Pheasant feeders

wicklow newbie

Got my spring feeders.. What is the best height to position the bottom of the spring from the ground?

mallards

I seen 18" mentioned on a gamekeeping video somewhere. It's where I have mine and it seems okay.

Mallards

EPointer=Birdss

wicklow newbie wrote: »

Got my spring feeders.. What is the best height to position the bottom of the spring from the ground?

I was only making some on Monday night & went a bit lower than mallards at 15". Think about how tall a pheasant is & set it so that he can pick at the middle of the spring. Anywhere in that region should do fine...

pullandbang

I met a wise old man one day while we were waiting to get on a ferry. We got chatting about shooting - he'd been at it all his life between clubs, syndicates etc.

One tip he gave me was that every member of a club should carry a few small bags of feed every time they go out shooting. Use the small white bags that you get in the butchers with your meat. Tie a bag to the odd bush here and there and nick the corner of the plastic so the birds can pick. If everyone uses the same bags (and they are cheap) the birds get to know there's food in them. Pick up the empties the following week and there is no litter.

It's a great way to hold birds in an area.

mallards

That is a good idea. Another one is, later in the year supermarkets are selling fresh corn on the cob. Wait until they are nearly out of date and when they're giving them away, grab a handful and put a few in your game bag. During your wanderings around your shoot, half peel them and throw the odd one here and there in the bushes. They are great for holding pheasants etc and last ages. They help to keep small birds ticking over during early winter also. If you got a good few for nothing, why not freeze them and continue using them throughout the season. I find them most handy in places it was too awkward to get a feeder to or if the birds prefer a certain area but there's no long term food there.

Mallards.

EPointer=Birdss

What do you think are the best feeds for the hoppers lads?

Wheat, barley, game food itself etc??

How do you find the springs for letting the food out through them?

cavan shooter

I used to feed wheat, then last year started to feed rolled Barley around €12 for a 40kg bag.

I still have some birds in the pen at present, and when I started to introduce the blue barrell and spring with rolled barley i noticed they went off the pellett and grain mix and wolf the rolled barley.

I also feed (hand feed) Maize and also "Pigeon mix" which I found excellent for holding birds.

If the rolled barley is damp it wont fit through the normal hole on a spiral so improvise with some 10mm mesh and make a hole about
4" and make a feeder in the shape of a cone

mallards

I use whole wheat myself on the springs. They don't get jammed as long as there's not too many stalks mixed with the wheat.
Earlier on when feeding growers pellets they can clog up easily if it rains. Best to do a walk around every day to clear them.

Mallards

homerhop

Always used barley. When we started rearing first and wanted to get the poults to go to the feeders we mixed some nuts through the barley. Sometimes we found the would nearly empty the feeders just to get the nuts and you would be left with the barley all over the ground.
Height wise we always set the springs about a foot and a half.

terminator2

and fit badger spikes, last year badgers emptied two complete feeders on me