Do pigeons..............

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Do pigeons..............
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nettie

Joined: 02 Dec 2004
Posts: 5888
Location: Suffolk

Posted: Tue Mar 08, 05 6:13 pm Post subject:
Can sympathise about the brassicas. The little wotsits had all the leaves off my swedes this winter. Caught them at it!!!

tahir

Joined: 28 Oct 2004
Posts: 45670
Location: Essex

Posted: Tue Mar 08, 05 6:15 pm Post subject:
We've got a pair of woodpigeons the size of turkeys, that virtually live in our garden they pounce on any brassicas.

cab

Joined: 01 Nov 2004
Posts: 32429

Posted: Tue Mar 08, 05 8:44 pm Post subject:
I lost spring onion seedlings to starlings last year. I suspect that they weave them into their nests for the smell, whey seem to go for aromatic plants (like thyme, which they're a bugger for in my garden) to deter fleas.

JonO

Joined: 05 Mar 2005
Posts: 119
Location: South Birmingham

Posted: Tue Mar 08, 05 11:21 pm Post subject:
I know that our chickens ate the tips of my garlic plants but left them at that, guess they don't like garlic ! Maybe pigeons have the same idea of taste ?

Behemoth

Joined: 01 Dec 2004
Posts: 19023
Location: Leeds

Posted: Wed Mar 09, 05 10:32 am Post subject:
I've heard that they'll pull them up out of curiosity. Never grown them myself and no one on our allotments nets them.

Tristan

Joined: 29 Dec 2004
Posts: 392
Location: North Gloucestershire

Posted: Wed Mar 09, 05 12:40 pm Post subject:
Sparrows will pull up the sets, haven't the foggiest why but they seem to get some sort of kick out of it! Pushing them in to the neck of the bulb helps if the soil isn't too wet.

joker

Joined: 08 Nov 2004
Posts: 188
Location: hiding

Posted: Wed Mar 09, 05 1:11 pm Post subject:

tahir wrote:

We've got a pair of woodpigeons the size of turkeys, that virtually live in our garden they pounce on any brassicas.

Sounds like a job for an air rifle and a hot oven

judith

Joined: 16 Dec 2004
Posts: 22789
Location: Montgomeryshire

Posted: Wed Mar 09, 05 1:14 pm Post subject:

joker wrote:

tahir wrote:

We've got a pair of woodpigeons the size of turkeys, that virtually live in our garden they pounce on any brassicas.

Sounds like a job for an air rifle and a hot oven

I was thinking more of hot frying pan and butter and some honey and ginger sauce

Bugs

Joined: 28 Oct 2004
Posts: 10744

Posted: Wed Mar 09, 05 1:14 pm Post subject:

joker wrote:

tahir wrote:

We've got a pair of woodpigeons the size of turkeys, that virtually live in our garden they pounce on any brassicas.

Sounds like a job for an air rifle and a hot oven

I was thinking that. And I'm a vegetarian.

You could serve them with cabbage and peas in a pleasing tribute...

We had some woodpigeon land in the garden the other day, seeing them where the chickens normally are was quite disturbing - they are huuuuuge. And our garden slopes uphill, I suspect even I could safely get them in those circumstances. It's just the problem with the small gardens and the neighbours

tahir

Joined: 28 Oct 2004
Posts: 45670
Location: Essex

Posted: Wed Mar 09, 05 1:16 pm Post subject:

Bugs wrote:

joker wrote:

tahir wrote:

We've got a pair of woodpigeons the size of turkeys, that virtually live in our garden they pounce on any brassicas.

Sounds like a job for an air rifle and a hot oven

I was thinking that. And I'm a vegetarian.

You could serve them with cabbage and peas in a pleasing tribute...

I've been tempted but am not sure on legality and don't posess the necessary firearms (what happened with the catapault leebu?)

Bugs

Joined: 28 Oct 2004
Posts: 10744

Posted: Wed Mar 09, 05 1:29 pm Post subject:

tahir wrote:

I've been tempted but am not sure on legality and don't posess the necessary firearms (what happened with the catapault leebu?)

Hmm, well so far as I know it might be the size/location of your garden that will cause the biggest problem (plus your skill/experience but you could solve that if you have a friend who knows what they're doing).

The exact rules escape me at the moment, but I believe you need to be a certain distance from public places, and you have to be especially careful that not even a pellet escapes your land.

Don't think woodpigeons have a season, and I think you can use a normal air rifle (ie not needing one with a firearms licence). I'm sure Joker or Deerstalker will be able to fill us in properly.

All in all probably not really possible, but nice to think of. You can always get a stick and practise your aim for the future

Blacksmith

Joined: 25 Jan 2005
Posts: 5025
Location: Berkshire

Posted: Wed Mar 09, 05 2:41 pm Post subject:
Having just spent nigh on � 300 on a new rifle, sights etc would seem an ideal solution. However its on the allotment not my garden. Onion sets 99p a bag of 50. from SCATS, can afford to loose a few, just hope it gives them indigsetion ! Dave

joker

Joined: 08 Nov 2004
Posts: 188
Location: hiding

Posted: Wed Mar 09, 05 3:23 pm Post subject:
A good solution is an Eagle owl decoy put one of these on the allotment and the pigeons wont visit Tahir :- if the pellet does not leave the boundries of your land you are not breaking the law the best thing to do is shoot from an upstairs window so any stray pellets bury themselves in the ground and dont leave your boundries

freddie

Joined: 10 Feb 2005
Posts: 17
Location: middlesbrough

Posted: Sat Mar 12, 05 11:02 pm Post subject: do pigeons
if you get two patatoes a big one and one for the head and stick them together with a cocktail stick, get some chicken flight feathers or seagull feathers and use some for wings and some for tail and hang it up in amongst your crop, all the birds think that a hawk is about and leave you crop alone try it it really works

Lloyd

Joined: 24 Jan 2005
Posts: 2699

Posted: Sat Mar 12, 05 11:19 pm Post subject:

As far as I can recall, you must be not only fifty metres from any public highway, but equally and more importantly, be able to show that you have taken all necessary measures to prevent the projectile leaving your property. In the event of a complaint, th e onus is on the complainant to show that the projectile exceeded your boundary in a dangerous way. The law in this instance is actually not all that anti to the shooter. You might wish to plan your angle of fire, and position backstops of say, chipboard, hardboard, etc, several panels thick, beyond where you anticipate the target to be. Fit a cheap sound moderator, say a Parker Hale screw on jobby, for about 20 quid, to help ensure the neighbours are unlikely to hear, take a firing position if possible, from within the house, as in, the muzzle is inside the house, to reduce noise, so shoot out of a window, French doors, back door whatever. Maybe play loud music in the house at the same time. My uncle does the job with a Black Widow catapult and ball bearings to preserve his veg patch!

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