Feeding Station Models?????

[bradleyj]

Hey guys,

We just released a number of Pheasants on 320 acres. There are neighbouring grain bins that will probably attract the birds off our property. So we want to set up a feeding station of some kind. Basically, a hopper full of feed, but can you guys show me pics or describe what you have set up for feeding stations? ALSO, how do you manage them in the winter with the snow?

Do these feeding stations keep birds near by?

What grains or seeds do the Pheasants prefer?

 

[oldandnew]

I would not waste your time. First it provides a killing zone for predators, second grain does not stay fresh or edible, in any feeder I know, it gets mold and is dangerous to eat. Third is food is the last issue to worry about for quail and even more for pheasants. No pheasant with any "wiles" will not die of hunger. On of the theories of the bobwhite quail population plummet in Texas, was the "deer/quail feeders, with toxic corn, which quail ingested, killing them. There is a fixation with feeding upland game birds...maybe because we hunt near food plots or fields. The food plots and game feeders might be advantageous to hunting...but not real beneficial to long term benefit of the bird. You get more bang for your buck with roosting cover, with weed seeds.

 

[Preston1]

Great job, welcome to the wild pheasant team. Hope your pheasants take root and hatch chicks.

Oldandnew is correct, right now pheasant hunger is not the issue, just staying alive for the next three weeks and avoiding being eaten by a land or aerial predators is the first priority.

You have to become something like a shepherd guarding the flock but in this case the flock is newly released pen raised pheasasnts. Get some kind of predator control in action.

Finding food and nutrients is easy because the warm ground and sun light is producing tiny ground insects and nutritious green shoots of vegetation, like and old chicken (hen) pheasants will naturally scratch in ground for food and find food, it doesn't have to be grain. They will find food you just have to keep them alive until they can orient themselves to the wild, right now they are just scared.

Tell you neighbors the that you have released pen raised pheasants so they can look out for them also, the pheasants don't know that they are supposed to stay on your place.
To an aerial predator newly released pheasants stand out like a sore thumb, so watch of the hawks. After a week of staying alive your pheasants will figure it out.

You need a lot of green undisturbed nesting cover this spring and summer and easy assess broad leaf plants in the summer to produce fat juice insects for the chicks that hatch.
Good luck, keep us posted on their progress.

 

[mnmthunting]

Bradleyj, Welcome to UPH.
Thanks for the effort, as anybody that has studied pheasant history in North America will know. Almost ALL our wild populations have been started by pen raised birds, The very small amount of wild captured transplanted pheasants are descendants from pen raised birds.
So don't be discouraged from the negatives, pen raised birds can and do survive in the wild.
Give me a pm, I will help.

 

[bradleyj]

Thanks guys. Looking forward to it. So what about winter? Should we feed in the winter?