Keepers Dairy

A friend has 350 acres that I have been asked to set up and run a pheasant shoot on. There is great potential for a shoot on the land which is a mixture of pasture and woodland. I said I would be happy to start work on it for him as there are lovely woods where we would be able to build a pen.

Setting up a shoot requires a lot of work to be done not least pest control there being substantial numbers of fox, crows, rabbits, stoats etc.

I have decided to keep a record of what we get up to on a monthly basis; that way it can be understood how much work goes into setting up and running a small shoot.

A quick list of jobs needed before the birds come:

Pest control, foxes mainly
Pheasant pen needs building
Sort pheasant feed
Feeders need making
Water barrels
Shelters

Since beginning this keepers dairy we have already been very busy with pest control having shot 9 foxes; lying in wait for them morning & just before dusk. Hopefully I will be able to get them under control before the birds arrive. We have not started lamping as yet but I have also started on the crows & bunnies.

I have sorted out the materials for the Pheasant pen. We were unable to get to some off the wire as it was locked away but we have able to get started on the posts & some wiring around the top.

I got a few of the lads (to whom I am most grateful) to lend a hand as our birds are coming in just over 8 weeks time. We managed to get all the posts in and two rows of restraining wire up as well.



Work for this weekend includes getting wire along the bottom of the pen & gates made, weather permitting of course. Sort out feeders & water for the pen, set up the electric fence & bring up the fox traps to go outside the pen. Also I need to acquire some Fenn traps & make boxes to go around the Pheasant pen.

We have most of the pen finished now. All the posts are in and the restraining wire completed, also two gates have been made. We have installed two types of wire mesh, one 3ft section for the bottom which we have overlaid onto the ground and spiked in the top half sits behind a six foot section of wire which overhangs at the top to prevent fox etc climbing in.

We have started with the electric fence which will go all the way around the bottom of the pen on using small posts with two insulators, 1 about 6in off the bottom & another about 6in above that one.

I have acquired 15 big blue barrels to be turned into feeders. Three feeders will be placed in the pen until the birds are ready to go out then I will leave two in the pen and move the other to the outside so any birds remaining outside the pen will have access to feed. I have also another 15 25lts barrels which will be used for water.

Jobs I would like to have done before the next update in about 3 weeks are:

Make legs for blue feeders and springs to go in the bottom
Sort out water supply in the pen
Spike down the wire around the bottom of the pen and finish the electric fence
Pests to control

We have used 10” pegs to spike down the wire mesh along the bottom of the pen placing them about a foot apart. We have also got the electric fence pegs in and all that remains is the wire to go around them. We have also secured the mesh together so nothing can get in (hopefully) so there’s three jobs sorted.

Saturday was a funny day on the shoot. Most of the lads had other things to do with it been a Saturday, I can't them blame. I did know the landowner was going to be there today. Colin and I had a few hours stalking before we got started making feeders, but as is often the case there was nothing about but fortuitously we did see a lot of 2” round posts just beside one off the woods ideal for feeder legs which we managed to get the land owner to move using his quad and trailer, hence we got the legs made for the feeders.

My original plan was to make the legs & leave them in place on the shoot after the season was finished but to be able to bring the barrels in. To enable this we have placed blocks of wood on the posts we are using as legs. The plan is to knock three posts into the ground like a tripod and place the barrel between them resting on the blocks and secure the whole lot by wrapping wire round them.



After we made all the legs we placed 5 feeders out and plan to get the rest out this week using the quad.

Time getting on the land owner asked Colin & I if we fancied barbecued venison for tea. I never had venison barbecued before so it was a great treat that I can recommend.

So that’s all the jobs done now, just pest control to do until the birds come.

I have only four weeks to get all the jobs done that remain. I have sorted the wheat out and we are getting some feed off the gentleman supplying the birds to boot, never say no to a freebie!

We have also placed a gate in the fence along the top of one of the woods to make it easier to access when the season starts.

We have been waiting for a few things to come in for the land so we have been doing a little bit each time we go up over the past few weeks so that we are still making progress. I have got the electric fence insulators and most of the posts are in for them although we are about ten short. The wire for the electric fence is arriving this week so I can get that job over and out the way this weekend. I have made the pop holes for the birds so that they can go in and out the pen but keep the foxes out.

I have loaned a bush whacker to cut down the grass around the feeders so the birds can eat with out any foxes sneaking up and picking them off hopefully. There are a few fox signs about on the land so I placed a couple of dead bunnies to attract them to the same place and it looks like they have taken the bait. The way I've done this is to peg the dead rabbits onto a post on the side of a bank and cleared a lot of the grass around so I could get a good view. I will let you know how this transpires.

The bunny bait has worked out nicely. I’ve got a few foxes over the last couple off weeks.

All of our work is now finished. Our top hat feeders are in the release pen and the water is flowing well. There is plenty of cover for the birds and they are protected by the electric fence which has been put around the pen with two rows of wire on pegs about 6” & 12” high from the ground. So that’s all the work done and what we need now is a lot of luck.

Colin and I have built a little bridge over a stream to help us get to the pen as the stream runs alongside the pen and it will make it easier to dog in plus get over to the other side of the wood.

I went and picked up the birds a few weeks ago. Colin, Karen and my daughter Leanne helped put them in the pen ready for releasing then once the crates were in the pen which took some time doing all that was left was to open the crate doors very slowly and prop them ajar so that the birds could make their way out. We returned to my landrover for a bit to give them a chance to make their way out without stress. After a while we returned and watched the birds making themselves at home. We retrieved the crates carefully so as not to scare them and left them alone for the night knowing they had plenty of food & water so now it was home for us too. The next day I was up early to check the pen and make sure the birds were all right.

We are going up every day at the moment to make sure all the feeders are topped up and the birds are where they are meant to be. I have opened the pop holes on the pen to let the birds in and out easily. I know there are those that don’t agree with but they are there to save having to lift the wire around the pen, so the birds can wander around the shoot.

I was going to place feed bags around the shoot wrapped around the barbed wire fences to make the fences safer to cross but after having a chat with the land owner we have come up with a better idea. As there is no stock on the land I will simply removing the wire.

The next time I update this will be after our first days shoot so I hope you have all enjoyed reading this. I would like to thank all those that have helped to get the shoot to this point, once again many thanks.

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