Buying Partridge for release and breeding

cavan shooter

Chatting to a few lads the other night and we were thinking of getting some partridge. Does anyone have an idea on Who rears them, where are they based and How much they cost.

Is it true that they should be bought and released in pairs or groups of pairs.

Eddie B

cavan shooter wrote: »

Chatting to a few lads the other night and we were thinking of getting some partridge. Does anyone have an idea on Who rears them, where are they based and How much they cost.

Is it true that they should be bought and released in pairs or groups of pairs.

Not trying to be smart or anything, but if i were you, I'd get a few pheasants instead. You might get to have a few shots at them.

J.R.

cavan shooter wrote: »

Chatting to a few lads the other night and we were thinking of getting some partridge. Does anyone have an idea on Who rears them, where are they based and How much they cost.

Is it true that they should be bought and released in pairs or groups of pairs.

few good tips here to get you started

https://www.gwct.org.uk/advisory/guides/re-establishing-grey-partridges-through-releasing/guidelines-for-re-establishment/tips/

Capercaillie

J.R. wrote: »

few good tips here to get you started

https://www.gwct.org.uk/advisory/guides/re-establishing-grey-partridges-through-releasing/guidelines-for-re-establishment/tips/

Unfortunately very difficult to get population of grey partridge set up.

cavan shooter

What about red legs are they hardier

p28559

cavan shooter wrote: »

What about red megs are they hardier

red legs are mad flighty yokes.....have released them in the past onto preserves to see them just take flight and keep going....you could release 50 and never see or hear of 40 of them again......you would have better crack buying 50 in October to put in a pen and do some class of a driven shoot over them in the season...think they are €5 - €6

cavan shooter

p28559 wrote: »

cavan shooter wrote: »

What about red megs are they hardier

red legs are mad flighty yokes.....have released them in the past onto preserves to see them just take flight and keep going....you could release 50 and never see or hear of 40 of them again......you would have better crack buying 50 in October to put in a pen and do some class of a driven shoot over them in the season...think they are €5 - €6

Who is selling them where can you get them

Birdnuts

Unless the birds have access to a good acreage of low intensity spring tillage and/or cover crops its will be very hard to keep them on your permission for any length of time

meathstevie

Partridge is a bird that is very suited to old fashioned farming practices. They don't thrive at all with modern grassland and tillage methods.

I reckon that if you haven't got access to substantial enough amounts of land that's specifically managed for shooting that you'll find yourself on a road to nowhere.

270WIN

Birdnuts wrote: »

Unless the birds have access to a good acreage of low intensity spring tillage and/or cover crops its will be very hard to keep them on your permission for any length of time

Most definitely...I reared about 30 red legs a few years back and released about 25 onto barley stubble. The few i held back kept the lads outside from straying too far. Lovely birds and to hear them calling each other in the evenings was something else. Mad hoors though and almost impossible to get anyway near them for a shot. As soon as they saw you or a dog they were gone. They stayed around for about a year and they died out. I heard reports that a young clutch of red legs was seen a year later on the road not far from me but the woman wasnt 100 percent sure

Birdnuts

270WIN wrote: »

Most definitely...I reared about 30 red legs a few years back and released about 25 onto barley stubble. The few i held back kept the lads outside from straying too far. Lovely birds and to hear them calling each other in the evenings was something else. Mad hoors though and almost impossible to get anyway near them for a shot. As soon as they saw you or a dog they were gone. They stayed around for about a year and they died out. I heard reports that a young clutch of red legs was seen a year later on the road not far from me but the woman wasnt 100 percent sure

When I was a young teen the local GC I helped out with released a couple of dozen tagged Red Legs. We had a similar experience to yourself - indeed one of birds was spotted a year later 10 miles away!! feeding on bird seed under an old dears bird table in a rural garden!!

Backbarrel

cavan shooter wrote: »

Chatting to a few lads the other night and we were thinking of getting some partridge. Does anyone have an idea on Who rears them, where are they based and How much they cost.

Is it true that they should be bought and released in pairs or groups of pairs.

I think the NARGC have a breeding program in Dublin for partridge. Whoever is handling that might be able to sort you out. Notsure about cost though.

Eddie B

Backbarrel wrote: »

I think the NARGC have a breeding program in Dublin for partridge. Whoever is handling that might be able to sort you out. Notsure about cost though.

Not a chance of them giving or selling birds. As far as i know, they are breeding native birds similar to Boora. They would probably donate birds if they could inspect the land to see if it was transformed into ideal Grey partridge habitat. That is a huge task in itself.

Benny mcc

We've a plan in place for this year coming and next few years if we can get land owners next to us to get involved. We have 3 that will have a go but we need much more and lots of time and effort from the sounds of it. I think from what I see on here it would be a 10 year thing at least to be any way worth while.

Capercaillie

Eddie B wrote: »

Not a chance of them giving or selling birds. As far as i know, they are breeding native birds similar to Boora. They would probably donate birds if they could inspect the land to see if it was transformed into ideal Grey partridge habitat. That is a huge task in itself.

The Dublin birds are from Boora.

Eddie B

Capercaillie wrote: »

The Dublin birds are from Boora.

Yes sorry, I meant they aint breeding for selling, but more so to establish a native breeding population similar to what Boora are doing.

grassroot1

Capercaillie wrote: »

The Dublin birds are from Boora.

I was sure the Dublin birds came from Tipperary. The birds from Tipperary were imported from Estonia I think by the NARGC.

cavan shooter

So how much are they and if they don't sell them to clubs what's the point. I'm not hearing much about successful grey partridge programs around tge country at this stage is suggest the country should be covered in greys.

We got a price of 5E from a lad up north for red legs.

Eddie B

cavan shooter wrote: »

So how much are they and if they don't sell them to clubs what's the point. I'm not hearing much about successful grey partridge programs around tge country at this stage is suggest the country should be covered in greys.

We got a price of 5E from a lad up north for red legs.

Here's an old article on the Dublin project. I'm sure it has been very successfull.

https://www.greypartridge.ie/?p=192

And just came across this one that I didn't know about.

http://www.inchpartridgeproject.com/

Sorry, we seem to be going off track from what your looking for, I think. It shouldn't be too hard find red or grey leg partridge for shooting purposes. They are often for sale in some of the poultry marts.

cavan shooter

Eddie B wrote: »

cavan shooter wrote: »

So how much are they and if they don't sell them to clubs what's the point. I'm not hearing much about successful grey partridge programs around tge country at this stage is suggest the country should be covered in greys.

We got a price of 5E from a lad up north for red legs.

Here's an old article on the Dublin project. I'm sure it has been very successfull.

https://www.greypartridge.ie/?p=192

And just came across this one that I didn't know about.

http://www.inchpartridgeproject.com/

Sorry, we seem to be going off track from what your looking for, I think. It shouldn't be too hard find red or grey leg partridge for shooting purposes. They are often for sale in some of the poultry marts.

I was told last night the Dublin partridge are €60 for a pair. For that they must lay golden eggs.

Eddie B

cavan shooter wrote: »

I was told last night the Dublin partridge are €60 for a pair. For that they must lay golden eggs.

Well I'm sure the price is all to do with the fact that those birds are suppose to be genetically the same as our own native partridge which are absent from most parts of the country for many years now., so tgey aint the run of the mill partridge that are imported from the UK.

Saying that, they live just as long as any partridge that are released from gun clubs lol

p28559

Capercaillie wrote: »

The Dublin birds are from Boora.

I thought that only red legs could be hunted and that grey partridge were protected.......

minktrapper

How common were partridge in their time. Before modern agricultural practices. I suppose in the early 1900's.

Eddie B

minktrapper wrote: »

How common were partridge in their time. Before modern agricultural practices. I suppose in the early 1900's.

Here's a bit of an insight into the history of grey partridge in Ireland

https://www.greypartridge.ie/?page_id=48

And some more interesting reading

https://www.irishexaminer.com/lifestyle/outdoors/richard-collins/can-partridges-be-saved-from-extinction-2705.html

Eddie B

I wasn't aware that there is more projects being started around the country. This may be of interest to you cavan shooter

https://nargc.ie/nargc-grey-partridge-project/

cavan shooter

Good reading lads thanks. Talking to a neighbour there used to be partridge around us back in the 1980s. When there were wee gardens of oats small fields of cereal crop, spuds and turnips.

Capercaillie

p28559 wrote: »

I thought that only red legs could be hunted and that grey partridge were protected.......

Grey partridge originating from Lough Boora which are forming the various reintroduction programmes are protected. Red legged partridge have a season and can be hunted then.

J.R.

Eddie B wrote: »

I wasn't aware that there is more projects being started around the country. This may be of interest to you cavan shooter

https://nargc.ie/nargc-grey-partridge-project/

East Donegal one also

http://nargc.ie/wp-content/uploads/2018/05/East-Donegal-GREY-PARTRIDGE-Interim-Report-2018.pdf