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Keeping Black Grouse

Keeping Black Grouse

 The word poultry applies to a huge variety of different domesticated bird species, from turkeys to bantams. Many dictionaries and encyclopedias expand that definition to include game birds, but while gamekeeping is clearly quite separate from smallholding, that's not to say that gamebirds never fall into the poultry keeper's domain.

Britain's four indigenous species of grouse include the most impressive and beautiful birds in the country. Everyone recognises the "famous" red grouse, which has earned itself the respect of generations of sportsmen, naturalists and bird watchers, but their less familiar cousins are the massive capercaillie, the flamboyant black grouse and the secretive ptarmigan, which grows white feathers in the winter.

Of all British game birds, grouse are known for their ability to survive in extreme conditions, and their diets are based on extremely poor quality fibrous roughage such as heathers, pine needles and low growing shrubs. Over the past 1,000 years, man has learned to tame pheasants and partridges so that they can be mass produced for sporting shooting, but few people have ever managed to keep grouse in captivity.

Susceptible to disease and tricky to tame, it was widely thought that keeping grouse was more of an uphill struggle than anything else. Few people bothered, particularly since it was found that the few birds reared in captivity were never able to be released back into the wild. Heather is an extremely poor source of food, and unless young birds are trained to digest it from an early age, they will never be able to get the energy they need to survive. For red grouse, this was a major stumbling block, since these birds eat little else. It is possible to cut heather and place it inside the grouse enclosures, but poultry pellets and feed are far more practical and easy to come by, particularly in the majority of lowland Britain.

  It was only when some species of grouse began to dramatically decline in Britain that people started to look again at keeping wild birds in the name of conservation. Black grouse have undergone a shocking population collapse over the past century, declining by more than 95% since the First World War. In many areas, these charismatic and beautiful birds are on the verge of extinction altogether, and it now looks like unlocking the secrets behind keeping and breeding the birds in captivity with a view to reintroducing them into the wild may be the only way to save them.

Black grouse are about the same size as bantams, but the shiny blue cock birds have a unique arrogance and self obsession that sets them well aside from any domesticated breed. By comparison, females (known as greyhens) are smaller, well camouflaged and extremely secretive. In the spring, males swell up their wattles and necks, puffing out their fluffy white tails and performing a ritualised dance known as a "lek", which is designed to find the most appropriate birds for breeding. All the while, they make a strange cooing sound, like a dove or pigeon.

The reasons for black grouse decline in the wild are quite complicated, but they all come down to the gradual decay and destruction of appropriate habitat. In a few places, hard work and investment has returned habitat to its former state, but with a lack of breeding birds, these areas need an artificial influx of genetic information to get them back on their feet again. Importantly, black grouse eat a wide variety of different plant materials, so encouraging them to "go wild" is not as impossible as it might be for some other species.

Keeping black grouse in captivity and breeding them will allow us to carry out reintroduction projects in the places where they are most needed, and while black grouse are still very hard to look after, the rewards of good husbandry are found in conserving and preserving one of Britain's most beautiful and iconic birds.

Solway Feeders is currently sponsoring one of these poultry projects "with a difference", and hand reared breeding stock is due to arrive in September. They may not be hens or ducks as we would recognise them, but given the difficulty of keeping grouse and the learning curve involved in the process, this will soon become a smallholder's project with grand ideas.

Solway Feeders now runs a blog which follows the day to day running of our small family run game and poultry business in Southwest Scotland - why not pay us a visit?