Jeffrey is causing trouble!

Wasn't sure where to post this so Admin feel free to move it. Jeffrey is our "pet" pheasant who acquired us about 10 weeks ago. He is incredibly tame (was when he arrived), will pretty well come to the call and let you stroke his back when you give him a bowl of wheat seed.

We love having Jeffrey and now Mrs Jeffrey about the place. He has shown his girlfriend that we are friend not foe and she too is becoming quite tame.

This is all fine and dandy BUT, there is always a but! apart from waking me up about 6 am with his version of a Cockerel Jeffrey has decided a piece of grass which was reseeded earlier this year post my greenhouse going up is the best dust bath! He has scrapped away most of the seeded grass and I now have dented bare soil where there had been the fairly good beginnings of a grass patch. Don't have lawn here just short moss/weed!!!!

Any ideas of what would be best to keep him off the area? No point in reseeding atm as that will no doubt get scoffed. I also don't want to put up anything which he and his girlfriend might get tangled in. I do have quantities of pea netting but would worry they'd get tangled up in it. Likewise not particularly keen on spending loads of money on temporary fencing. Anybody know if sheep wire would be high enough to deter? It's about 3ft high, could borrow some from the farmer. Unfortunately the area is quite large approx 35ft x 15ft not a case of a wee bit of a barricade.

 

Silu,
I'm rather envious of your tenants but understand your frustration too. I would have thought that sturdy wire would be difficult for them to get tangled up in. They must have to encounter some pretty tangled undergrowth in their natural environment surely?
Anyway, I'm watching this thread to see what advice others will offer. I hope you can keep them and they bring the kids round to see you a bit later on...
oh dear - just thought of the havoc a whole family could wreak on you....
Jenny

 

I know what you are going through, I have had a similar experience. We have 2 puppies that have just turned a year old, and about 6 weeks ago I re-turfed our back garden. They have never shown much interest in digging up the lawn before so was horrified to find them digging themselves a nice hole to lay in this week. Im not sure when its the bone meal that I used on the soil, or whether the hot weather has prompted this.

Hasten to say, Im not a happy bunny, add to that my 2yr old son who decapitated all but 1 of my tulips and has now removed the flower buds from my bearded Iris's. Oh, and the puppies also have a taste for my banana plants!!!!

 

Make a pile of soil some were else in the garden and feed him and her there, the only thing to stop him on the seeded area in some chicken wire about 3 to 4 inches off the ground and around the edges most be stacked to the ground so he can't get in, or you could try and keep the area damp
You can make a cage up with pea netting or chicken wire make sure he/she can't get in and make it strong enough to take his weight as they will get on top the area most be inclosed top and sides
Sheep wire is to big they can get through that

Edit
If the sheep wire is the plastic type you could try put the stacks into the ground at 45 deg to make a triangle and put the wire onto the stacks, make sure the smaller hole in the sheeps wire is at the bottom may work, and you could put the fence on as well, give him a few shocks and he may stay away

Pheasants love rasions

 

Thank you very much Jiffy. You sound as tho you know lots about Pheasants. I just can't believe how tame Jeffrey is or how noisy! Would my electric fencing tape do him any harm if I threaded it through the chicken wire so he got a surprise if he touched it? I used the tape for the horse who learnt years ago not to go near it and I now don't even bother to have it switched on. Don't want to fry Jeffrey tho and he's a lot smaller than a horse!

 

Just digging out my recipe for port gravy as we speak

I reckon a roll of chicken wire suspended over that area will work.

 

You can go off people Longk! I have to admit to also being rather partial to Pheasant and have plucked and cleaned a fair few in my day. Post the Jeffrey experience I'm not sure I will want to eat it again.

 

Lucky you - Jeffrey and Mrs Jeffrey are lovely

 

No, I've just got one

 

He's a bonny lad Jiffy.....
Jenny

 

Lovely Pheasant and very nice Ceanothus too! Is he tame Jiffy? Jeffrey has been driving me mad all day as he decided to pay a visit inside the greenhouse (door open as hot here). Got completely bamboozled by the glass and starting flapping about.... I had to go to the rescue. He's bust 2 Tomato plants having stomped all over the place. I might be needing that Port wine gravy recipe from Longk after all.

 

We had one at my daughters 2 years ago and he became fairly tame would come to within about 2 ft of you and take the chicken pellets that I would feed him with,but he turned up with 3 lady friends.When the shooting season started you could rely on him to turn as soon as the guns started banging and at the end of the day of he would go.

 

Thank you Jenny

The top pictures are a other bird for a few years back, the bottom one this this years bird but he's not as tame as the last one, but were getting there