Pheasant hatch

peterpointinglab

peterpointinglab

New member
Allright i dont know about you guys but i havent seen a brood of chicks yet. im in the mcloed county area and starting to get a bit concerned that the rains we had were untimely. Have any of you guys seen any?
 
Haven't seen any pheasant broods.
Turkey's are doing very well, lots of broods.
 
Visited our SW MN farm last weekend. We went out scouting both Saturday and Sunday morning at prime time between 7:15 and 7:45 am. We saw slightly under one brood per mile in our neighborhood. The birds were good-sized, the largest a little bigger than Chukars and the smallest chicks were the size of quail, broods numbered about 5-7 chicks per brood. This area did not have heavy rains in May or June. This is the strongest early hatch we've had in years. It is unfortunate that our brood stock coming in to spring was so depleted owing to poor early-summer reproduction in '09 '10, and '11.
 
mnmthunting said:
Haven't seen any pheasant broods.
Turkey's are doing very well, lots of broods.
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I wonder if you'll see dramatic reduction in pheasants and ruffed grouse, do to the competition from turkeys. We had that here. Lots of conjecture on turkeys preying on quail, no evidence to support it, but I do be leave turkeys take a lead upland bird role, and challenge other upland species. They will be numerous, I can find 2 coveys of 15 to twenty birds each on a 40 acres, difference sizes, accompanied by 1 hen, not all her own brood, seems like babysitting or just attracted strays along the way. I remember when they were'nt around much, we thought they were scary smart, just turns out they were just not plentiful. Now I can kill one every nite, with a car. I like the old days where it was a topic of conversation to see a deer or turkey, we had habitat and quail then.
 
I have seen quite a few chicks in my neck of the woods. After last year I never saw a hen around the house and now we have 3 hens with chicks.
 
oldandnew said:
I wonder if you'll see dramatic reduction in pheasants and ruffed grouse, do to the competition from turkeys. We had that here. Lots of conjecture on turkeys preying on quail, no evidence to support it, but I do be leave turkeys take a lead upland bird role, and challenge other upland species. They will be numerous, I can find 2 coveys of 15 to twenty birds each on a 40 acres, difference sizes, accompanied by 1 hen, not all her own brood, seems like babysitting or just attracted strays along the way. I remember when they were'nt around much, we thought they were scary smart, just turns out they were just not plentiful. Now I can kill one every nite, with a car. I like the old days where it was a topic of conversation to see a deer or turkey, we had habitat and quail then.
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The first Turkeys around here were a novelty for sure. We are in a heavy snow area from Nov-March. Way North of MN pheasant and Turkey range. Turkeys are here and lots of them. All in about 7-8 years.
Don't know if they effect grouse and pheasant populations? We have maintained just a few pheasants for the last 30 years or so. Until about mid 70's pheasants were plentiful, numbers went way down before the Turkeys arrived.
Ruffed Grouse are VERY woodsy, see them crossing a trail but just never in the grassy areas. Turkeys like the grass and open woods. Food is so plentiful for the turkeys while nesting and raising broods I doubt they venture into Grouse nesting areas?
Quail though ,your probably correct.
 
One of the guys I work with said they just combined there wheat this weekend and it was full of birds! They did not kick 1 out last year and this year he said they were every were. Said they could all fly and were just a little bigger than quail.
 
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