There is an increasing trend towards encouraging wild birds. However, driven shooting could not continue in its present form without the rearing and release of large numbers of game birds.
Since some habitats can clearly sustain more birds than others, it is difficult to put a precise figure on the limit to the number of birds which should be released in a given area. Research by the Game and Wildlife Conservation Trust shows that in average circumstances releasing 10-12 pheasants per acre will cause no problems and in optimum habitats it might be more. However the golden rule, firmly stated in the Code of Good Shooting Practice, is that the number of birds stocked should never compromise their welfare or damage the environment.
While a large shoot might release 10,000 birds or more, the typical DIY syndicate would release several hundred. However the techniques for rearing are fundamentally the same. Only the scale varies.
In the past gamekeepers would catch up hen pheasants at the end of the shooting season to produce eggs which would then be incubated, often under broody hens, and the chicks reared. Today a few shoots buy in eggs to hatch and raise themselves and a few buy in chicks, but the majority buy poults - that is six-week old birds which are ready to be introduced to a natural environment by way of a release pen.
 Game birds live up to their name when it comes to mating. To produce eggs a cock bird and up to eight hens will be placed in a breeding pen. This must be large enough to provide a roofed area to protect birds from the weather and include cover where the hens can escape the demands of over-amorous cock birds.
As the eggs are laid they will be removed and placed in an incubator. When laying ceases the birds are usually sold to shoots, though some may be transferred to large pens where they can live a natural life until the next breeding season. Hens are rarely kept for more than two seasons.
On the Continent a battery cage-type system has been developed for producing eggs. BASC’s governing council has stated unequivocally that, on the basis of the evidence it has seen so far, battery-type cage laying systems for pheasants and partridges are incompatible with the values of BASC and the future of game shooting.
Only five or six game farms (about 5% of UK producers) use this method and BASC is working with other interested organisations to set acceptable standards for egg production.
Fertile eggs are placed in batches in incubators. When they hatch, the chicks are moved to specially designed brooder huts heated by gas or infra-red lamps and provided with ample food and water.
At about two weeks they have access to pens with an outdoor run. This gives them the freedom to grow naturally, although there will usually be a covered area with a heat source to ensure that they do not suffer in bad weather.
Here the chicks will grow and become feathered quickly so that at six weeks, when they have become poults they will be ready for introduction to the release pen.
At six weeks old the poults will ‘go to the wood.’ They will be taken by the shoots to release pens where the process of introducing them to life in the wild begins.
Release pens are sited in woodland, or among cover crops, and as the name suggests are large enclosures surrounded by a high mesh fence. Smaller pens may have a netting cover, but generally they cover large areas and are open-topped. They should provide about 20 square yards per bird.
These pens, which contain trees and shrubs, will provide ample shelter and food. Once the poults have become accustomed to the pen, ‘pop holes’ will be opened - small holes in the fence which allow them to wander out and explore the wood around them but return freely to the safety of the pen.
Because the pen provides food and shelter the birds accept it as their home base from which they forage and to which they return to roost in the evening.
The pop holes and open top allow the birds easy access and the pen will be protected by a low electric wire, to deter foxes, and tunnel traps to stop small ground predators such as stoats and weasels getting in. All birds of prey are protected, but keepers routinely use non-lethal deterrents, which include flapping plastic bags, strips of tin foil or old CDs hung from branches.
As the birds grow bolder they will forage farther from the pen. Feeders containing corn will be strategically placed around the shoot to prevent the birds from straying too far but the birds will be encouraged to seek food in the woods from which they will be flushed in the shooting season. However in the evening the keeper will scatter corn around the pen and whistle to the birds to bring them back safely to their roost.
At the end of a shoot each person involved will automatically be given a brace (pair) of birds. They may also be given any additional birds that they would like, or buy them at a very modest cost - about £1 each.
 Small shoots will generally distribute all the birds among shoot members and give some away to friends or landowners. Larger shoots may sell their surplus birds to a game dealer or directly to local people. To sell game you require a Game Dealer’s Licence, which is obtained from local authorities.
Because it is raised in the wild, without any drugs or chemicals, game meat is lean, healthy and above all, delicious. What few people realise is that game is also extraordinarily cheap. Many shoots will sell oven-ready pheasants for as little as £5 a brace.
In fact about 80% of the game shot in the UK is exported to the continent, but thanks to the advocacy of several celebrity chefs, better marketing and increasing use of farmers’ markets, more and more people are buying freshly shot game.
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