spring adult pheasants

[espringers]

last years pheasant raising fiasco ended in disaster. i've got one rooster left and the damn thing is thriving. but, i've got no idea where the rest of them went. it looked like a lot of them landed in water again over the first few weeks when they would get flushed. i suspect they mistake the green cat tails as nice comfortable cover and then find themselves drowning. dumb ass birds. wasted 2 months and hundreds if not a thousand dollars on them.

so... i am gonna try plan B and take a bit of advise from a few others and go the route of adult birds this spring in the hopes they have a few successful hatches and raise chicks that are smarter than pen raised birds.

question(s)... where do you guys get boxes of 9 hens and a rooster from? will the hens come bred already?

thanks.

 

[Duckslayer100]

I personally think you're wasting your money. I mean, unless your goal is to subsidize meals for hawks and coyotes. In which case, money well spent!

 

[KDM]

Most breeders will not be willing to part with their breeding stock of prime egg laying hens. If you can find a place willing to sell adult hens, odds are you will be getting grandmothers well past their prime and pay through the nose for them. If it were me, I would start over with chicks and raise them through the winter and release them yourself. Nobody will care for them and ensure they are released in peak fitness like you will. Good Luck!!!

 

[espringers]

I personally think you're wasting your money. I mean, unless your goal is to subsidize meals for hawks and coyotes. In which case, money well spent!

i'm not so sure. i've seen areas around that have pretty good pockets of naturally producing birds within 20 miles of my place. they had to have gotten their start somehow. i know its not ideal. but, i'm willing to piss away my time and money to find out i guess. ask GST how they managed to get a decent population in bumfucknowhere relatively close to the canadian border and he will assure you they didn't get there naturally.

- - - Updated - - -

kdm, i here ya. but, i know i see ads every spring for boxes of pheasants 9 hens and 1 cock. they aren't in our local peddler yet though and i am trying to get a jump on the situation. if they will lay succesfully, i would rather just pay the $10/bird then deal with the hassle for the next 365 days.

 

[Jigaman]

 

[gst]

espringers, there is a place in Mn where the club we work with gets their adult birds in the spring to release. (2700 roughly) I can find out a number if you would like. I believe they are all fairly young birds and not the old maids KDM speaks of.

When we release our raised chicks in July, we have a 4 x 8 wood box (two plywoods screwed to 1x 12 boards) that we just set out in the area by good cover and let them walk out on their own. Some still fly and land in stupid places (had one fly straight up till you almost couldn;t see it and fall back deader than hell ) but most quietly walk out and disperse. We come back that evening and usually all but a couple are gone.

Despite the "experts" claims, it does work if one is committed.


and for the record, "bumtittysprinklesnowhere" is Antler.........

 

[Duckslayer100]

I imagine you'll have better success with adequate cover and a diligent shoot-on-sight policy for all nest-raiding and hen-eating predators. I mean, if you're spending all that money on birds and feed, what's a few more bucks for a brick of .22s?

 

[NDwalleyes]

You will succeed.... eventually. However, the survival rates for pen raised birds are horrible. There are several studies out on the web that address it. If it worked well you would see groups like PF would be doing it all over the place. I applaud your persistence though.

There is a PF wildlife biologist out of Dickinson that you would enjoy visiting with...can't remember his name but it's on the web. There is a guy here in Bismarck named Perry Meskie (sp?) who sells pheasants for the local youth shoots and what not, I would give him a call.

 

[Wild and Free]

last years pheasant raising fiasco ended in disaster. i've got one rooster left and the damn thing is thriving. but, i've got no idea where the rest of them went. it looked like a lot of them landed in water again over the first few weeks when they would get flushed. i suspect they mistake the green cat tails as nice comfortable cover and then find themselves drowning. dumb ass birds. wasted 2 months and hundreds if not a thousand dollars on them.

so... i am gonna try plan B and take a bit of advise from a few others and go the route of adult birds this spring in the hopes they have a few successful hatches and raise chicks that are smarter than pen raised birds.

question(s)... where do you guys get boxes of 9 hens and a rooster from? will the hens come bred already?

thanks.

:;:Maybe you need to look into raising ducks and geese instead in your wetlands habitat instead of those pesky invasive non-native species. :;:thumbsup

 

[gst]

I thought after the NDFB "right to farm" measure passed there wasn;t going to be any wetlands left?

 

[espringers]

Lol. And I knew it was antler. But, ya got to admit that place is pretty much the timbuktu of pheasant territory

 

[Bri-guy]

I hunted with a guy in late December who releases pen raised birds each year. He does a lot of dog training, so he wants to ensure birds on his land all summer. We were hunting in the red river valley and I was amazed at the number of birds we saw. Better than you would find 100 miles west of there. It might take a while, but it does work.

 

[gst]

Lol. And I knew it was antler. But, ya got to admit that place is pretty much the timbuktu of pheasant territory

I figured you knew, just wanted a chance to use the "tittysprinkles" deal.

 

[Traxion]

If you are really serious and have the money, buy a Surrogator. I've seen a couple guys turn a place that had no pheasants into a pheasant circus in just a few years. 65 or so birds at a time from chicks. Survival rate is much higher than pen raised (pen raised is about 1-2%). Yes, there is a cost. But, you could get two batches in your climate. Do that for a few years and you will have an awesome population established. And if you wanted you could throw a batch or two of Hungarian Partridge in too for fun.

Good luck!

 

[Skoalongcut]

http://forpheasants.com/index.htm

 

[Kraken]

If you are really serious and have the money, buy a Surrogator. I've seen a couple guys turn a place that had no pheasants into a pheasant circus in just a few years. 65 or so birds at a time from chicks. Survival rate is much higher than pen raised (pen raised is about 1-2%). Yes, there is a cost. But, you could get two batches in your climate. Do that for a few years and you will have an awesome population established. And if you wanted you could throw a batch or two of Hungarian Partridge in too for fun.

Good luck!

Never heard of this and now that I looked at their website I'm interested. Have you used one/known someone who used one? Any details?

 

[Yoby]

I tried to raise a brood my first year out in the country. Did not go so well. Bought birds from SD. Didn't realize you have to have a non-typical livestock license. In some method, I think the SD facility reported selling across state lines and notified them of my address. From their they contacted me indicating I needed a license. This was not something I knew about. Below is the link.

http://www.nd.gov/ndda/program/non-traditional-livestock

 

[Traxion]

Never heard of this and now that I looked at their website I'm interested. Have you used one/known someone who used one? Any details?

Yes I know several people that have used them. In the southern half of SD they can get three batches ran through in a summer. The big thing is the temp can't go below mid 50's at night or you will lose birds. The machine has a heater but you need temps above that range for survival. I would guess in ND you would only get two batches. 65 day old chicks are placed in the machine. They are fed/watered/kept. Release comes about 5 weeks later. You don't have to touch the machine, or expose the birds to people, other than to check on it once in awhile during the 5 weeks. It carries enough food, water, and propane for the full cycle. Each person who I know has used them says when released they always seem to find 3-5 dead birds around the machine in the first week they are released. But most survive well. Even with what I would call just OK cover I know a few guys who had really good populations after two years. One did his for three years and hasn't set it up for the past 4 years because he has plenty of birds.

They are about $2200 to buy. Chicks, feed, and propane are about $200 per batch. Worth it from what I have seen.

 

[Tymurrey]

Yoby, thanks for ruining my weekend but saving me trouble later on. When I read your post I already had 6 adult partridge en route to me from PA, I'm still waiting on the paperwork but I had to take them to the vet to get checked over even though the hatchery I got them from was certified and now I need to get all the ND paperwork done and have my pens inspected. All for 6 damn partridge, for some reason they are classified as a category 2.