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Joined: Aug 2008
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Related to another recent topic on this board concerning pen-raised birds, I wonder if anyone has statistics on the following?

1. What percentage of quail shot in the U.S. are "wild" versus pen-raised? I would include/count all the state-stocked birds as pen-raised.

2. Same question for Pheasants?

3. Same question for Chukars?

I wouldn't be surprised to find the wild bird percentages are now below 50%...

Jerry

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A very hard thing to try and do for the whole U.S. I would give an estimate for here in Pa.;
quail-95% stocked
phesants-90% stocked
chukar-100% stocked


David


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Jerry, I think that because wild chukars have a fairly limited range, and because they're such popular preserve birds, there are almost certainly more pen-raised shot than wild. Quail . . . no question, given the decline of wild bobwhites. Pheasants . . . if you'd asked your question not that many years back, when both SD and IA were regularly recording million + harvests, and states like ND and KS weren't all that far behind (and MN and NE were around the half million mark), my initial response would have been more wild pheasants. However, if you stop to think of all the states that either don't have any wild pheasants, or else relatively few, and then think of all the birds shot on preserves, the wild ones might not have had that much of an edge--if any. Today, I'm pretty sure more released ones than wild are killed. Sad.

Last edited by L. Brown; 06/07/13 08:14 PM.
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I live in central PA, and I do hunt for wild birds whenever I have time. Last year I wrote 93 birds in my book, exactly one was a truly wild (not state released) bird.
CHAZ



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So much has changed in rural Alabama from the days when there were a fair number of coveys to be found on 100 ac's. Deer hunting rules today, and few hunter hunt small game. With deer hunters in the woods from mid October to the end of Jan. it does not leave much time for other game. The small family farms and their large gardens are mostly gone. The large herds of deer eat the plants that produce seeds for the birds. Food plots get sprayed for insects. The coyotes, hawks, 'coons, skunks, fox, feral cats, are everywhere, including the cities and towns. I'm afraid the wild birds are mostly restricted to those few rare spots where the pressure to survive is reduce simply out of luck or much hard work by a large landowner. I had a nice covey on a 60 ac tract. I plated for the birds, left fence rows with cover, pushed up some brush piles. The deer ate everything I planted, then one fall I heard the birds no more.

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"then one fall I heard the birds no more."

That is a sad testimony to our times. I tried twice to establish viable population of quail on two different farms. In the end I did increase predators which were strictly protected at the time. If lucky there might be one covey on each farm but I would not count on it. And I had it all. Food, cover, habitat, strict limitation of human pressure and an attempt to reduce animal competition. Almost 20 years effort was for naught.

I had one game department tell me to switch to turkeys and deer because they were easier to promote. When I told him poison ivy was easy to grow but I did not want any they did not understand. Truth is that they never did any thing to help quail population succeed. It was farming practices, land use and what now are illegal predator suppression which gave quail a home. Wild rabbits are almost a thing of the past as well. I loved the sound of a beagle hunting a rabbit and the flash of a pointer working a covey or single. A sight seen rarely today and a sound almost never heard anymore. Might as well buy a cat.

Last edited by KY Jon; 06/08/13 08:32 AM.
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My experience on healthy flight pen raised cock pheasant placed in open clump grass CRP [billiard table flat, but quite difficult to walk through] during the wee hours [1~3 AM] and hunted the following day w/good dogs is 80%. Have found that holds fairly true throughout open country. I am not speaking of preserve birds here. If the birds are placed within 2 miles of the flight pen & the hens are still there, some of those cock birds will return to that proximity over the next week or so, like a homing pigeon will to it's coop. Come mid March, the cock birds are like fighting cocks & will kill each other to the last man standing within a matter of hours, if left in the pens. That killer instinct in cock pheasant is triggered by the number of hours of sunlight the birds' retina is exposed to, a fairly recent revelation. It is absolute.

On quail, again healthy flight pen raised open country released birds, I'd say it is close to the same percentage if hunted dilegently and withn a week of their release. FWIW, my experiences w/flight pen raised quail at this time are considerably less than that of pheasant.

On chukar, they need to be hunted ASAP or otherwise the raptors [btw, it's Latin for 'thief'] will take them all. They may or may not covey quickly; my experience is it varies on the distance from where the birds are planted and in what quantities & the terrain. Also, chukar as young birds are subject to getting fatal 'worms' or parasites and frequently require antibiotics to insure they remain healthy & live to maturity in a pen raised environment. They can provide good sport as released birds and are oft bagged to a high percentage if hunted the same day they are released or planted. Where they have been established successfully in the wild in the N/W US, they are among the very hardest birds to hunt, IMO.

Preserve birds are mostly bagged one way or another soon after their release or 'plants' and any bird that hides successfully from the dogs doing follow-up will be taken by one sort of predator or another within the week. Sometimes there is an exception. This last remark from a deceased friend who owned & ran a successful game bird preserve for a few decades.

edit; all of the above to what % of pen raised birds are bagged

Last edited by tw; 06/07/13 11:34 PM. Reason: misread question
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Politics: Game commissions are no longer just there to protect game; they exist to make money for employees through schemes which make the most cash. Think of it this way; When you buy a hunting license with an upland game stamp; your payments to the Game Commission is over. BUT if you put in for a deer permit, turkey permit, elk, sheep, etc., you pay again and again and again.
So, with protected raptors, insecticides that kill all the bugs, farming practices fence row to fence row (or, more likely in farming country, NO fences, there just isn't room for birds any more. It isn't profitable for most states. (South Dakota is the shining example on the hill of what CAN be done.)
Like millions of old-timers, I grew up thinking pheasants would be forever.....now.....
Sam Ogle, Lincoln NE


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Hard to believe it has come to this, in comparatively short time.

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All ruffed grouse and woodcock are wild but the habitat is declining due, in part, to less aspen harvest in the Great Lakes Region (we don't make pulp from aspen like we used to, we ship it from Canada and Europe)and filling of wetlands.

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