Pheasant Introduction.

I raise a few birds for dog training and last year 4 hens 1 rooster and 6 bob whites escaped. No good habitat around here mostly two acre pastures of weeds, no real food source except wild wheat and sunflower, and a few predators, foxes & raccoons. The rooster two hens and four bobwhites all survived. Seen one brood of quail chicks already, hopefully the pheasants get some chicks off also. But my breeding program supports wildness not tameness.
 
wow

let this theard go, still cant believe that , no one gets , my point.:) or very few. lets let it go around agian.:D
 
jmac said:
Hey do any of you out there know if this practice is still being utilized by any state. My father told me that many years ago in Nebraska, land owners were given 100 chicks a year to raise in an open pen and then allowed to fly off when they were big enough. The point being to introduce pheasants to the area. Just curious. I should say that the state game and fish, if I remember correctly, was the organization that provided the chicks.

Anybody know anything about this or remember this??? Thanks
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JMAC, no offense but the reason nobody remembers this is because........it doesn't work.

The only documented successful introductions are natvie wild adult birds trapped and transplanted into areas with adaquate habitat.

This is also why Pheasants Forever formally "dissed" the Surrogator at Pheasant Fest this year and said it would support and sponsor only native trap/transplant projects and only where adaquate habitat exists for population growth.

In otherwords, anything else is a waste of time in regards to attempting to establish and grow native wild populations of pheasants.

And when hunters, sportsmen and conservationists put down the "snake oils, quick fixes, and feel goods" they can then get to the heavy lifting of real pheasant conservation and production.....habitat.
 
What the bird outfitters and PF are basically saying is if you don't live in the bird belt forget it and instead save your money for a yearly pilgrimage to North or south Dakota or Kansas. That doesn't work for me. Why doesn't PF come out west and reach out to our farmers and hunters and show them the incentives in the farm bill for conservation? Are we inherently less important because we aren't in the mid west? Remember, the west coast had pheasants first. I know this post may ruffled some feathers so I apologize in advance for my crassness.
 
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quail hound said:
What the bird outfitters and PF are basically saying is if you don't live in the bird belt forget it and instead save your money for a yearly pilgrimage to North or south Dakota or Kansas.
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You don't really think that PF thinks it would increase it's membership on that policy do you?

Of course the bird outfitters want everyone to come through their doors. Just like any other business in America.

Every upland bird has its home range: Quail SE, Pheasants Midwest.

PF focuses on the Pheasants core range but I suspect they would be happy to help you start a chapter in your area and begin working on habitat projects.
 
PF and QF are basically one in the same correct? Well California harvests more quail than any other state by far, I don't see any QF chapters here. Oh wait by quail they mean bobwhites (another "Midwest bird") not valley, mountain, or gambels quail. Again why don't they reach out to us. I know I should get a group together and start a chapter but could they even send us the help we need to make a difference? I work full time and am going back to school in the tall to get my GE out of the way, hopefully transfering to a 4 year college to become a game bird biologist (if I can figure out how to pay for it.) Maybe then I could be PF west coast biologist and moderator to the people.
 
I think the facts are blown up by the DNR, Many thousands of birds are bought by outfitters and released in the Dakota's each year and they do fine. But these are adults. The DNR says nothing about adults. That is what I did and it works very well. I am sure that most if not all survive. If you put them out where there is a couple birds they do great. You will be suprised how many survive if you grow them up to adult size.
 
PS I think wisconsin still does it I could be wrong, but it was not too long ago they did.

PF clubs all around here in MN do it. They give you birds but get 1/2 back to let go themselves.
 
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This narrow minded DNR idealism makes me laugh, when you think back to where did the first 2 pheasants come from in north America. They sure have spread from that. I see real time success right here in our back yard and local community by working hard for years to raise and release birds. Pope CO MN raised and released 20, 000 or more just sth of us each year for a # of years, all adult. They now have a sustained pop, of 100+ birds per square mile. It has become some of the best hunting ever in these areas of MN where a strong release program has happened. It flat out works...... Western areas of MN are now doing it as well. But as said Adult birds. Like said above chicks can disappear fast.
 
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What do you guys think about released birds taking pressure off the wild ones as far as predation is concerned??? Maybe a few more wild ones make it another breeding season or the predators have flourished and eventually get them anyway? Just a thought!:cheers:
 
bleu

BleuBijou said:
What do you guys think about released birds taking pressure off the wild ones as far as predation is concerned??? Maybe a few more wild ones make it another breeding season or the predators have flourished and eventually get them anyway? Just a thought!:cheers:
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interesting thought, you maybe on to somthing here. :)
 
FCSpringer said:
This narrow minded DNR idealism makes me laugh, when you think back to where did the first 2 pheasants come from in north America. They sure have spread from that. I see real time success right here in our back yard and local community by working hard for years to raise and release birds. Pope CO MN raised and released 20, 000 or more just sth of us each year for a # of years, all adult. They now have a sustained pop, of 100+ birds per square mile. It has become some of the best hunting ever in these areas of MN where a strong release program has happened. It flat out works...... Western areas of MN are now doing it as well. But as said Adult birds. Like said above chicks can disappear fast.
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Thank you FCSpringer, for giving us the true story. I was beginning to lose faith in UPHF.
KS. MO. CO. NM. TX. OK. and many many others all had state game bird farms that raised and released thousands and and thousands of pen-raised pheasants at one time, that's how the wild pheasants got started in those states and that is the truth.
So why do some people pretend that pen-raised pheasants had no part in the history of wild pheasants in north America is a mystery to me.
As I said in an earlier thread the pen-raised pheasants just need a strong dose of truly wild blood.
Everybody that truly cares about wild pheasants don't all buy into PF dogma of "No stocking of pen-raised pheasants".
I have heard stories of people who have had good results with Surrogators.
The average person can't go out and trap and relocate a wild pheasant to their property.
 
The only thing that seems to be working in Pennsylvania is the trap and transfer of wild pheasants from out west. The last wild pheasants in Pa were trapped by the PGC and used to put some "wild" stock into the game farm birds they breed each year. With the hundreds of thousands of birds the state released none were able to reproduce in the wild. Where I live a club releases between 180-200 adult birds each year as adults. Some make it through the winter but they don't reproduce. A few miles up the road another private hunting club releases 8000 birds each year for club members. When summer comes around you stop seeing any adult birds and you don't see any chicks. I wish the release of pen raised birds would lead to wild birds where I live.
 
One thing is you do need habitat, without it it is a fruitless venture, the birds will just move. I wish I had an answer for you in PA bauerline, hope the wild trapped thing works. Some species just don't do well in certain areas. We would starve to death here if we depended on Quail to survive. If you travel just a hour north of me the pheasant range dwindles as well, It is more forest and then the Grouse take over.
 
Bauerline. Pen raised pheasants will reproduce in the wild. First of all they need to survive long enough.
With the results your seeing in PA. It's habitat and predation. Work on that before releasing birds.
Having good facilities with room and cover hen pheasants will often successfully hatch and raise broods in captivity. Have 6-8 hens and 1 rooster in an enclosure of at least 1000 sq ft with good security for separate nests and the some hens with hatch chicks.

I'm sure there is difference in pen raised pheasants. Maybe get eggs or chicks from private smaller producers?
 
People have tried many different methods in this state to get the pheasant population back. 30 years ago wild pheasant numbers were high and then they took a nose dive. It the years since the only thing that shows any promise is the trap and transfer. I think your are right about the habitat part of it. That had something to do with the decrease in pheasant numbers but there were other factors too. We don't have any quail any more either. I hope both birds make a come back sometime.
 
mnmthunting said:
Bauerline. Pen raised pheasants will reproduce in the wild. First of all they need to survive long enough.
With the results your seeing in PA. It's habitat and predation. Work on that before releasing birds.
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I'd venture to say that it's more habitat than predation as well. With proper habitat predation will decrease. I find that in the midwest, people want pheasants, but they don't want to hit the "reset button" on fields that are growing up. For some reason people don't want to cut down trees, perhaps because they'll be future treestand sites and don't like "weeds".
 
I get you JMAC. If I had the means to do that I definently would.

What jmac's reasoning is is that if you give birds a good start, not to much human contact then let them fly off at an able age they have a high probability of surviving to breeding age, significantly higher then that of what most people are thinking of as "pen raised" and likely a better percentage then wild birds fending for themselves.

Here's how it works. You start out with 50 chicks in an open pen, meaning that there is no roof just a chicken wire or mess fencing. Give these chicks plenty of food, water, and safety, some cover to help deter birds of prey and scare away any other predators for that matter and let them grow until they are able to fly. Once they are old enough open the gate and they will venture out on their own. If you continue to leave food and water out for them hopefully occasionally they will return if they need food or water. Eventually they will become completely wild and able to survive on their own and hopefully enough would survive the winter being able to breed and raise a clutch thus increasing the population in a small localized area. Preferrably in my backyard:thumbsup: with this implemented I don't have any reason to believe that less than 50% would survive the winter, that is unless you shoot to many of your own stock.
 
kansashunting said:
Here's how it works. You start out with 50 chicks in an open pen, meaning that there is no roof just a chicken wire or mess fencing. Give these chicks plenty of food, water, and safety, some cover to help deter birds of prey and scare away any other predators for that matter and let them grow until they are able to fly. Once they are old enough open the gate and they will venture out on their own. If you continue to leave food and water out for them hopefully occasionally they will return if they need food or water. Eventually they will become completely wild and able to survive on their own and hopefully enough would survive the winter being able to breed and raise a clutch thus increasing the population in a small localized area. Preferrably in my backyard:thumbsup: with this implemented I don't have any reason to believe that less than 50% would survive the winter, that is unless you shoot to many of your own stock.
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Have you done this or are you just hypothesizing?
 
Released birds around here are able to make it through the winter and survive into spring. The problem is they don't know how to raise any chicks they hatch out. Maybe it would work out better in areas with better habitat. Good luck to anybody who is trying to release birds in an effort to establish a huntable population. I hope it works for you.
 
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