Making hens meet

Soldier Palmer recalls his efforts to restore grey partridges in Scotland and his realisation that the old-fashioned ways are very hard work

- Soldier Palmer

Springtime sets me thinking about partridges. The curlew come back and lapwings dance noisily in the fields but our grey partridges have long since been confined to the history books. I’ve had a long-term ambition to restore their numbers here, but that’s not easy in the modern countryside where everything seems to run against them.

I often read of partridge reintroduction projects in Shooting Times and it’s encouraging to realise how dedicated some keepers are. It can be done and, in trying to unlock the benefits of decent habitat work and a fair amount of predator control, I’ve been tempted to look back to bygone days for inspiration.

When I first started looking at partridges, it was impossible to ignore their endless connections with our sporting heritage. I learned about the Euston system and the many ingenious methods people used to maximise partridge numbers for sporting purposes.

Relying on the use of broody hens and individual pens and coops seemed like an extremely labour-intensive and hands-on way to run a shoot, yet it also seemed more organic and true to the birds than many of the modern techniques.

Woodwork

My initial enquiries revealed that my first step towards rearing grey partridges would be to develop some basic joinery skills. My woodworking knowledge began and ended with half a term of classroom instruction at school. The practical side of my brain has not developed much in the intervening 20 years, yet suddenly I was confronted by the prospect of building pen sections and night shelters, coops and ‘sun-runs’, which turned out to be miniature greenhouses where young birds could enjoy the warmth of a summer’s day.