Buying 6 week old quail chicks

southernblues

southernblues

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I've got a good oppty to purchase quail chicks from game bird farm -- 6 weeks old for $1.75 ea., possibly $1.50 depending on how much I buy. What's been your experience is planting 6 week old chicks in say July, good habitat with plenty of water, cover and feed, and still have good survivability rate come November? I know we can't predict predator situation but let's say they pick off 25% of the population, any thing else I should look out for here? I am not experienced at this but have new brittany pup and about 300 acres to boot that normally puts out a good cover or 2 but looking to up the population.
 
I remember a PF/QF bio telling us to put newly hatched quail or pheasant chicks with a "fighting cock hen" and she will protect and teach them. I think he was trying to start a new chapter and would say about anything. Might try to put them with a wild covey. In my opinion, I doubt you will see much carry over.
 
I have never seen Quail planted, but we do it here every year with Pheasant. It does work surprisingly well. You are going to get a lot "yes it does" and "no it don't" stuff. If you think it will work in your mind, then do it. You are giving them the best chance in late June or July the bugs are numerous and they can eat hearty and grow fast. I have seen the Pheasants come out of the transport crates and start eating bugs that quick.---Bob
 
I figured on the yes/no arguements. What I was hoping for was/is some real "this is what I did and it worked/failed.."

I don't mind investing in a few hundred dollars with some hopes that we see some good crops. Based on the rain, cover, feed in SE KS I believe we may have a good shot this year, if I have to supplement that with some birds so be it. I'll end up buying pen raised birds the last 2 weeks of January anyway so I figure I'll give this a chance. The bird guy is less than 10 miles away and I think I can get him to deliver.
 
I live in a far different area and climate

but I have tried it with pheasants. The predators start picking them off almost immediately. The pen raised birds have little survival skills. I let 50-75 birds go and in 6 months I only seen one bird and then none. I seen feathers where hawks or owls killed them in numerous spots around the fields

IMO, if you intend to have these birds to hunt. Raise them up and let them go a short time before you start your hunting season

Chuck
 
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I think releasing them that early is a mistake. Just my two cents, for what it's worth. I've used quail for dog training. Here in Wisconsin, they can't hardly fly mid-late August and I think planting younger birds gives them no chance to escape predators. I would pen raise them until they are older and stronger, with the ability to fly.

One time I was releasing 2 birds at a time, working my pup on getting him staunch to point. After a few days I figured I had a covey out there somewhere. I planted 2 birds one morning and way before we hit the spot of the first plant, he goes on point. I walked into a covey of 8 birds. Great stuff.

I then figured a call-back pen might work. Installed the pen with a strong male to call his mates. Next morning check the pen and something had pulled that male right through the wire and ate him. I never saw any more of the covey, but a friend said he saw them a half mile down the road. At that stage of growth, they were able to avoid the predator that killed my penned bird.
 
I don't think they will survive long enough to do you any good. For the past 30 years I've shot quail on 7000 acres where nearly 30,000 adult birds have been released each year. That's nearly one million strong flying adult birds. Hunters certainly haven't shot them all. You would think that there would be, by now, many birds on the adjoining properties which are not hunted. There are none.

I believe that captive-born birds almost never survive.

Plant adults a few days early, and then shoot them. What you don't kill, predators will get in a matter of a few days.

Several times we also tried releasing ducks, adult birds, on property where there is plenty of cover and water. None of them survived a week. Foxes, skunks, coyotes, dogs, raccoons, cats and every other predator gobbled them up.

Another property I know of, but haven't hunted, where there is lots of heavy cover and feed, has had hundreds of thousands of quail, pheasants and Chukar released. Within a few months after the last release there are no birds there.
 
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southernblues said:
I've got a good oppty to purchase quail chicks from game bird farm -- 6 weeks old for $1.75 ea., possibly $1.50 depending on how much I buy. What's been your experience is planting 6 week old chicks in say July, good habitat with plenty of water, cover and feed, and still have good survivability rate come November? I know we can't predict predator situation but let's say they pick off 25% of the population, any thing else I should look out for here? I am not experienced at this but have new brittany pup and about 300 acres to boot that normally puts out a good cover or 2 but looking to up the population.
Click to expand...

Don't waste your money.
I too have thought about doing this with quail. Every study I read indicated 0% survival rate after several weeks.... and that was with adult birds. You're better off buying adult birds, release and hunt immediately.

If you have any native population at all, it may be wiser to spend your $ on food plots etc.. to attract more local birds.

I did this 2 years ago.... planted food plots up in my unused pasture.
Ended up having 2 good size coveys hang around all year. Gave me and dogs many good hunts. I shot sparingly, never killing more than 1 bird on any given hunt.

Good luck to you.

lefty
 
late August release

For what its worth....a friend and I bought 100 quail a few years ago and released them here in S. Indiana. We picked spots where we knew there were already existing coveys. Can't say for certain because they weren't banded or anything...but I'm pretty sure we killed several of those birds when season opened in early November. There were lots of bugs and green foliage when we released these full grown birds. They were all good fliers!
 
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