The Unintended Keeper ( Diary of a keeping blagger )

[FOXHUNTER 5,020]

It always seems much more of a chore when it's raining and foggy.

More rain for the next week or so but hopefully improve after that.

All this will be forgotten come December when those chickens are screaming over the guns.

 

[shovel leaner 7,648]

47 minutes ago, Stavross said:

 Cheers it’s definitely not been the start I wanted, I think I was spoiled last season, I had no real problems at all, this morning I’d of been better with a boat than the quad, everything is hid in deep cover, oh, and I’ve got 2 drinkers that have stopped working in the forestry pen so I’ve had to put some poultry drinkers in until I can work out why they are air locking

fingers crossed them buzzards get sick of pheasant for tea

It’s not the amount of poults they take it’s just their presence. If you get one hanging around your feeders or drinkers it stops them from drinking and feeding. 

[Stavross 13,712]

36 minutes ago, shovel leaner said:

It’s not the amount of poults they take it’s just their presence. If you get one hanging around your feeders or drinkers it stops them from drinking and feeding. 

That’s the problem isn’t it, they fly above them all day worrying them and the just stay in the cover, there’s a hell of a lot of them compared to just a few years ago, we are starting to see a few red kites now as well, we could do without them

[shovel leaner 7,648]

13 minutes ago, Stavross said:

That’s the problem isn’t it, they fly above them all day worrying them and the just stay in the cover, there’s a hell of a lot of them compared to just a few years ago, we are starting to see a few red kites now as well, we could do without them

We had Kites too . They appeared in the last couple of years . But they never really bothered the poults in the pen , but the buzzards were a problem. The worst of all is a Gos hawk , absolute killing machine. 

[Sausagedog 7,381]

5 hours ago, shovel leaner said:

We had Kites too . They appeared in the last couple of years . But they never really bothered the poults in the pen , but the buzzards were a problem. The worst of all is a Gos hawk , absolute killing machine. 

See them regularly on my patch, and peregrine's

Only the other day a male gos flopped away leisurely out of an oak. Pigeons were suddenly darting all roads!

[Stavross 13,712]

Early start this morning, up at 5am, birds seem a little more settled, they seem to be taking enough feed for what is in, I am getting a few wandering down the fence in the beast field and down into the tip drive, they always do this so I went in with the quad at the bottom of the field at the back of the farm and headed up towards the tip, when I got half way up there was a group of about 40/50 along the edge of the stubble, these weren’t all ours, they were a good mix of ours, next doors and a few wildies, I could tell which were next doors, not just by the size but how when I slowly took the quad up to them ours headed back up the field where theirs really wanted to go back down the field, I’m going to have to get a few members to go up at different times and just walk the edge of that field, I don’t mind next doors coming in but I don’t want them dragging our birds down the field, another trip up after work and I’m having an evening off tomorrow to go out for a bit of tea with Mosh, Longshanx and the women, I need the rest, my eyes are hanging out my head

[FOXHUNTER 5,020]

Get the other lazy feckers to share the workload, I would have a rota set up.

 

[Stavross 13,712]

38 minutes ago, FOXHUNTER said:

Get the other lazy feckers to share the workload, I would have a rota set up.

 

It doesn’t work like that anymore, I’ve took over because it never works when the work is shared out between the members, people think it’s just feeding birds, but if loads of different people are going up then you don’t know how much feed is going over a certain amount of time, where the birds are and there’s always one idiot that starts moving feeders further out, every good syndicate I know of now has at least a part time keeper, after last season they came to the conclusion that they are better off paying someone to do it all, I’ll certainly never get rich from it but I won’t be out of pocket and it’s nice to have the run of the place 

[Stavross 13,712]

Another day, another early start, I had a look at a picture from the day they went in earlier and it’s amazing how much they have grown in 10 days, I’ve calmed down a bit now as they have settled down and are taking an amount of feed I would expect them to, Gordon’s pen is starting to stink a bit now so maybe by the end of the week I’ll consider lifting the wire, but I’ll keep my eye on the over the coming week, I’ve got a few hammering the feeders over the piggeries although I haven’t seen any good numbers over there yet, I had a walk down the stubble at the back of the farm, now this field separates the oak wood and the tip drive, I walked the middle of the field and the half along the oak wood has been drilled in rape and is now about 10” deep, there was a good dozen or so frenchy’s in it which hopefully could be a little bonus for the guns. When I got to the bottom I walked the tip drive up, now there’s a lot of birds in here and a right mixed bunch they are too, all different shapes and sizes, there’s a few of ours, a few wildies, some adults and good bunch of next doors, I slowly walked the back up towards the beast field. After that I went to have a look at the bottom of the oak wood and it would appear that next doors have found their way onto the track that leads to my drive ( see bottom pic ) I may have hand fed a bit of wheat leading into my drive, I don’t mind if they go back to the pen on an evening as long as the first place they go when they get off roost is the oak wood

[Stavross 13,712]

So, with the weather we have got at the moment the birds just want to be out the pens and in the sunshine on the fields, They are still eating well and I think I’m going to lift the wire at the weekend, set the rest free

after feeding the pens I took the bike over the piggeries with a bag of apples for the deer and some fresh water, good job I’ve got the feeders in crates to stop them fallow rolling them about

then off to walk the stubble and tip drive in, there was loads there, a right mix of ours next doors and wildies 

last stop was the oak wood and I got a shock when I seen just how many of next doors birds were about a third of the way up the ride into my drive, now I was talking to the forestry lad and apparently next doors keeper was bad mouthing me to him saying what a dickhead I am, he’s got no idea off to the farm, gathered a feeder and put it 70 yards up the track, not with wheat in, oh no, with pellet I’m a bad man

[FOXHUNTER 5,020]

Make sure you shoot the oak wood and the field next to his pen first and dont hold back

[FOXHUNTER 5,020]

38 minutes ago, Stavross said:

good job I’ve got the feeders in crates to stop them fallow rolling them about

 

Are you sure it's not roe pushing them about

[Stavross 13,712]

1 minute ago, FOXHUNTER said:

Are you sure it's not roe pushing them about

Could be them bloody jackalope

I’m not seeing a lot of traffic on the fresh drilling along the side of the piggeries but they are definitely there by the amount of apples they are getting through 

[Stavross 13,712]

38 minutes ago, FOXHUNTER said:

Make sure you shoot the oak wood and the field next to his pen first and dont hold back

He’s going to have nothing but trouble keeping them out of my oak wood drive, the whole side of the oak wood is half a field of rape and as they haven’t drilled the other side yet an left it in stubble I would have a guess that that’s going in spuds, I do like at least one drive on the shoot that’s just full of free birds

[shovel leaner 7,648]

You are sounding more optimistic now Stavross.