It’s that time of year again

[shovel leaner 7,648]

Good result.

[Sausagedog 7,381]

That fox has some greyhound in it!

[Stavross 13,706]

1 hour ago, Sausagedog said:

That fox has some greyhound in it!

Yeah he was as a bit leggie and he was off as soon as the lamp hit him

[Stavross 13,706]

Well the birds are coming tomorrow another week later than planned due to the weather, this has given us a bit more prep time on the pens, so me and two others have been up today and put a new drinker system in one of the pens, we have been flat out on the tap and the hole thing has cost £15.49 for a fitting for the IBC water tank and 4 hours of our time, I’m very pleased with our efforts, no more manually filling the drinkers at the back of the pens

[Sausagedog 7,381]

Who did the steel work, looks good?

[Stavross 13,706]

2 minutes ago, Sausagedog said:

Who did the steel work, looks good?

The lad in the picture, he’s a shoot member, he owns a fabrication company, I was impressed when he turned up with them, I was going to make the hangers out of fence rails 

[shovel leaner 7,648]

Bloody hell , those drinker hangers put mine to shame . I’ve got fence posts driven in on a 45degree angle and just move them around a bit . Those are the nuts !!!

[foxdropper 17,092]

Sure I don’t have to tell you lads but it’s very important to wash those out every day or at least every other .Water or dirty water rather  is where any disease spreads like wildfire .

[Stavross 13,706]

This is why we have put the drinkers in, we’ve had a big problem with disease in the past, so this seems to be the way to go, a quick tip out and a wipe when feeding and we are good to go, I think someone has put something under them to stop them paddling the ground up around them as well 

[foxdropper 17,092]

Do you have the option to move them mate as this far outways any anti paddling device lol.

[shovel leaner 7,648]

I like to put a few shovels of gravel/ grit under and around my drinkers . It stops the mucky paddling and they also pick up a lot of grit for their crop . Then when it looks a bit dirty I move it . In wet weather this is more often than dry weather . I give the drinkers a swirl/wipe every day or so . I’ve not had any disease on this shoot for all the time I’ve been here. I put it down to cleanliness, big pens/ low density, and most importantly, lifting the wire as soon as you can . In my case after about 10 days . That means you have to be on top of the foxes . 

[Sausagedog 7,381]

I've heard of quick lime being used too.

Edited August 20, 2019 by Sausagedog

[shovel leaner 7,648]

6 hours ago, Sausagedog said:

I've heard of quick lime being used too.

We used to use Stalosan F as a floor dressing , I’ve heard of lime but always thought quick lime too harsh . Agricultural lime is fine though. 

[Stavross 13,706]

Can’t move the drinks, in the other pen we have gravel around them an that works well, the birds don’t stay in the pens very long, we like to get them out in and around the woods  as soon as they have settled in and know where they live especially if the weather is good

[Longshanx 832]

On 08/08/2019 at 10:15, Stavross said:

It is really long out in the field but short around the edges, we also have a big field of cut barley next to the rape stubble that would be ideal to draw them into and it still has the bails in it to shoot from

failing that we could take longshanx.308 with the FMJ’s, that’s a joke long one, we and not turning this into a war movie

Spoil sport