Help - shoot burning pheasants and feeding them to my pigs!!

Pasty

Member
Location
Devon
I think the issue is chick survival. We have all seen plenty of 'wild' hen birds with a bunch of 3-4 day old chicks running after her. Anyone seen a hen bird with a bunch of 3-4 week old chicks that often? I think they pretty much get hoovered up by fox / badger / mink etc.
 

Pasty

Member
Location
Devon
I don’t know about extinct but certainly rare, quite possibly becoming a protected species with no doubt many of those who would like to see shooting banned wanting more done to protect them ..............
Of course, with out shooting there would be no need for keepers or much of the cover they plant which has benefits for a lot of other wildlife too , shoots and keepers do a lot to maintain balance in the natural wildlife, without them the countryside would be a poorer place and I say that as someone who isn’t a big fan of shooting.
Yes, that is true. A lot of work goes on that is not only beneficial to pheasants but other species too.
 

Dry Rot

Member
Livestock Farmer
There's an interesting thing called 'social learning' (though the animal behaviourists have another name for it). Some clever fellow in France trapped up the spare wild partridge males that would come around the laying pens and pop them in with a young covey. When release time came, the old bird would teach the youngsters all about predators, what to eat, where to get shelter, etc. The breeder got better establishment of reared birds.

They don't learn much about life in the wild inside a brooder.
 

Brisel

Member
Arable Farmer
Location
Midlands
There's an interesting thing called 'social learning' (though the animal behaviourists have another name for it). Some clever fellow in France trapped up the spare wild partridge males that would come around the laying pens and pop them in with a young covey. When release time came, the old bird would teach the youngsters all about predators, what to eat, where to get shelter, etc. The breeder got better establishment of reared birds.

They don't learn much about life in the wild inside a brooder.

This certainly applies to grey partridge. The chick feeding behaviour is not innate, so released greys really fudge up wild bird breeding.
 

Bongodog

Member
Released pheasants can stray a surprising distance, partridges even more so.

Its not just my home village, can't ever recall any organised shoots in any of the adjacent ones either, the area was traditionally smallish farms generally either owner occupied or rented from the County Council, so no estates with landed gentry releasing pheasants.
 

ajcc

Member
Livestock Farmer
These big shoots are populating the wider countryside with game birds so numerous smaller farm shoots kill more than they release or often don’t release any but shoot wanderers from big shoot up the road. Farm shoots often living on back of big nearby releases which is all to the good.
 

Bogweevil

Member
Spit it out and hope your fillings are sound? :ROFLMAO::ROFLMAO::)

Luckily a hand held metal detector saves my old fangs and trips to the dentist. :):)

Bought some pheasant breasts from Waitrose with not a pellet in them, ditto pigeon breasts - do they use a metal detector too and remove shot?
 
Hi Guys.
Im a keen shooting man, I would suggest care be sought if the birds are fed to the pigs.
What can happen on commercial shoots ( which I completely disagree with incidentally ), is that as the guns are paying say £35/bird to shoot them, the keeper will continue to medicate the birds all the way through to maintain there health and ensure plenty of birds from a cash perspective BUT, the birds cannot be consumed with the medication in there system so they are incinerated, completely wrong and not good press for the rural / countryside community as a whole.
As a side note, im actively looking for someland where I can buy permission for pest control for me and my 7yr old boy. We offer complete respect for land and owner, we are insured. Im a business director aged 37, we are a respectful normal family who simply enjoy countryside pursuits, we do eat all quarry ( excl Rats and Foxes of course ). Thanks
On a sepe
 
That's interesting. What medication would that be?
Multivits / antibiotics etc, added to pellets / water, there are a stack of ones used and various trade names, not unlike the medication we may use. In all fairness, im not an expert on meds nor keepering to be fair, but I have read with interest the bad press it has given the shooting community and sadly fuelled anti hunting arguments. Shoots on average get about a 30% return on what we release. Hope that helps.
 

An Gof

Member
Location
Cornwall
Multivits / antibiotics etc, added to pellets / water, there are a stack of ones used and various trade names, not unlike the medication we may use. In all fairness, im not an expert on meds nor keepering to be fair, but I have read with interest the bad press it has given the shooting community and sadly fuelled anti hunting arguments. Shoots on average get about a 30% return on what we release. Hope that helps.

Steady on there @Shooting Builder are you sure of your facts because what you are alleging could have serious implications.
Pheasants in season are fed on wheat, not pellets. I do not know of ANYONE medicating it with anti biotics. Likewise once out of the release pens birds source water from anywhere, medicating it at that point is pointless.
Sometimes a little knowledge is dangerous
 

Bury the Trash

Member
Mixed Farmer
67 was before my time but it was first found at a relations farm not too far from here, and that’s an awful long way from .Pirbright.
Reports say that that one was caused by legally imported Argentinian lamb ?
The 2000 outbreak report concluded that its source was most likely illegally imported African meat ….it was a bit easier to blame a pig farmer for that one and ban swill feeding though.iguess.
 
Multivits / antibiotics etc, added to pellets / water, there are a stack of ones used and various trade names, not unlike the medication we may use. In all fairness, im not an expert on meds nor keepering to be fair, but I have read with interest the bad press it has given the shooting community and sadly fuelled anti hunting arguments. Shoots on average get about a 30% return on what we release. Hope that helps.

all the shoots I know feed wheat from mid September or earlier
pellets ar too expensive to feed to pheasants and medicated need a vets prescription to be purchased
 

SFI - What % were you taking out of production?

  • 0 %

    Votes: 79 42.5%
  • Up to 25%

    Votes: 65 34.9%
  • 25-50%

    Votes: 30 16.1%
  • 50-75%

    Votes: 3 1.6%
  • 75-100%

    Votes: 3 1.6%
  • 100% I’ve had enough of farming!

    Votes: 6 3.2%

Red Tractor drops launch of green farming scheme amid anger from farmers

  • 1,287
  • 1
As reported in Independent


quote: “Red Tractor has confirmed it is dropping plans to launch its green farming assurance standard in April“

read the TFF thread here: https://thefarmingforum.co.uk/index.php?threads/gfc-was-to-go-ahead-now-not-going-ahead.405234/
Top