Sporting Gun UK – May 2019

MAY 2019 SPORTING GUN 43

to do with ducks, so after getting advice

and doing some research he realised that

to put on a good show later in the season

it was imperative to “exercise” the birds.

This meant that as well as the daily feeding

regime, they would be pushed off the ponds

and encouraged to fl y every other day. This

The heat is on

The unusually hot summer caused no end of

problems for game shoots up and down the

country and Yeat Wood was no exception.

Plans had been made to move and increase

some of the cover crops and early in the year,

with advice from Marc Bull of Bright Seeds,

As well as feeding them daily, Andy “exercised” the mallard to build their strength

GAMEKEEPING

Our shoot

The scorching summer proved

disastrous for the cover crops,

many of which failed to thrive

TheideawasthatAndywouldrearand
releasemallardducks.Fromthebeginning
thisprovedtobea greatsuccess,withlosses
oftheducklingsminimalandonceouton
thepondstheythrived.Dailyfeedingof
theducksdevelopedintoa military-style
operationasAndydrewthemoutfurther
andfurtherfromtheponds.Thetheory
behindthisexercisewastotrytogetthe
ducksasfarawayfromthewateraspossible,
dependingonthesurroundingland

blocksofRoyalMK3 —canarygrass,reed

milletandtriticale—wereplantedalong with

biggerareasofmaize.Thedroughtproved

disastrousforthecrops,witheverything

otherthanthemaizefailing.A latesowing

ofa mustardmixwastriedbutthiswas

patchyanddidn’treallywork.

Thepheasantpoultsarrivedinearly July

andthrivedinthewarmweather.Water,

aswellasgood-qualityfoodwaskeyto this,

especiallyoncethebirdsstartedtowander

awayfromthereleasepens.Andyspent

a lotoftimemakingsurethedrinkers were

alwaysfullasbirdswillwanderfurther to

findwaterthantheywillforfood.

Asthebirdsgotbigger,dogging-inbecame

a relentlessandnecessaryjobforAndy,

especiallyastherewasanabundance of

naturalfoodfortheyoungpheasants to feed

on. As such, they really weren’t interested in

hitting the feeders and on such a relatively

small acreage the birds ended up all over

builtuptheirstrengthandstaminaandalso

madethemspookyaboutflagsandbeaters.

Itwasobviousfromthefirstshootday

thatallthehardworkandplanninghadpaid

offastheducksflewreallywellandproved

extremelychallengingfortheGuns.Infact,

ona coupleofwindydaystheyquicklyflew

outofrange.Drivenduckscanendupbeing

littlemorethana “bagfiller ”if notnurtured

properlybutit seemsthattheformulaat

YeatWoodworkedwellandissomething

The poults arrived in

early July and thrived

in the warm weather

“The unusually hot summer

caused no end of problems

for game shoots up and

down the country”