Has anyone tried it on their property? Love the sound of the little birds. I don't hunt them, but, love knowing there around. I have a pair that comes through ever so often. And they will call for hours.
So, would it work to release a few? And if so, where i get them?
Thank you
Sarge

I've always wondered the same thing, but without a very strict predator and varmint control I doubt the reproductive rate would be very poor or non existent, I think quail have a small home range like 160 acres or there about. So if you could supply them with food water and zero predators/ varmints they might get by.

Pen-raised bobwhites aint got what it takes to survive for long in the wild.

This, this, this.

x3, according to everything I've ever read.

We don’t allow pen raised quail without clipped wings on the plantation. We’ll use them in one area only for training and it’s not a part of the “quail woods”. Most wild bird plantations do not want any release birds anywhere near their wild birds because of disease.
The only folks that I know that release any on their properties release them just to hunt. They won’t last in the wild. We’ll take some to another property to shoot over pups when training. What’s bad is we are setting them out and the hawks start picking them off before we can get the dogs to them. Wild quail have a hard enough time with predators, release birds don’t stand a chance.

I guess i'll let things be and just enjoy the few that do come by. Not many ground predators here. I take care of that. Hawks, have a pair that breed here every year. Very few rabbits, but, not many snakes. Copperheads used to be bad here. So, i guess its a trade off.
As far, as quail. We try and provide the habitat. Turkey population has increased. But, i don't hunt them (should i say shoot them) unless one gets next to the fence while i'm having my morning coffee on the porch.
Sarge

Sarge
I've hear to take paste board carpet roles and build brush piles over them, as they rot away it will leave holes under the piles that quail and rabbits can use to protect their selves, with a established pop. I'm guessing that may help?? Not sure but sure be worth tryn.

Remember reading a quail study some decades ago that found that hawks and feral cats were the two biggest predators on quail. Think it was in NC.

Farm next to me, 170 acres, was sold when owner died about 15 years ago and set fallow a few years. Warm season grasses sprung up.
Starting hearing quail for the first time in many years.

Then, houses sprung up, and haven't heard one since.
Quite a few here 50 years ago.

Next to quail and turkeys, I’d love to be around Grouse. I’ve learned so much about the first two I could write a book on things I’ve seen them do and all the different sounds they make. Hearing grouse drum in the PNW last year was captivating to say the least. To be around them for 300+ days a year would be an awesome experience.

Now y’all know why managers down here are more excited over a trapped domestic bobcat than a coyote. I’ve borrowed a clients gun on a hunt before to chase one down.

Sgt C,
Habitat is the key to quail, as it is to most wildlife. If you have control over the property, conducting controlled winter burning every couple years is great and the cheapest management activity you can do. Keep in mind the fire will girdle/kill hardwoods, which is one of the reasons for the burn (to knock back the vegetation to allow more sunlight to hit the ground to produce more herbaceous vegetation that is conducive to quail). And, along with fire, you'll need the firebreaks, which can and should be disked. Have as many breaks as possible as more is better to control the fire and speed up the burn process (you can light more safely and it'll be over with faster. Plus, the smaller blocks between breaks creates more edge. These breaks can also be seeded with browntop millet, sorghum, etc to produce small seeds for quail. I could go on and on.....but if you're serious then get busy.

35 years ago my mom lived in Cape Cod Mass and there were quail there. They also had more ticks that I have erev see too. That really surprised me......jk

Swamp, i do just that every year. I take to the woods with pruners, chainsaw to trim all of the small saplings. Been doing that the day after deer season ended. I always start in the back yard so to speak. Allowing sunlight to hit the ground has made a huge difference. The vegetation is growing well right now.
It also brings in plenty of does with yearlings. I usually harvest two per season from again my back porch. If i owned the land. I would go crazy with habitat improvements. So, i'm limited, but things have improved. Just alot and i mean alot of work with the hand tools. I make piles with the brush when i can.
Every bit helps.
Come fall. I usually hand cast rye where i have cut out all of the underbrush. The results keep me doing more and more all year long. Even in the August heat.
Sarge

If your goal is just to keep some around, you can do it with a Johnny house and a flock from a shooting preserve. I have kept them for over a year. Turn half the covey out in the morning and the remaining birds will call the released ones back into the house in the evening.
If your goal is to establish a local population you need wild birds, most pen raised quail have lost the instict to nest.

I used to buy quail from a breeder in Tralfagar, Indiana. He banded many hundreds of bobwhite quail and released them in the Fall. He trapped back the survivors in the Spring, with call birds in recall pens. He only used the birds that survived the Winter, on their own, in his breeding program. He had by far the best quality, wild like bobwhite, out of the thousands I have bought and had. Many people I sold them to or birds out of them to, successfully reintroduced breeding populations of bobwhite, at least on a short term basis.

I think the state DNRs should trap wild bobwhite, raise large numbers of chicks out of them using light to force them to double clutch. They should breed the resulting birds heavily, for no more than 3 years and restock them in the wild and start the breeding program again with birds straight out of the wild.

Captivity quickly changes the genetics in wild animals, through the generations. By only using birds only recently out of the wild. You can keep the traits they need to survive.

Keith

Like wild turkey , they tried pen raised , and failed every time.
Went to catching wild ones and relocating , and it worked for a long time.
Then fur prices fell , and coyotes are eveywhere , and the population is again in decline.
As a kid , we had wild pheasant and quail everywhere .
Then hunt clubs started releasing pen raised birds , that were medicated , same as any flock of chickens or fowl.
They were immune to diseases , but carried them.
The wild birds all died out because of the released birds.
In Ohio , they started reintroducing quail in some southern counties , with caught wild birds .
And they're spreading out , and last I heard were in 7-8 counties .
Still not hunted last I heard.
https://ohiodnr.gov/static/documents/wildlife/wildlife-management/2021QuailPopStatusReport.pdf

IMHO money talks and pen raised birds are released by the state and game clubs over most of the state.

Seen where turkey built a flock of over 150 birds , and a new landowner turned loose 25 pen raised quail and bragged about it.
The next year you couldn't find a turkey , they were few and far between.

A neighbor gave my mom 6 quail and they would roost in the norway spruce by the meadow. The guy got them from a place in VA.