Do people hatch quail and release them?

[aprophet]

Those so called pros are government workers, the same kind that brought in English sparrows, carp, kudzu and who knows what other problems. Less that 2%, huh, might that tell you more about government workers. We not only raised them and had great success at turning them lose we also provided brush piles for them to hide in, we also planted grain in patches near the brush piles and all that close to water. Sure there will be a high death rate if there is no place for them to hide or places for them to forage but if you give them a starting chance they can survive. where farmers have left hedge rows and brush growing there could be a good quail population but where it is barren, no quail nor any other birds.

BTW we are allowed to release them here on our own land just a form to let VDGIF know how many we released and location

Jeff makes some good points loss of habitat ie clean farming ( no fencerows) also people not willing to absolutely stomp coons fox and yotes during trapping season are the reason for the 2% rate me my turtle and waterfowl population are doing much better these days because of the predator control I perform here where I am I see flocks yea flocks of woodies mergies and greenheads here I have even seen a pintail or two I did not even know we had them 5-10 years ago

 

[mochicken]

I have looked into this with Missouri Dept of Conservation and I actually got to sit down with their "game official" who told me, "If you want to have gamebirds on your farm you don't need to release them, you need to invite them" what he meant was instead of trying to "stock birds" you need to make land that would bring birds in.

Game birds need three things,

Food and water, they need grains, corn, whatever as long as they have a food and water source close they will be there.

Cover, they need plenty of places to hide, fence rows, brush piles, high grass fields, all these are places that game birds hide.

And last but not least, PREDATOR FREE, coyotes, raccoons, and bobcats can take out a flock of game birds in one night, if you dont trap or shoot them invite someone in who does. I know thats not the "natural way" but if you want game birds you have to choose which one you like more. Getting rid of the predators also helps with deer, rabbits, turkey, squirrel etc etc etc so its better for everyone if you take out the predators.

 

[DCasper]

Sounds like expensive hawk food. I was wondering about releasing quail also...