Buying time for poults to thrive

As we all know the loss of poults on small shoots can be a real frustration, so protecting against raptor attacks is time well spent, says Liam Bell

Losses of released birds to raptors is usually less than 5% of the number of birds put down. There are of course places where it is higher, but in many cases it can be as low as 2% or 3%. But this doesn’t make it any less frustrating when you find kills, especially if you only put a few birds down to start with.

Pheasant poults have usually outgrown sparrowhawks when they get to 10 to 12 weeks of age. They will be too big and streetwise for all but the largest and most determined of buzzards a month later, but sadly never get too big or clever enough to escape the clutches of a goshawk. A goshawk will kill fewer birds as the poults mature — and become more attuned to danger — but they are never really out of harm’s way. A hen goshawk is quite capable of killing an adult cock pheasant. Thankfully, as most kills occur in the first couple of weeks the poults are in the pens, there are things we can do to deter birds of prey and improvements we can make to the habitat within the release pens themselves to reduce both the actual losses and the stress caused to the birds by the raptors that target them.

That said, the biggest single thing you can do to reduce kills in your pens is to release your birds at eight weeks of age instead of the more usual six-and-a-half to seven weeks. They grow a huge amount in that extra week, put on weight and generally just get stronger. Bigger, stronger, sharper poults are more likely to escape the clutches of a bird of prey and less likely to suffer from stress-induced illnesses if they are being harassed.