Hand-feeding

The oldest method of feeding - and still probably the best one - is to scatter grain among straw spread on the ground. It is very important to keep this straw fresh. Wet, muddy litter trodden into the ground can encourage the growth of Aspergillus, which will sometimes result in fungus disease among the birds. On the other hand, fresh loose straw does much to prevent this and makes the pheasants work for their food. Feeding in fresh straw is quite economical, because it is difficult for small birds to get at half buried food. Together with 'amusement centres', which consist of corn and seed silos made from straw bales, and other hoppers described in this chapter, this type of feeding keeps the birds busy and interested, but not overfed.

It is very important, however, not to concentrate the feeding into a small area. Too often one sees patches of 20 yds. ( 18 m.) square with up to 150 pheasants hastily gobbling up food scattered on flattened straw. For this number of pheasants, feeding should be on a narrow swath of straw at least 50 yds. (42 m.) long. This reduces competition between the birds and enables them to take plenty of time over their food. Where they are too concentrated the birds tend to rush their feeding and eat too much. Overfed pheasants fly just as badly as overfed mallard.

Another traditional method of giving pheasants something to occupy themselves is the scratching heap. This is made simply by mixing grain or seeds into a trailer-load of sand which can be tipped beside a ride.

When hand feeding in covert, a daily visit is essential and the birds should be whistled to come to feed - if they have previously been used to a whistle. Hoppers are certainly useful in covert, but hand feeding should, if possible, be the mainstay of the programme. It is not possible to suggest a standard feeding technique for every shoot. Each poses its own problem and may require slightly different methods. In most cases effort should be concentrated where birds are released and this is usually in a small number of central coverts. Some of these pheasants are then encouraged by feeding to move into other neighbouring woods or crops. Whether this is done by hopper or by hand is a matter for local conditions. This is more a part of the releasing policy than the feeding policy.

In addition to careful planning of the covert feeding, it must be noted that many shoots carry larger stocks of wild pheasants than is generally supposed, and these birds should not be neglected. Although it is possible and useful to move a pheasant by Feeding from one place to another, we do not think that 'long stop' feeding in outlying boundary spinneys will really draw out a great weight .of birds from the centre of the shoot and induce them to step over the boundary. Feeding on the boundary is, on the whole, more likely to stop wandering pheasants than encourage them.

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