The pheasant or the egg?

Have you ever stopped to wonder what it really takes to put birds over the Guns? Tim Maddams is on a quest to find out.

With the game season now at an end, many of us will not think about a pheasant or a partridge until next season begins, but of course it goes without saying that if we are hoping to shoot game again next winter then birds will have to be put onto the ground and kept there.

And that got me to thinking – how many of us really understand what goes into getting a few birds over the Guns in the shooting season? I know most of the people I shoot with know the rudiments, but what of the more complex issues surrounding game rearing? It’s certainly true that there are many different systems, and with partridges and ducks on the increase on many shoots, there must also be unique systems for rearing those species too. I myself have often wondered, for instance, how they manage to get so many eggs hatched and reared in time for the season. Many shoots now simply buy-in poults, but they must still come from somewhere! So where, how and, importantly, under what conditions are these birds reared and what is the best system for each shoot?