Empty crop

Crossing shot

Crossing shot

New member
Yesterday, the quail I shot had an empty crop. Is it normal for the crop to be empty? I always thought quail ate all the time. Do they finished what's in their crops before they eat again?

Took this bird at 10 am. What does an empty crop at 10 am tell me?
 
Was it cold and windy? Its not uncommon for quail to have not fed yet and still be on the roost at that time. Its also not uncommon (around here) for birds to be a bit picky this time of year with ripe elderberries and new grass shoots still available.
 
completely normal.....important info comes from where you found the quail at that time of day in that area......:thumbsup:
 
Thanks. Found the covey in very thick cover. Think maybe hunting pressure was responsible for the empty crop. Nice to know it may not be hunting pressure. I hate hunting pressure.
 
Crossing shot said:
Thanks. Found the covey in very thick cover. Think maybe hunting pressure was responsible for the empty crop. Nice to know it may not be hunting pressure. I hate hunting pressure.
Click to expand...

You/we ARE hunting pressure! It's part of that variability! Been going on for centuries. Part of how they adapt. Make reasonable limitations on the pressure you create and how many you harvest and next year has the potential to be as good as any year. Normal harvest can be 20-40%. You can't judge that by how many you leave in a covey. They mix and reform almost daily with an adaptive goal of 12-15 in the covey. You have to measure the total population and set your harvest off of that if you can. Hard to do anywhere but on private land and then only if you're the only harvester.
 
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