May be an increase in pheasants being released this year by local pheasant chapters

sdviking

sdviking

Active member
We raised 250 pheasant chicks and released all of them this past summer. With the poor pheasant hatch that took place last year, I have been talking with many of my neighbors about raising and releasing pheasants in 2018. The local pheasant chapter is considering helping us out with our pheasant raising cost. Sounds like 3 additional farms plan on raising and releasing pheasants now. I know that the survival rate is low on released pheasants but at least the locals are trying to do something to help pheasant numbers recover. Our habitat was pretty good last year. I haven't heard much on what is being done to promote more habitat in our area. But we have pretty good public shooting areas along with ok CRP enrollment.

I also requested that the local chapter come up with some way to band the released birds with the intent to possibly put an ad in the local paper with a facebook site so hunters can post if they harvested one of the banded birds. Just to gather some data on our success rate, so we can figure out if it's worth the time and effort.

Just wanted to provide an update on our efforts to increase pheasants in our area. Anyone else have any efforts being done that they want to share?

SDViking
 
I love the idea! I think it is a great way to help the population come back. Might help the hunters this fall see a few more birds and if some live and reproduce it is a win-win situation. As far as weakening the the wild pheasants I am not sure what you mean by that? I am willing to bet you could get some people like me who would throw in some money to raise even more birds to release!
 
Game Preserves have been releasing birds for years, all over the state.

Would assume the MNR would get involved if the released birds affected the wild flock...
 
Awhile back Prairie Drifter commented about released birds having parasites and some other issues that I do not remember that would weaken the wild flock. I won't release any here. Some better weather and better habitat will do more.
 
haymaker said:
Awhile back Prairie Drifter commented about released birds having parasites and some other issues that I do not remember that would weaken the wild flock. I won't release any here. Some better weather and better habitat will do more.
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pen raised birds is a bad idea. spend that money on food plots or habitat improvement, those gifts keep on giving.
 
I agree. The birds I hunt here in WI are all planters raised by the state & sportsman clubs. REALLY got an education first time in SD ! I'm fortunate the area I hunt in SD is not near any game farms ! I'm in it for the dogs, not the shooting.
 
Thanks for the posting of the information on releasing pheasants. It was a good read. We still plan to raise some again this year. Will hope for the best. Sdviking
 
sdviking said:
We still plan to raise some again this year. Will hope for the best. Sdviking
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SDviking, I salute you, sir.

I think we've all read about the poor survival of stocked pheasant. The studies are there.

Last year in SD, I was chatting with our 92 year old host, a man who farmed and ranched thousands of acres in his lifetime. He was 7 years old when SD had its first pheasant season. He bought and farmed his first quarter section while still in high school. We talked about the low numbers of birds, the effects of weather, the effects of adequate cover, hunting pressure, stocking, etc., etc.. He has seen a LOT of pheasant seasons and done a LOT to build bird numbers.

Anyway, his take on stocking was summed up in one comment. When asked if stocking worked, he said "Where do you think all these pheasants in South Dakota have come from? It was started by private stocking over by Redfield."
 
Interesting...

If stocking worked then, wonder why it doesn't work now? Perhaps not enough habitat for them to survive.

Would assume there were more critters then than now.
 
In my part of the world it is the lack of nesting. Not just CRP going away but every little area of grass has been farmed. If you want to turn birds loose to shoot you can do that but to reproduce it won't do much. I released some huns two years in a row hoping it might help, there are no huns in the area that I know of. We are no longer hun type country. We are now corn and beans and that is not what huns need. We need nesting habitat and that will require a change in farming practices.
 
Yeah, you're right. It's just not one single thing. It's the whole ball of wax. Weather, temperature, habitat, moisture, bugs, hunting pressure, predator pressure and on and on and on.

I think back in 1908 there was probably a lot more suitable habitat in general. Farming has significantly changed in the years since and I don't think there's any going back.

But none the less, you need birds to make birds. You can have a quarter of perfect ground for corn and all the right weather and fertilizer, etc. but if you only have 100 kernels/seeds you won't harvest much corn. ;)
 
I agree with all, but I do think that the area that we live at has decent habitat, well at least the 2-3 mile square area. We have a 600 acre public shooting area about 1 Mile away, that has a big slough, multiple shelter belts and the GFP has been planting about 40 acres of food plots on this ground. There are also two 160 acre CRP plots within 1/2 mile of our farm. North of us is 500 acres of pasture, and west of us there is cropland numerous sloughs and an old farm stead that has a great weed patch. So I think there is adequate habitat to give the pheasants a fighting chance. Our biggest challenge was once we released the birds last year, we experienced a large increase in hawk and owls in our area. I have no doubt they had a field day on the pheasants.

The good news is this past week I have seen about 20 roosters and 12 hens around the release point, thanks to the neighbors pile of ear corn being available.

So I guess the best we can do here is hope the CRP stays for a while and that our neighbors don't start tilling up their habitat. We have increased our habitat by digging a new stock dam, planting numerous rows of fruit bearing bushes and taring down old farm buildings that harbor predators.

The raising and releasing of birds gives me hope and benefits family that comes back to hunt and the numerous road hunters that frequent our area.

SDViking
 
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AN update, well I know many here are not happy that we are raising 250 chicks to release later this year in our attempt to increase numbers in our area. Over the past month we have been monitoring the rooster to hen ratio because we were concerned with the lack seeing hens this winter. We noticed that the hen count was down to one hen per rooster which is low for around here. So we decided to purchase 50 hen pheasants to release to see if they would mix in with the wild pairs we had been seeing. It's only been a week, but now almost all Roosters are being seen with 2 to 3 hens. Hoping this is a good sign. In the 1 and 1/2 mile square we own land in the numbers of pheasants look promising. Hoping for good weather for a good hatch. We are still wet and field work has been delayed. Shelter belts and CRP are looking really good. Sdviking
 
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