Pickers up

[trekmoor]

My dogs would be a nightmare in a beating line. I used to really enjoy beating but the work I do with them as picking up dogs ruins them for a beating line.
It is possible to beat and pick up with the same dog but one thing or the other tends to suffer a little bit in my opinion.

I don't agree that only O.A.P.'s or those that have a big "in" with either keepers or landowners get to pick up. I began picking up while still in my twenties and I had to do a sort of apprenticeship as a beater first.

Wullie

[Rascal]

You know what they say....

"A bad day in the field beats a good day at work", so bloody true....

Rascal

[Dan Newcombe]

Forgot to mention that on one day last season,13 people turned up to pick up and only 9 to beat. The surplus pickers up went home as they didnt want their dogs getting bored. I think they didnt want to join the beating line because they couldnt control their dogs with hundreds of pheasants moving in front of them.

This is sort of what i was getting at, i would much rather then just take one or two of my more controllable dogs and go beating for the day than head off home but that doesn't seem to be a common theme. in that example there i would have thought that the keeper could have easily used a few of those bodies in the beating line.

It would do pickers up a world of good to spend a day with the beaters in many cases, you meet people that normally you don't speak to and like they say, there is always something to learn.

[romanriver]

Forgot to mention that on one day last season,13 people turned up to pick up and only 9 to beat. The surplus pickers up went home as they didnt want their dogs getting bored. I think they didnt want to join the beating line because they couldnt control their dogs with hundreds of pheasants moving in front of them.

This is sort of what i was getting at, i would much rather then just take one or two of my more controllable dogs and go beating for the day than head off home but that doesn't seem to be a common theme. in that example there i would have thought that the keeper could have easily used a few of those bodies in the beating line.

It would do pickers up a world of good to spend a day with the beaters in many cases, you meet people that normally you don't speak to and like they say, there is always something to learn.

this just tells me that the keeper has no clue what he is doing

[Judy]

As in hiss up and brewery? TBH if it meant leaving some of my dogs shut in the car in an isolated spot for the whole day I would probably go home too, its not worth the risk. I could probably beat with most of mine individually, with due care and attention, but three picking up trained Cockers together in the line would be stretching my abilities way too far.

Funnily enough a lot of us pickers up in the S.East are under 70, most have come up (or down, depending on your point of view) via the beating line so have a fair idea of what we are at and what the riff-raff get up to whilst we are hard at work...

[Alice]

Forgot to mention that on one day last season,13 people turned up to pick up and only 9 to beat. The surplus pickers up went home as they didnt want their dogs getting bored. I think they didnt want to join the beating line because they couldnt control their dogs with hundreds of pheasants moving in front of them.

This is sort of what i was getting at, i would much rather then just take one or two of my more controllable dogs and go beating for the day than head off home but that doesn't seem to be a common theme. in that example there i would have thought that the keeper could have easily used a few of those bodies in the beating line.

It would do pickers up a world of good to spend a day with the beaters in many cases, you meet people that normally you don't speak to and like they say, there is always something to learn.

this just tells me that the keeper has no clue what he is doing

Inclined to agree

[Dawnrazor]

Forgot to mention that on one day last season,13 people turned up to pick up and only 9 to beat. The surplus pickers up went home as they didnt want their dogs getting bored. I think they didnt want to join the beating line because they couldnt control their dogs with hundreds of pheasants moving in front of them.

This is sort of what i was getting at, i would much rather then just take one or two of my more controllable dogs and go beating for the day than head off home but that doesn't seem to be a common theme. in that example there i would have thought that the keeper could have easily used a few of those bodies in the beating line.

It would do pickers up a world of good to spend a day with the beaters in many cases, you meet people that normally you don't speak to and like they say, there is always something to learn.

this just tells me that the keeper has no clue what he is doing

Inclined to agree

A few beaters may have failed to turn up and a few pickers may have turned up that said they weren't going to come, these things happen during a season.

[Dan Newcombe]

And the folk that left because there were heaps of Pickers up there didn't exactly help him out by the sounds of it!

[THEOLDMAN]

Forgot to mention that on one day last season,13 people turned up to pick up and only 9 to beat. The surplus pickers up went home as they didnt want their dogs getting bored. I think they didnt want to join the beating line because they couldnt control their dogs with hundreds of pheasants moving in front of them.

This is sort of what i was getting at, i would much rather then just take one or two of my more controllable dogs and go beating for the day than head off home but that doesn't seem to be a common theme. in that example there i would have thought that the keeper could have easily used a few of those bodies in the beating line.

It would do pickers up a world of good to spend a day with the beaters in many cases, you meet people that normally you don't speak to and like they say, there is always something to learn.

I don't think I know of any pickers up, including myself, who haven't been "weaned" in the beating line first.
There's certainly one or two on the four shoots I now pick up on that physically couldn't beat nowadays tho but all have done so in the past and would if they could.
As for 13 people turning up to pick up, if the keeper is prepared to let any Tom, Dick or Harry arrive on the day without prior arrangement bigger fool him.
It's down to him to arrange the numbers he requires in advance, be it beaters or pickers. There will always be cases when some cant make it on the day which is par for the course and adjustments can always be made.
Uninvited picking up "extras" would get sent packing on the shoots I go on.
I'm more than happy to beat, and have done on many occasions if the keepers short, but I'd need to know at least the night before so I can leave some dogs at home. I usually work four/five picking up dogs and although good "Hoovers" three or four hundred birds up against a sewling line could well be a temptation to far ....