Adult Pheasants

dev110

Has anybody ever bought adult birds and released them?
There is two or three of us thinking of buying a few birds just to give us some shooting for the season.

terminator2

our club has in the past roughly €10 a pop

dev110

Do you have to get them checked out with a vet or anything before you release them?

terminator2

no why

dev110

One of the older lads in the club was saying you would have to quarantine them for a few days and then get a vet to check them.

Hunter21

You'd have to put em in a release pen so they don't go wandering. Maybe that's what he sort of meant.

Alchemist2

dev110 wrote: »

Has anybody ever bought adult birds and released them?
There is two or three of us thinking of buying a few birds just to give us some shooting for the season.

Buy em every year dev, its hard to keep em in the area as suggested if you can stick em in a release pen with top netting for a few days before removing it, may help. Fiach dowling 12e a bird

richiedel123

Alchemist2 wrote: »

Buy em every year dev, its hard to keep em in the area as suggested if you can stick em in a release pen with top netting for a few days before removing it, may help. Fiach dowling 12e a bird

Most lads dose them for coxy and gapes before releasing them as these cause problems once released. Thats prob what they mean by that. Most breeders will have this done before you buy them. I release them and find best way is a small pen and let them out of it slowly but surely one or 2 at a time. If you cant set up a pen and can only let them off make sure you have loads feeders around and water and most of them will stay around

dev110

How far would they travel without a release pen?

Sika98k

dev110 wrote: »

How far would they travel without a release pen?

A long way ! Release adult birds into the wild and they have no sense of home and will start wandering pretty much immediately.

I spoke to someone today who tried it last year with 100. Tagged them and shot 3 of them. However his neighbours enjoyed a good few of them.

richiedel123

dev110 wrote: »

How far would they travel without a release pen?

Have no answer for that to be honest. All depends normally they hang around but if some one came in and hunted them soon after being released they will definitely disappear. They don't know where home is so just stay wondering looking for food and shelter. It will prob take a few weeks for them to get used to the area.

dodderangler

dev110 wrote: »

How far would they travel without a release pen?

Depends on how many shoot your land and how good a shot they have lol
I'd keep em in a pen safe from predators till they ok to release

dev110

Looks like we might be better holding on to our money so. No point buying 15-20 birds if they could be gone miles in the first week.

Thanks for the help lads.

terminator2

put a load of hoppers out , fill them with grain , phesants will find them

steyrman2

Hi you would be better off buying older birds at the end of the season and release them in a central area with plenty off food and decent cover and no pressure from hunting you will have a better chance of holding them longer . Dont buy them michigan blueback ***** as the will be in the next parish in a short space of time great flyers but if there in stubble and see you there road runners

deeksofdoom

dev110 wrote: »

Looks like we might be better holding on to our money so. No point buying 15-20 birds if they could be gone miles in the first week.

Thanks for the help lads.

Dev,

They won't be gone miles in the first few days. I take it that your talking about releasing birds now to shoot them for the season.

As for Coxy and Gapes, gapes is a a problem to poults it doesn't affect adult birds as much and it is prevalent in weather such as what we had this summer. I don't think it will be a problem in a cold winter.

Coxy is what is some sort of parasite that lives in the ground in infected pens, if your releasing into the wild then it shouldn't be a problem.

You don't need to quaranteen the birds before you release them. Just release the birds under some trees late in the evening so they go up to roost immediately, that way they don't sit on the ground all night waiting to get eaten by a fox. Putting feeders out will also help hold the birds, but if there is still food on the ground that shouldn't be a problem.

The only way your going to find out if something works is by trying it yourself, be sure to tag the birds to see what sort of return you get on them.

As for releasing birds in February/March time; that does give a poor return - less than 5% on average.

A lot of clubs are releasing adult birds now during the season, you should have a good return on them. If your releasing them now they are birds for shooting so don't be afraid to shoot them thats the only way your going to have a return on them. we're going to do the same this year in our club so that we will have a bit of shooting over christmas.

Don't be put off by the nay sayers, your never going to find out if something works unless you try it yourself.

lb1981

steyrman2 wrote: »

Hi you would be better off buying older birds at the end of the season and release them in a central area with plenty off food and decent cover and no pressure from hunting you will have a better chance of holding them longer . Dont buy them michigan blueback ***** as the will be in the next parish in a short space of time great flyers but if there in stubble and see you there road runners

Noting worse were you are following one or two of them for fields and they dont go to the ditch just keep running then break wild at the end of a field so frustrating, if we do get in any mixed with our poults i just let them out in any wood land we have.
With the adult birds what you need to be looking at is next season , put feeders out release pens if possible than release adult birds at the end of the season to get a breading program going , remember cocks are very territorial and need about a football pitch of area for themselves in breeding season and one cock will cover 8-10 hens so thats a lot of chicks if they survive , so vermin control is a big thing.
A lot of lads that sell adult birds now are caught up from shoots and are not worth a **** ,they are practically hand rared and will not fly they just run and run and run, thats why they sell them.
Adult bird prices are crazy thats why most club members vote note to buy them

deeksofdoom

lb1981 wrote: »

Noting worse were you are following one or two of them for fields and they dont go to the ditch just keep running then break wild at the end of a field so frustrating, if we do get in any mixed with our poults i just let them out in any wood land we have.
With the adult birds what you need to be looking at is next season , put feeders out release pens if possible than release adult birds at the end of the season to get a breading program going , remember cocks are very territorial and need about a football pitch of area for themselves in breeding season and one cock will cover 8-10 hens so thats a lot of chicks if they survive , so vermin control is a big thing.
A lot of lads that sell adult birds now are caught up from shoots and are not worth a **** ,they are practically hand rared and will not fly they just run and run and run, thats why they sell them.
Adult bird prices are crazy thats why most club members vote note to buy them

I have to disagree with you here. In my opinion a cock will cover as many hens as are available to him or that he get a chance with same as any other swinger. We had a fellah in our club saying 'a cock will cover 30 to 35 hens in a season', you just have to listen to thunder.

If your not getting your adults birds from a shoot then where are you getting them from?

I've only seen birds either come from shoots in the UK and Ireland or rearing farms in the UK. They're all ****e, there's a poor return on the adult cock birds and you can't tell definitively whether the hens are rearing clutches or not, its all just guess work.

lb1981

deeksofdoom wrote: »

I have to disagree with you here. In my opinion a cock will cover as many hens as are available to him or that he get a chance with same as any other swinger. We had a fellah in our club saying 'a cock will cover 30 to 35 hens in a season', you just have to listen to thunder.

If your not getting your adults birds from a shoot then where are you getting them from?

I've only seen birds either come from shoots in the UK and Ireland or rearing farms in the UK. They're all ****e, there's a poor return on the adult cock birds and you can't tell definitively whether the hens are rearing clutches or not, its all just guess work.

Yeah i know what your saying , but when you study most breeding set ups you generally see a cock with about 8-10 hens so it is generally taken if you buy a birds for breading you have 10 hens to 1 cock then when they lay we put them under bantams or incubate them (very time consuming)but in the wild as you say cocks can cover more than ten some can cover none depends if there are any on his territory .
The adult birds we have bought in are from the breeder we got the poults from,though sometimes they are not available.
We would only buy adult birds in for breeding because on less you are going to shoot them fairly soon they wont hang around to long.
We had problems with the pen one year so we had to buy adults in ,think they were a tenner a pop and we got 100 , let them out before the season , got about 4 back ,they were wandering around on roads stupid as **** and didn't know how to roost.(all hell broke loose at the post season meeting)We just buy in poults to rare and some of the lads breed them for the club as a bit of a hobbie but as a club we dont depend on what results the lads get ,but was on the mixed bag thread and Epointer=birds is having success with the adult birds as well as poults.
Think this subject is always going to spark debates as so many lads have different views and experiences on it.

deeksofdoom

lb1981 wrote: »

Yeah i know what your saying , but when you study most breeding set ups you generally see a cock with about 8-10 hens so it is generally taken if you buy a birds for breading you have 10 hens to 1 cock then when they lay we put them under bantams or incubate them (very time consuming)but in the wild as you say cocks can cover more than ten some can cover none depends if there are any on his territory .
The adult birds we have bought in are from the breeder we got the poults from,though sometimes they are not available.
We would only buy adult birds in for breeding because on less you are going to shoot them fairly soon they wont hang around to long.
We had problems with the pen one year so we had to buy adults in ,think they were a tenner a pop and we got 100 , let them out before the season , got about 4 back ,they were wandering around on roads stupid as **** and didn't know how to roost.(all hell broke loose at the post season meeting)We just buy in poults to rare and some of the lads breed them for the club as a bit of a hobbie but as a club we dont depend on what results the lads get ,but was on the mixed bag thread and Epointer=birds is having success with the adult birds as well as poults.
Think this subject is always going to spark debates as so many lads have different views and experiences on it.

Good information Lb I agree with what your saying.

If you are buying adult birds now of course you want to be able to shoot a quality bird too and get a good hunt off them. But you'll never know unless you try and even shooting a half doppie bird its still great practice for a dog.... so it has its advantages even if you might not agree with the morals of it.

I think the way to go with birds is to try and rare poults hens as they are going to be a lot wilder than an adult hen off a shoot come breeding season I think you would have a better chance off them.

But the key to any breeding program/ pheasant release program is vermin control and even ensuring that the birds are fed at the start of the breeding season. I think it would make a difference.

Eddie B

dev110 wrote: »

One of the older lads in the club was saying you would have to quarantine them for a few days and then get a vet to check them.

He is talking about birds imported from the UK! Wasn't there something on the new's some months back reporting about adult pheasants in Cork imported from the UK which had bird flu! All had to be put down!
In my opinion, the worst time to release birds is after the season, because resident cocks are very territorial at this time, and will push released birds out of the area, and therefore they tend to wonder!
My advise is to buy birds now, leave them in a pen for a couple of days, release mid week, and hunt weekend! Morals go out the window with this one, good training for young dog's, especially if their not seeing much, due to nothing there, and a bit of sport for you! It's either that, or feed the fox's!!!;)

garyc007

hi dev

i did it last year,was told they will travel but they didnt.i kept them in a release pen for a week and then put a few feeders around the area,they held until recently when i was away for a couple of weeks and there was no feed in the feeders but they have now spread across a larger area which i dont realy mind