout the day, which doesn’t often happen but it’s nice for them when it does, my guest had a lot of shooting, not so many birds but for only her second go at driven game and first time standing on her own she did well. Elevenses were a triumph once again with the bramble gin and Prosecco, sausage roll, cheese and biscuits and enough homemade cakes and biscuits to set up a stall at a farmers market. I’m looking forward to the next one now, today was just a fun day
The guests we had today had some of the best shooting throughout the day, which doesn’t often happen but it’s nice for them when it does, my guest had a lot of shooting, not so many birds but for only her second go at driven game and first time standing on her own she did well. Elevenses were a triumph once again with the bramble gin and Prosecco, sausage roll, cheese and biscuits and enough homemade cakes and biscuits to set up a stall at a farmers market. I’m looking forward to the next one now, today was just a fun day
Folk would be amazed at the quality and standard of the food served up in random barns across the country.
The guys I shoot with put on some delicious lunches to fuel everyone through the afternoon.
Looks like you had a good spread today
stavross
Well-Known Member
Not the best of days, first off I wasn’t even sure I’d make it there in the little van, but she did me proud, we even past a Range Rover that was stuck in the snow 
It was a bit of a shame the way the weather was as there was half a dozen guests shooting with us today including a couple of rugby players who only had today that they could come, anyway we started off with a pen drive as it didn’t look good for a full day, there was a fair bit of banging on this drive even though from where I was in the line the birds seemed to be just running around and getting up in the trees, looking confused with all this white stuff
Back to the shed where we poured a bottle of bramble gin and two bottles of Prosecco down there necks, just to take the chill off you understand
Next was two drives around the forestry pen, same story, a good amount of shooting but the birds weren’t for flying, so that was it, the way the weather was it wasn’t looking good for getting off the top if we stayed, we ended on 18 pheasants, 1 woodcock and a pigeon off 3 drives
It was a bit of a shame the way the weather was as there was half a dozen guests shooting with us today including a couple of rugby players who only had today that they could come, anyway we started off with a pen drive as it didn’t look good for a full day, there was a fair bit of banging on this drive even though from where I was in the line the birds seemed to be just running around and getting up in the trees, looking confused with all this white stuff
Back to the shed where we poured a bottle of bramble gin and two bottles of Prosecco down there necks, just to take the chill off you understand
Next was two drives around the forestry pen, same story, a good amount of shooting but the birds weren’t for flying, so that was it, the way the weather was it wasn’t looking good for getting off the top if we stayed, we ended on 18 pheasants, 1 woodcock and a pigeon off 3 drives
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