Pen Work

After the mornings stalk some of the other shoot members joined up to work on extending the Worthy pen. A warm welcome to Paul who has joined the shoot this year as a full gun. Tristan also gave up some of his time to help out, although I suspect that David is praying to all sorts that the sledge hammer swing hits the intended target and not his knuckles! We got the posts in, and the straining wire up plus the pen door re sited. Next Saturday the chicken wire will go on.

Yearling Cull Buck

Here's Smudge with his yearling buck he also took on Saturday morning. Apparently it was a bit of a yomp back to the car, hence the rather f**d'ed look.

Yes it was on a warming morning but the woolly hat matched the polo shirt and trousers.

April Wood Buck

Took this buck at 5.30am on Saturday morning from a small wood next door to the farm. The owners wanted to keep the damage down on the young tree's that they have growing there. A high seat went up last Saturday in readiness but proved not needed. I thought the game was up as soon as I glanced down each side of the block only for the buck to start barking somewhere in the middle of the plantation. I backed off and took a long walk around a field to let him settle down.

At the bottom of the wood I followed the fence up 20 yards until a suitable access point reached. Got over the fence without too much fuss and proceeded towards the location of the high seat. 20 pace's later the buck takes homage to my presence and starts to bark again only this time within sight. Far from taking the quickest route away from me, he doubled back to defend his wood, at which point once from behind a shrub he emerged he was duly dropped on the spot.

Still a carpet of blue

The bluebells showing no signs of wilting yet.

Poult Production

Took a visit to the game farm last night where our poults are coming from and as you can see the production is in full scale operation. The first batch of chicks were hatched earlier in the week.

The pictures displayed here show what happens to the eggs when collected from the rearing pens. First they are washed to clean them, left to dry for a bit and then trayed up (as Graham is showing) before stacked overnight prior to going in the hatchers. Nearer the time I'll try and get some shots of day olds to follow up with. Having spent a week working on a game farm I know how labour intensive the work is especially when one slight problem can cause massive implications for the rearing season. Right now the weather could be alot warmer during the nights which would save concern.

Bluebell Time

That time of year again when the ground takes on a splash of colour.