Bob Peters
Well-known member
I usually hunt 3 states every year, MN, SD, and IA. This question pertains to the early part of the season (lets say first two weeks). Are the birds usually still in family groups at this time, and what does this consist of? My reason for asking is due to some of the things I've seen in the last 3 weeks in the different areas I've hunted. In Iowa on Saturday I had a staggered flush that was 7 birds, and I think most if not all of them were roosters and they seemed to be young birds by the way they acted, i.e. not flying very far, short tails, but they did have color and cackled. Was this just a brood that happened to be mostly males? Does the dad pheasant stick around with the chicks at all after they hatch or is it just the mama? When I was on my MN prairie chicken hunt at the end of September I flushed a brood of what I assume were very young pheasants. They were tiny and couldn't fly far at all, and made little high pitched pipping noises. Even though the chicks flushed I never saw a hen. A buddy said he flushed an adult hen and rooster and some smaller juvenile birds, and he shot and harvested the rooster. He then told me he felt bad because he shot the dad. I told him I think the hen raises the young anyways and not to worry too much about it.