Has anyone had success or not useing automatic feeders for pheasants ? ,we are a DIY shoot ,next year we are considering getting a couple to put next to the pens to call the birds back at night, the plan is to hand feed out in the mornings at a regular time,at the moment we use hoppers and hand feed ,A few years ago we had returns of 40%,but we had birds that didn't fly very well and a couple of guns that if it had one leg off the ground it was dead, five years ago we got rid of the iffy guns, changed our supplier to one that produces a strain of birds that fly ,but the return % dropped to between 25-28%,some in the sindicate, and the shoot captain/ owner say it is because the birds have walked off the shoot, I am on the ground almost daily and I know the birds are still on the ground, I keep saying we should put out stops a drive ahead, but it never happens, we have now had the after shoot inquest and the"Anti putting out stop members" have come up with the Auto: feeder idea to solve our problems,hence the original question.

I bought a couple for the duck ponds. Added a solar panel rated to replace the juice that was used in starting up the spinner and a baffle to fire the grain 1 way only, put a bag of best wheat in and left them, only adjusting the clock for lighting up times as they changes- about 1/2 hour a week. Worked fine- could sit and listen to the duck miles away chatting and when the whistle went off whoosh they were there!! Will recommend them- watch out for the feet though as they sink in soggy ground, and they are a swine to claen out by yourself. You also need to keep a tool handy for opening the clock as I always lose such things. Do'nt buy them on Ebay as you can import them more economically- I bought well known make and it was £200 each I think + solar panel £60 and good battery. i reckon each paid for themselves inside 2 years as the saved time and effort was repaid. The flight of the duck was great so that justified it.

Tried one on the Pheasants set am and pm feeds scattered and found the duck came in to thecovert for a feed- landed at pond and walked in to the wood! Quite a sight. Left it and found that if you feed too much the vermin arrive- crows and rats.

Would only use in safe area where couldnt be pinched £300+ replacement value, and that would tend to be an area that you can feed easily yourself. Standard hoppers with a spring on should work fine in your case.

As to your problem- are the birds running out past the guns? Flying back over the line or not going forward? You say you see them but they are not there on a shoot day is it becasuse they avoid the line as above ? or are they feeding - walking- and returning to roost? If that is the caes your feeders are feeding them when they come off roost and then they gey bored and wander off on to someone elses' feed, sunny spots, fun area only to come home to bed. Look to your feeding regime - too much too easily, or not the flavour. You must have a nice bed for them so shpuld be able to keep them.

Give some more information- think about what acrtually happens.

The returns falling could be for a number of reasons- did they go after water during the days? have you put down more birds on the back of a successful season and exceeded the holding capacity of your ground? Are the birds sitting tight and the beaters cant dig them out?

Stops can be vital however to keeping the birds in a drive and I cant see why anyone finds exception at them. Hang sewelling around the front of the drive and keep some back that way- develope a flushing point further back so they fly further and break out over the guns unexpectedly- drive them the opposite way so they turn over the line and go to the guns, or even if they are so heel bent on returning to their relaese point- change the release site and feed to the chosen point and reverse the drive c0ompletely.

At least trying things is free!
Keith

Hi Keith,thanks for your reply, this DIY shoot has three pens ,I look after one pen and beat ,two other guys look after a pen and beat each, the birds are mainly hopper fed, water & grit is available to them, we dont have another shoot right on our boundery ,the shoot is not very big and the pens are only a field away from the boundery's so we do have a problem there,we use sewelling we get birds going the right way mostly but some of the drives are fairly close together and birds that fly from one drive to the next are not in the drive when we come to do it, hence my argument for stops,the woods that are the biggest problem do not have much ground cover,we have done some cutting to let light in but as you know it takes time to get the cover,also 16 guns chatting and laughing loudly between drives dont help, its a walk one stand one shoot,so spare beaters/ stops are thin on the ground,Ive offered to stop myself "I'm crap with a shotgun", but thats been overuled as we would be short on beaters or guns, but saying that on the last day of the shoot I was not there ,stops were put out on a couple of the problem drives and the best bag of the season was shot,I think that whatever feeding reigime we put in place the birds will still escape without stops.

Your auto feeders won't stop birds wondering on shoot days stops or flags put out on the morning of the shoot might work . Also try mixing split maize or wild bird mixtures in with your wheat to make it more apertizing .

Mvf

If your drives are so close together you are in danger of tiring birds and that may explain why they vanish when you have seen them all go in to the next drive. They take at least 30 mins to recover from an evasive action flight.

You are in fact blanking a wood in to another drive. I would do this to increase the numbers in a drive and then slowly tipple them out to achieve a long steady flow and create a reasonable bag for that drive if it were needed. You can place someone to count birds across and be able to judge how many you will be able to put out across the guns, this way if they shoot 3 shots to 1 bird and shoot at half the birds you can estimate the bag from the drive before it starts.

Blanking in woods would require the use of stops however.

It strikes me that you could blank in two drives together and create a super drive to make the guns jaws drop!

Create dead hedging in a draughty wood or put lines of bales inside the fence lines, 10' inside with gaps to let birds through.

As far as loud speaking guns are concerned I know all about that!! The only way to stop the birds vanishing in these cases is by 'stopping' them. all you need to do is take a 'doubter' with you early in the day and stand and watch birds feeding and how they react to voices/laughs/dogs being cursed. They are startled and then run and stop. They then start feeding again but slowly are moving away from the not so immeadiate threat. They then walk some distance and thats out of the drive. Showing the doubter this will confirm the need for a stop - OR SILENCE! or better still - both! I did this with a friend of the Boss to "show him how things worked because he was interested" and he witnessed the Boss laughing and then calling his dog and the effect it had. The result was the Boss got such a ribbing that he mended his ways for some time- and the number of birds I could hold in that drive was noticably higher.
Regards
Keith

Could someone please explain the use of stops and their role.

Stops or tapers are people who have been given the job of preventing the birds walking off, they are used on shoot days usually just after the flushing point to stop the birds running on to the next wood etc (depends on topography).Tapers do just that tap two sticks together or a tree, not beating the hell out of it a gentle tapping works well.