Where do we go from here?

Many game shoots are facing the dilemma of what to do with leftover birds, says Liam Bell

- Liam Bell

With the ever-tightening COVID-19 restrictions in operation in England, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland, there is little hope for those of us longing for a return to driven shooting. It seems pretty certain that most of us will have more birds on the ground at the end of this season than at the end of any other that we can remember.

Fitting in an extra day or two, or upping the bag on the days already in the diary for December, was quite doable after the November lockdowns. Trying to fit all the newly cancelled and postponed days into an already busy January was proving difficult before the latest lockdown was announced.

The question now is: what do you do with the birds you have left? Traditionally, hens were caught for laying pens and cocks were swapped with neighbours to change bloodlines and to avoid inbreeding.

The number of shoots with laying pens and rearing fields is much reduced now and, as far as DIY and self-run shoots are concerned, the cost of setting both up, plus the hours needed to manage a laying flock and rearing field, means it rarely fits in.

Poult suppliers may be looking for hen birds and it might be worth catching some up, but it has to be done during the shooting season to be legal. Of course, they may have enough already if they run a shoot themselves and haven’t managed to shoot all their days.

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