From early February, the final stage of preparation is underway to transfer the birds to the laying pen. If the hen is too thin, longevity and egg production can be impacted, but if the hen is too fat the results can be equally devastating. Good health and condition for both the hen and the cock, must be achieved. 

It’s critical to maintain bird health throughout laying season, and nutrition plays an important role here; maximising egg production, fertility and hatchability and laying the foundations for optimum breeding. And of course,  as soon as the egg is laid our ability to influence decreases, so it’s critical we get this stage right.

Marsdens starter feeds are formulated from the finest raw materials to provide a dense and balanced diet across all of the product textures offered – from the smallest crumb up to a full pellet, every particle is a complete nutritional package. 

At Marsdens, we recognise that each individual bird needs the best opportunity to feed as soon as possible. Every gram counts to support the healthy growth and development of the chick.

We have a range of starter feed options to ensure your poults get off to a good start, including a fine crumb, mini pellet and coarse crumb before moving onto early grower which ensures a smooth transition through to a larger pellet size. Formulated with responsibly sourced soya and fishmeal, Marsdens starter feeds are highly nutritious, producing healthy, robust poults.

Once poults have hatched and initially found feed and water in their brooding environment, the emphasis is on ensuring that feed consumption is optimised by way of optimal presentation and suitable formulation.

Marsdens grower diets are formulated to support the progressive development of the poults – initially their digestive and cardio-respiratory systems, through skeletal development and sequentially their muscle and feather growth. 

With a fishmeal inclusion the Marsdens grower range is packed with nutrients which mimic the game bird’s natural food, making it an excellent preparatory feed before release. 

Marsdens grower diets will have already prepared birds, but our specific release diets will help support the bird through the challenges of adapting to their new environment, and the increasing diversity of food items that they will encounter.

The inclusion of ingredients such as fishmeal in their growing stage, and the increasing inclusion of dietary fibre through the diet range, will have conditioned the birds digestive system to be capable of processing a variety of novel food sources that will be presented when released. In simple terms, we offer diets that prepare the bird for a successful life in the wild.

Mindful not to be victims of our own success in delivering confident healthy birds to a wild environment, we then offer a comfort range of Hold’em feeds that will help prevent birds from straying from your shoot.

If the bird is content with the environment it’s  living in, it is less likely to wander!

Hold'em is a range of succulent Seed mixtures designed to reduce the risk of partridges and pheasants straying by supporting the keeper to ‘hold’ poults after the switch from pellets to grain by helping the bird adapt to the natural
environment.