Outside Days

Some keepers stress on the day, berating the beaters as they race around trying to ensure that the birds are moving in the right direction and the right numbers to provide guns with the perfect day’s sport. Others spend their summers stressing over the chicks in the rearing field, clucking around like mother hens, tweaking the heating and the feeding to get it just right. And all the while knowing that the success of the season rests on the six weeks the birds spend on the rearing field. Fail here, and the guns will be less than impressed on their pegs.

Whether home-hatched or bought in as day olds, partridge and pheasant spend their formative chickhood on the rearing field, sunning themselves in day shelters where they can chase insects throught the long grass, and retreating to the heated confines of the rearing shed as the evening chill or wet weather sets in. Catch a keeper sitting in the doorway of a shed gazing lovingly at his brood (eyes glazed over with exhaustion), and he’s probably checking the height of his nipple drinkers to make sure all the birds are able to reach the water. Or making sure that the feeders are topped up, the heat is just about right (a comfortable tropical swelter), and catching any small issue before it multiplies into a disaster.

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