Pheasant release.

pullandbang

Our club let out 250 adult cocks today (bought from Aidan Wogan in Slane). They are fabulous birds and they can certainly fly! Looking forward to the opening day:)

Alchemist2

Excellent photo mate

steyrman

hi just wondering what age the are are the roosting if not there fox food happened to a gun club near me a few years ago released 200 birds tagged them most were lost to foxes a good few were knocked down just watch them for a while and keep lamping them foxes

pullandbang

The one good thing about Wogan's birds is that they are basically wild. They live in the wild rather than in pens and have been roosting since they could fly. This is our third year using his birds and they are well worth it. We were just comparing todays birds with birds we bought elswhere in early 2007 - they walked out of the boxes and sauntered off down the fields. Wogan's birds were gone like rockets! (Hope they hang around)

homerhop

put feeding barrels out for them, should help keeping them around

Dusty87

pullandbang wrote: »

The one good thing about Wogan's birds is that they are basically wild. They live in the wild rather than in pens and have been roosting since they could fly. This is our third year using his birds and they are well worth it. We were just comparing todays birds with birds we bought elswhere in early 2007 - they walked out of the boxes and sauntered off down the fields. Wogan's birds were gone like rockets! (Hope they hang around)

They are good birds. They fly some height too. Do you think they are a bit on the steep side price wise pandb? I thought they were at first but you get what you pay for

Terrier

Do you tag them? Record numbers shot?

moose112

Nice pic

pullandbang

Dusty87 wrote: »

They are good birds. They fly some height too. Do you think they are a bit on the steep side price wise pandb? I thought they were at first but you get what you pay for

They sound pricey compaerd to buying 6 week old chicks and rearing them on in pens. However, when you take into account feeding, time looking after them, losses etc, they work out better value.
No losses - 100% release rate. As i said earlier they are already wild and well used to roosting so losses to foxes should be minimal. We'll let out another 100 in December and probably more in January (depending on Xmas raffle).

pullandbang

Terrier wrote: »

Do you tag them? Record numbers shot?

No, it's too much bother and very difficult at that age. We want to get them out with as little handling and stress as possible.

terminator2

how much does he charge for an adult cock

pullandbang

terminator2 wrote: »

how much does he charge for an adult cock

€15 - he originally quoted €16 when we ordered some months back but has dropped his price by €1.

J.R.

pullandbang wrote: »

€15 - he originally quoted €16 when we ordered some months back but has dropped his price by €1.

yes.........and he also sells hens for €10

Dusty87

J.R. wrote: »

yes.........and he also sells hens for €10

He's gone down in price for the recession:) it was 16 a cock and 11 a hen when i got some. Early this year it was.

EPointer=Birdss

Fantastic Photo, Looks like Dakota or somewhere!

However I think your birds would benefit from being released in a few basic release runs with food & water & good cover for a few days.

Leave em in for a day or 2 to calm down after the trip.
Move the food outside it & open the door. They eventually wonder out & move off but come back to feed once they leave of their own accord.

Best do this early in the morning & hang around hidden for awhaile for any foxes. Bit of electric wire as a sort of perimeter fence helps too.

Few hoppers the same as what there are used to around the place helsp keep em local!

How many flew for the hills or did they all land in that big field?

Good to here it's worked in the past though & happy hunting.
Slow few weeks to go!

cavan shooter

Adian feeds his birds whole maize. trust me on this, feed maize to hold them or organize to collect them back in Slane.

You'll get bags of maize in Whites agri Balough, Lusk for definite. For the two years I got adult birds of Adian Iweened them of the maize over a while and onto rolled barley

pullandbang

EPointer=Birdss wrote: »

How many flew for the hills or did they all land in that big field?

We had 17 boxes of birds (15 approx per box) and we spent the afternoon covering our patch letting out one or two boxes in each area. Quite a few of them flew a long way but did come down at the first ditch they came to. Some landed within 50 yards while others went 150 yards +.

The birds were only put into the boxes about an hour before being released so they weren't under much strain. None were released in green fields, they all went to stubble/spuds/maize so they should be happy for a while:) We ended up with one loss and that was one bird who jumped inside the box and cracked his noggin! One of the disadvantages of using boxes that are too high!

pullandbang

Thought I'd throw up another picture taken in Wogan's yard as we loaded the pheasants. This lad was having a look around to see what was going on.

1.shot.1.kill

great photo!!!we let out 40 adult birds i got in donegal and they were feed for the foxes never seen one since.

pullandbang

I brought my dogs out on Sunday and we came across a gang of about 8 of these cocks together. They were picking along a ditch in a stubble field. As soon as they saw me they took of running and I was still 200 yards away. Half of them disappeared into the hedge and the rest upped and flew. We never got near them and they certainly weren't hanging around. The dogs trailed the runners into the next field and three cocks got up before the dogs got a chance to set them. They rose 20 - 30 yards ahead of the dogs so things are looking good for opening day with these boys.

cavan shooter

1.shot.1.kill wrote: »

great photo!!!we let out 40 adult birds i got in donegal and they were feed for the foxes never seen one since.

So I take it you dont control vermin,
Dont be surprised they didnt all fly back home to donegal.

Its not as simple as it sounds "let out adult birds"

1.shot.1.kill

Originally Posted by 1.shot.1.kill
great photo!!!we let out 40 adult birds i got in donegal and they were feed for the foxes never seen one since.


So I take it you dont control vermin,
Dont be surprised they didnt all fly back home to donegal.

Its not as simple as it sounds "let out adult birds"

We let them out in 4-5 Groups. they had feeding springs and hoppers all around the area. The lad in Donegal told us they were ones re-caught but they were fox food. We get to packs of hounds from red hills and that country down to shoot our area every second sunday taking an average of 5-8 foxes every sunday and we have controlled snaring and over 10 members that lamp frequently. our club brings in an average of 180000 points every year but we are still plagued with foxes,mink and the fact that the birds were nomore captured than bin laden didnt help.

pullandbang

Just thought I'd tease you all before the morning. Best of luck on the opening day.