Chukars

[destinduck]

Just wonderin if anyone keeps any now.

 

[morgan36]

I dont have any yet but I am planning on getting some as soon as I do some research

 

[drowe005]

I've got some. Theyre pretty birds, make interesting sounds too. From 1 pair, I got about 100 eggs from march-beginning of August with about 90% hatch rate. If you get some, be prepared to figure out a solution for feed waste. My quail and pheasant waste nearly 0 food, but the chukars scratch at the food a WHOLE lot and cause mass loss if you dont elevate the feeders.

 

[millivanilli]

I found one today in a field. It looked kind of traumatized and let me pick it up, although I don't see anything visibly wrong with it. I brought it home and put it in a cage with some newspaper and alfalfa hay, gave it some water and some chicken scratch feed, then put it to bed with the lights out and a towel over the cage.

If it lives through the night, I will need to figure out what to feed it.
From reading around here, I gather not to put it with the chickens since I don't want to put them at any risk whatsover.
Our state isn't one of it's habitats so I imagine it can't live outside all winter.
We'll see what happens. .... I guess I better read and educate myself ...

 

[ranit]

As chukars are considered gamebirds (in my state anyway) you might want to check and see if a permit is required in your state to have them.

 

[millivanilli]

As chukars are considered gamebirds (in my state anyway) you might want to check and see if a permit is required in your state to have them.

Good idea. I don't think they are. They don't live here and the state doesn't release them for hunting.

I think its like if you find one of those hapless white doves they raise to release at events.
But I will check. Thanks again.

 

[millivanilli]

That was interesting. They haven't been stocked here since 1973, no sighting since 1983, but there are daily and seasonal bag limits, season opened this weekend.
It says may not be in posessoin of any wild birds OTHER THAN gamebirds and further states a permit is required to have MORE THAN ONE for breeding or artificial propagation.

So I think ones ok.

 

[drowe005]

I live in Virginia, and no Chukars live here in the wild as Natives. It is required to have a permit to possess, sell, and propogate them from the Department of Game. One other note too, It is illegal to have in possession any wild caught bird or animal. For example, you can't go outside and catch a cottontail rabbit or even Chukar in that case and keep it as a pet. If you acquire these animals from a breeder ( they are captive bred animals), it is legal to posses them.

 

[destinduck]

.Bummer Yall have some of the toughest game laws in the country drowe005. On shipping and everything. I wonder which states have wild chukars in any numbers. Are those mountains in your avatar? I always thought they were cool. I have never kept mountains or the mearns quail. But getting back to chukars.I kept about 15 red legs and 4 white chukars on the ground in a 8x14 ft pen for 2 years but that was 6 years ago. They were fun and easy for me. I know alot of people that prefer to keep them off the ground on wire.But if they started dying on me I figured I'd eat the rest. But I did eat a couple of them early on just to see what they tasted like but to me they were just okay.I like bobwhites better. They were more fun as pets. They all got along in the same pen and didnt fight even when they started layed eggs the first year.

 

[drowe005]

In regards to Virgina, its a commonwealth and thats all I can say about that. We surely do have some stupid laws here, alot of which are very outdated, but there are worse places.
Yep, those are Mountains in the avatar. Its my first year with them; had them hatch in June. Supposedly its really hard to get them to learn to eat and drink when they hatch since their parents feed them for the first week or so, but I just hatched a few Chukars with them and the Chukars taught them everything they needed to know and I fdidnt lose any to not eating or drinking. So Id say I had a good success rate for the first go at them. I really enjoy them, and are very friendly and tame birds; they'll come right up to the pen door and eat out my hand, and even let you rub on their chests. I know the west coast has pretty significant numbers of Chukars in the wild, such as California, Nevada, Utah, etc. Apparently they used to be common throughout most of the US in the early 1900's, but after WWII with all the new and crazy amounts of chemicals used on farms at that time, that killed out a whole bunch of them.