Interesting that PA Stocks pheasants

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duckn66

Well-known member
I *think* back in the day KS used to stock pheasants on certain wildlife areas for a couple of years but that practice ended many many years ago.

I looked at the stocking numbers for PA and gosh that's a lot of birds! Couple of questions though:

1. Where does the state come up with the money to do this?

2. How many of those birds fall prey to wild predators vs man? Seems that pen raised birds don't do well in the wild due to lacking certain survival skills.

3. Do they fly like a wild pheasant and act like one when hunting?

4. How long has PA been stocking birds?

Never read the PA forum posts before but you guys back east seem to have very positive attitudes and are very pleased with your states wildlife agency.

Wish we could say the same about KS. Ours is broke (monetarily and physically) due to poor management for too many years. They seem to be trying to do something about but it's in the way of attracting tourism to the state. But lets face it, KS has never been a big tourist state and never will be. I would think there would be better ways to fix their current problems other than trying to bring in tourists. I heard there was a full page add in Field and Stream about KS pheasant hunting. I can only hope that those who see it aren't falsely attracted to KS for good pheasant hunting this year because it's just not going to be good here this year but thats soley due weather. However, I would think in slim years a stocking program on state run lands would and could be beneficial to the economy.

I've spent quite a bit of time in PA when I was in the military, did a lot of TDY's there. Beautiful state!
 
1) For present levels, they got lucky with the Marcellus.

2) I doubt anyone really knows.

3) Pennsylvania does a very good job in releasing pheasants that indeed fly like a pheasant, they cackle and everything.

4) Decades....the PGC website has a pheasant history for particulars.

I hunt Pa. but am not from there...that said, I have never seen more hatred toward a DNR from "hunters" than I have seen spit toward the PGC....basically, undeserved and driven by deer-focused folks such as those who attempted to sue the PGC....lawsuit was dismissed after 3-4 years.
They do a pretty good job all around and no DNR is perfect.

It is a beautiful state....and a lucky and blessed one compared to surrounding states.
 
In my experience the birds that the PGC puts out fly well. I'm not certain what number get taken by other animals but it's probably a good amount. But holdover birds are seen into the spring and summer months but I've never seen them pull a brood off. But it may happen at times. The stocked birds are about the only thing I have to hunt in southern Pa since good grouse numbers are found in the north. The PGC has stocked birds even when the state had a high number of wild birds but those game farm birds were not as good as the ones they release now. Several have given my dogs the slip when hunting.
 
Pgc

The PGC does overall a good job. It attempts to balance deer numbers to appease the farmers, foresters, and insurance companies (as well as the hunters). As one can imagine, this is not an easy job. As far as the pheasants, I think they are a quality bird. Anybody that hunts them in PA can tell you that once they've been pressured they respond accordingly, ie running, flushing out of range etc.
 
duckn66,
The Game Commission uses funds from the sale of licenses and more recently money generated from gas drilling on state owned land to raise and release pheasants. Like Kansas..they are short on money to do everything they want to do and they are overdue for a license increase but they make do! Pheasant Hunting in Pa is a deep tradition and the Game Commission realizes that and they are doing what it takes to keep in moving in the right direction!

As far as the released birds go..some get killed by predators but once they get accumulated they become pretty smart and exhibit some of the same tendencies as their wild counterparts! They fly well and can run down hedgerows and out trouble fairly quickly! In areas where there is proper habitat you may seem some holdovers!
 
duckn66,

The first major large scale stocking of pheasants by the PGC was in 1915- 1916 with the release of about 2,000 pheasants that were "purchased". In 1929, the PGC began to propagate pheasants raised at its own Game Farms, with numbers around 30,000- 40,000 birds. The stocking numbers gradually increased till in 1983 when the number reached 425,000 birds. Then in 1984 the number was cut in half due to budget cuts. But some good was to come out of this,the birds now being raised were much hardier and had a better chance at survival.

It's often hard to get a handle on the % of birds that hunters take vs predators, but the PGC did try to get some idea. They banded a number of the released birds with rewards for the return of the band. I don't remember the exact numbers. I do remember that where and when the birds were released had a HUGE impact on the % of birds taken.

Yea, we feel pretty lucky to have a Game Commission that understands the small game hunter. Many of these Commissioners are bird dog people themselves. It would be very easy to cave in to the pressures of deer hunters, so I try to thank them when ever I can!
 
buncha great info

why does PA have to farm raise pheasants? why do they not thrive on their own like the midwest?

not cold enough? seems about equal distance north as the other states
not enough open fields? ive only been to PA once and that was western pa, so im not sure
not good enough habitat? isnt there a buncha farming just like the midwest?

are thier any pheasant farm that allow visitations? i think it would be cool to see how they do things

im really looking forward to the season in a few weeks!
 
The PGC does provide tours of the game farms.
http://www.portal.state.pa.us/porta...ses/newsrelease/articles/release__088_12.html

The link will take you to a press release about the tours. I think the PGC may even have some videos on youtube.

Pa used to have a large number of wild birds. I think the state used to harvest over 1 million birds a year around the 60's. I read that at one time Pa sent pheasants to South Dakota in exchange for praire grouse or something like that. But loss of habitat and changes in farming hit the birds hard. I have also heard people say that a bird flu had an impact on the wild bird numbers. I think all these things happen around the same time and doomed our pheasants. But there is an attempt to get wild phesants back in Pa in the Wild Pheasant Recovery Areas. Here is some info on the WPRA:
http://www.portal.state.pa.us/portal/server.pt?open=514&objID=1008740&mode=2

The habitat in Pa is much different than the midwest. Our farms are smaller and so are the best fields. I also think the birds have to travel over a lot more open ground to get from one field to the next.

I'm thankful to the PGC for the pheasant hunting I'm able to get. I wish they were wild birds but it's better than nothing.
 
During the late 60's till the early 70's pheasants flourished in Pa. with annual harvests estimated at over a million birds a year. In the mid 1970's the wild pheasant population started to decline. Approximately 900,000 acres of farmland - much of this prime pheasant habitat - were lost. Two hard winters in a row in 1977 and 1978 further depressed the pheasant population. What many don't realize is that population actually rebounded a little the next few years! The PGC attempted to offset the declining population by mass producing and releasing pheasants. This only resulted in a poorer quality bird,and many think added to their decline.
The traditional pheasant habitat in Pa. looks much different than what you would see in the Mid-West. It consisted of many smaller farms connected to each by hedgerows and creek bottoms. I believe this type of habitat also developed a different type of Ringneck.
Geographically speaking, I think Pa is well situated, having the proper climate to support a healthy population of wild pheasants, of course the habitat has to be there.
Let's not forget that there is and always have been isolated pockets of wild pheasants. The question is...isolated from what...but that's a different story!

Glad to hear that your excited about the upcoming season, we are too. Don't wait till the opener, start doing your scouting now. And be sure to tell us how you make out.
 
thanks for the info

there are so many different variables that make a species flourish or not

busy weekends coming up, going to scout for some deer and try to get a few squirls down here in VA and then next week Skeet Range and more scouting up there. its just going to be me hunting solo or with one other person, so i know its going to be a tough season but when isnt it lol
 
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Some stocked birds hold over throughout the season if they have good amounts of available food and cover in spite of natural predators and hunters. They get to be as wary as a wild turkey as the season progresses and are a challenge to hunt. Pa. does a way better job of serving the interests of bird hunters than Ohio does... actually not even on the same page which is ironic because Ohio has the better natural topography to be a good upland bird State if so much of the landscape wasn't plowed up planted, poisoned and left as mud every year.
 
huntsem said:
Some stocked birds hold over throughout the season if they have good amounts of available food and cover in spite of natural predators and hunters. They get to be as wary as a wild turkey as the season progresses and are a challenge to hunt. Pa. does a way better job of serving the interests of bird hunters than Ohio does... actually not even on the same page which is ironic because Ohio has the better natural topography to be a good upland bird State if so much of the landscape wasn't plowed up planted, poisoned and left as mud every year.
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Very well said, and I agree and take every opportunity to thank people like Mr. Jay Delaney of the PGC for their commitment to the small game hunter.
 
Not sure that Ohio has more ground or better topography for gamebirds than Pennsylvania. But I do know that the plowing, planting and poisioning is not a fault of the ODNR.
The PGC benefits from it's own blessings of topography variation and from foresight in their Gameland system and the Marcellus....as but a start.

I would also suggest that the interests of birdhunters should never be Job #1 for any dnr...the interests of the gamebird, etc should hold that position....hunters and non-hunters will then both benefit.
 
We are indeed lucky in Pa. to have a Game Land system along with Co-OP, Safety Zone, and Hunter Acces programs, that make available large amounts of open hunting land.And while no one type of hunting should be the # one priority neither should they just be an after thought. I think Pa. does a good job balancing this out.
 
Not sure that Ohio has more ground or better topography for gamebirds than Pennsylvania.
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Most of the western half of Ohio was native prairie, complete with bison and prairie chickens.

But I do know that the plowing, planting and poisioning is not a fault of the ODNR.
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I expect the ODNR has some influence on how, if, or when land and natural resource conservation related programs and practices are managed, implemented and regulated. If not then what good are they?
 
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