2009 - 2010 Season Commentary

We hope this finds you well and looking forward to another season... we are excited about the prospects and hope you will join us to shoot this year.

Last season started off a bit damp. Our first day was cancelled due to rain but we managed to salvage the Saturday shoot and the birds flew well. We were fortunate that the snow held off until well into December and even with the accumulations we were able to continue shooting into January before closing for the season.

All things considered, it was an excellent season and we had the pleasure of hosting several new groups and making some new friends. For the 2010 season we will continue to raise our birds from day-olds to ensure we provide strong flying birds for your enjoyment. There will be some chukar to add to the mix of birds when desired.

Last year was the first year we used our 2 new release pens. These pens are built around a wood that incorporates cover as well as sunning areas for the poults. The concept is that the poults grow up in the pen and see this as "home". They will fly out of the pen but the attraction of "home" encourages them to come back each evening to roost. Because the birds grow up in the wild as opposed to the flight pen they are better flyers and thus more challenging to shoot. Our return in the first season was 30% which, for our first time, is encouraging when you consider the generally accepted rate of return in the UK is 40%. By making some adjustments in our releasing plan we hope to achieve at least 40% in the 2010 season.

The new cover strips added in 2008 to augment existing drives have been retained for this coming season. We are experimenting with under-sowing the corn strips with a mix of Japanese and White millet. The millet is intended to warm up the corn rows and act as holding cover as well as providing a food source for the birds. We will be felling some timber in the big fir wood on the west side to develop a new drive and may do the same on the east side if we have time.

Last year also saw the construction of our new lunchroom and this was much appreciated by our guests. Although there were some finishing touches to be added when the season began it was fully functional and we hosted all our lunches there. We think it does add to the enjoyment of the day and we expect it will be fully ready for the coming season which will start in October as usual.

On the dog front we added a new member in the shape of "Maggie" She is from Springwater Kennels just south of Owen Sound and is a going concern to say the least. She came out on a few days in 2009 just to get some experience and should be ready to work for the coming season. On a sadder note we had to put down Jan's black lab "Mac". She had been blind for several years but had managed to cope very well and still came out with us on some shooting days. She was very adept at blind retrieves. She developed cancer in her lymph nodes and we made the difficult decision to let her go peacefully. She faced her blindness very stoically to her credit and gave us a lot of pleasure during her short life. She will be missed in our kennel

If you are considering coming to see us this fall and chasing some pheasants about we would urge you to book your day(s) as soon as you can to avoid disappointment. Jan and I are looking forward to having the pleasure of your company for a memorable day at Bardrochat.

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