Here's a new thing I learned about biology today

B

Bob Peters

Well-known member
I was looking for the MN harvest numbers for last year but they aren't out for probably another 2 months. In doing so I stumbled upon a study done in SW MN tracking hen pheasants, nesting activity, and habitat preferences. They actually put radio collars on hens, which I've never heard of before. Anyways there was a case where mama pheasant lost her brood a couple weeks after the hatch. She then re-nested and hatched a 2nd brood. It stated although it is rare for this to happen, it has been documented before by other biologists. I thought that was pretty neat.
 
Bob, don't know about other studies, but it's a known fact that pheasants will renest if brood is lost. Each succeeding brood will be smaller by a fair percentage, (50-60%).
 
Ive always heard quail will re-nest but have never witnessed this, until last year. We had a horrible drought in West Texas and Old Mexico(where my deer lease is). I made it down for the rut in mid December and hunted quail. They were about the size of sparrows. I shot one, then left them to grow. Blue quail are normally one of the larger quail. A good rain in late August and then additional rain in Sept. and Oct. made for a great late year hatch.
 
Brood or hatches. Years ago I remember people in Iowa were saying there were 3 hatches of Pheasants that year. That year there were lots and lots of birds. Third hatch it was hard to spot the Roosters because they didn't have much color on them in November.
 
capt4fish said:
Ive always heard quail will re-nest but have never witnessed this, until last year. We had a horrible drought in West Texas and Old Mexico(where my deer lease is). I made it down for the rut in mid December and hunted quail. They were about the size of sparrows. I shot one, then left them to grow. Blue quail are normally one of the larger quail. A good rain in late August and then additional rain in Sept. and Oct. made for a great late year hatch.
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I think your location so far south allows for it
 
Birdman2 said:
Brood or hatches. Years ago I remember people in Iowa were saying there were 3 hatches of Pheasants that year. That year there were lots and lots of birds. Third hatch it was hard to spot the Roosters because they didn't have much color on them in November.
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I'm not a biologist, although I pretend to be one on UP. When it comes to pheasants, it's common knowledge that a hen will re-nest when her eggs are lost to a predator, a flood, or a lawnmower. In the case of my original post, it was new info to me that a hen lost her hatched chicks and then re-nested. Now Birdman2, a hen hatching and raising her chicks, and then making another nest and doing the same, successfully raising her chicks, and even a third time? Raising 3 broods in one year? You might have heard that at the old Iowa café where the grandpa also told you about the time he dropped a double on late season roosters sporting tails over 25" long with a .410 at 80 yards. From the hip. You might want to vet your sources in the future;).
 
Quailnerd said:
I think your location so far south allows for it
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hunter94 said:
no, in all my years, i have never seen a verifiable 3rd hatch of quail or pheasants.
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It takes so much time and energy to initiate a successful nest that a second hatch is just a bonus. There was some good data from a research ranch that said if a quail hen does attempt a second nest egg production will be significantly less and she may be in a vulnerable state. I’m sure there are outliers for a third hatch but it would be rare and and a tiny percentage of the population.
 
Bob Peters said:
I'm not a biologist, although I pretend to be one on UP. When it comes to pheasants, it's common knowledge that a hen will re-nest when her eggs are lost to a predator, a flood, or a lawnmower. In the case of my original post, it was new info to me that a hen lost her hatched chicks and then re-nested. Now Birdman2, a hen hatching and raising her chicks, and then making another nest and doing the same, successfully raising her chicks, and even a third time? Raising 3 broods in one year? You might have heard that at the old Iowa café where the grandpa also told you about the time he dropped a double on late season roosters sporting tails over 25" long with a .410 at 80 yards. From the hip. You might want to vet your sources in the future;).
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Bob, Didn't hear from Grandpa...or a ....Cafe. I witnessed it in person. You haven't seen it so it can't be true? Correct?
 
A hen renesting after losing live chicks is a surprise, and is contrary to conventional “facts”…I have never heard that a hen will routinely pull off multiple hatches…when we hear of 2nd “hatch”, 3rd “hatch”, etc, we’re hearing about nesting attempts. If this were the actual case, I doubt we’d have some years where bird #’s are down dramatically…some years in the past 10-20 we’ve had very few young birds due to poor weather conditions…in June, for example…we’d expect to see decent #’s despite that if they renested after losing live chicks….could there be exceptions? I suppose. I wish it were the case! Hope it is, or becomes the case! When conditions are good, and it’s a “perfect storm”, pheasants can have explosive increases in #’s…
 
I know it seems crazy. Maybe this was just a small pocket of birds that had the third hatch. But remember the third hatch barely had colors in November. I was very lucky to experience it. Damn things were everywhere, lol. Have not experienced it again out of 5 other states that I have hunted Roosters.
 
As BB says, those young birds were likely hens' final attempt to hatch a brood. Young birds when season starts, are definitely not any kind a verification of secondary brood rearings. It is something that would be very hard in an uncontrolled environment to document...and if it is in an "controlled" environment, then it isn't a realistic. Just seems extremely difficult to accurately track this, but from what I read, a hen just doesn't have the energy to pull off raising more than one brood. Wish she did!
 
Again, if it was normal, we wouldn’t have certain years where young birds were so rare….I talked to a bird cleaner in Mitchell several years ago…cleaned north of a 1000 birds, saw remarkably few young ones that year…under 10%…normally they’re over half, well over half…
 
Good reading for some... Found this is a 2 minute search, lol
 

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