This is how the next season begins on a Pheasant Shoot!

If we are going to have a Gamekeepers Diary it might as well start at the beginning!   The Game shooting season ended for us on the 31st January with our final “formal” shoot day of the 2006/07 season. The Good, the Bad and the Ugly - but in what order? The last day was not a truly formal shoot day with pegs drawn in the morning and a full team of guns and beaters, no the last day was really a “lads day” a chance for beaters and helpers to also come along and have a shot. Expectations were not high and, to protect wild breeding stocks, we should not have been shooting any of our hen birds. That last day was mainly about thinning out the excess number of Drake Mallard and Cock Pheasants. |Anyway that day has now past and the season is finished – Ducks and Pheasants can now relax for the next few months. Sorting the bag.   Today it was time to have a quick look at the shoot finances and prepare for an end of season meeting at which I’ll need to present a budget for 2007/08. With that budget in mind I phoned our Game Supplier and placed a provisional order for the delivery of the Pheasants and Mallard we need for the coming season that starts for us in October 2007. Pheasants will be arriving in June and the Mallard in October, I now simply need to confirm the order with Hy-Fly Game Hatcheries within the next week to 10 days.   I have made arrangements to have a few duck nesting boxes built by a friend of mine, he’s also going to cut templates so I can get a few more made. These nesting boxes will go onto the 6 ponds that I have on the shoot and will hopefully encourage the high number of ducks we have on the ponds to stay and breed in security. If the weather continues to stay mild the ducks will start to lay very soon so I’m hoping to have the boxes ready for this weekend.   I’ve spent a bit of time looking for a new incubator and Hatcher so that we can produce birds from our own laying stock as we did until the back of the 1990’s. I have managed to get hold of a Hatcher and I’ve had that running today and all is fine with it. Struggling a bit with an incubator but I have my eye on one but we need to see if we can get the price down a bit!   On the shoot itself the birds still need to be fed so Norman and Simon will be there this afternoon to top up the feeders. High winds have brought a few trees down across one of our roads so they have taken the chainsaw and will get those cleared for me. Feeders generally need to be checked three times a week and during the shooting season additional hand feeding will be needed to help draw or hold birds in key areas. All our birds are now onto wheat and this will have been the case since October, they receive no supplements or junk food!   This afternoon I put a quick call into my stalker to check his plans for Deer management during February. The end of February sees the end of the Doe Stalking season and it is important that exercise good control methods this month if we are to maintain a manageable herd and prevent damage to tree crops.