Establishing a pheasant population on your property.

[elkinrutdrivemenuts]

Ive been doing some research on buying pheasant eggs or chicks and raising them to release on my property.  I live outside Coeur d' Alene on 20 acres.  10 is grass, 10 is timbered and there is a natural creek and pond. The general area has a lot of good looking habitat as well for them to spread too.  Lots of water in the area and natural cover.  Anyone have experience raising them and releasing your own birds? My end goal is to have them around so I can train dogs on my own property for hunting and work with them daily.  I may shoot a couple for training purposes, but they will not be hunted regularly by me, can't say what the neighbors will do if they are on their land though ; )

[runamuk]

I didnt raise and release but as I developed my farm in Idaho I created habitat for nesting along my property lines, also the hotwire fencing and cross fencing kept coyotes out, we created a brush pile for a cover area, and I planted stuff they liked.  We went from about 2 pheasant to 4 separate cocks and 3 hens raising littles on our 10 acres inside 3 years....pheasant cocks in breeding mode were so cool to watch and hear they staked out property corners and it was a lot of fun.

[elkinrutdrivemenuts]

What kind of stuff did you plant?  And what did you you do to create their nesting areas?  I was planning on raising them in the barn and letting them go, but that wont be till spring.  If I can get some habit ready in the mean time and draw in wild birds that would be easier.  i worry about them going from a pen to the wild and just becoming dinner.

[runamuk]

I focused on grasses that would seed and do well in that climate...you can usually have a powow with the local crp person they can point you in the right direction for your situation.....they also like things like barley, oats, wheat.
We put our fencelines about 8-10 foot inside my property line on two sides I then had a large space I could grow cover on selectively mowing when the birds werent using it....I also had to work around my irrigation ditches, I had a really awesome little farm developing right along my plan. we also ended up with a herd of quail who resided in my barn where I also had a kestrel....

[Shannon]

I researched this a while back. I think they say to release them at 5 weeks so they don't get used to people and are more like wild birds. They did studies and that was the best time to release them. Google the Surrogator. They have a lot of good info on their website.

[Special T]

http://www.pheasantsforever.org/page/1/habitatArticles.jsp

I think Run provided saftey and that is one of the reasons why her hobby farm did well. Pen raised birds suffer from depredation more than any other problem. Shoot, trap, any predator, and apparently hot-wire the property line... Never knew that worked for coyotes.

[nwwanderer]

Habitat is the key.  Thermal cover for winter, like great basin wild rye, cattails, any really thick tall stuff, food source like grain for winter and a bug producing cover for chicks like rape seed, canola, vetch and sweet clover and patience.  Our predators, include cats, dogs, neighbors and all of the wild ones can really raise heck with 'your' birds.  Releasing them early if you raise them is important.  The younger the better.  Maybe a savvy, broody old bantam hen for a mentor.  Look at the weather report, if it is a warm dry spell and you have food and cover kick them loose.

[Don Fischer]

I've never raised a pheasant but I suspect releasing them, they'll only last till the released ones die off. Quail and Chukar raised in captivity don't reproduce. Problem is they don't set the eggs. Then die off depends on the predator population, raised in captivity, they don't know about predator's until it's to late. And of course there's a food problem. They have to learn where to find food and water fairly quickly. It's no longer in the neat little pan in the .

I think if I were going to try it, I'd start them out on some kind of pen that is fairly low and that you can put food and water in. I'd pen them up for a week or so and them have some kind of door they could just walk in and out of. Then they'll be loose but relatively safe. One more thing. I'd build a fairly large hog wire fence around it. They can go through the fence but dog's and coyotes can't. Dogs and coyote's trying to get at them will dig.

Years ago I kept quail for training. They flew pretty well but some times were a bit in getting off the ground. Back then with my propagation license, I could trap wild birds. I did that and put about 8 wild valley quail in the pen with them. Wasn't long and the pen raised bird's were flushing like the valley quail.

I think that to do it, you have your work cut out for you but it also could be awfully satisfying. That pen they come and go out of would be similar to a quail suragator.

[elkinrutdrivemenuts]

Thanks guys looks like I've got a few projects for this winter. Is there a way to promote reproduction of the pen raised birds? 

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