I've gotten requests to help reintroduce quail to our area...

[stellas mommy]

And I've taken up their offer. I have 3 incubators ready and heated up, I have a egg supplier, and we are planting feed for them on the down below of our property. They will have a river, food, large coop, etc... if I incubate them now, and keep them threw out the winter they will be ready to be released in spring. I am pretty excited about this.

We used to have alot of quail around our property and my town (we live in the country) and they all got hunted or killed off. So were going to start to reintroduce them back into the wild.

I will let you guys know how it turns out!

 

[Moonkit]

I suppose my first question is.. are they going to keep hunting them?

 

[Godiva]

Now that sounds like a fun and yet challenging project. Do you have an area that will be a 'safe' zone for them? You will need to find out why they are not there anymore and try to 'fix' that to some degree or else the new ones will just get exterminated too. Will be great if you have a whole bunch of people that work together on getting your area quail friendly again.... keep us updated on how this project goes! Sounds very interesting indeed

 

[wolftracks]

OK I need to know. What are you planting as food?

Sounds like a great project, but I was also thinking you need to find out why they have died off like the other poster.

OK, so now...........what are you planting?

 

[TwoCrows]

Quote:
I do not know where you live, however, first you need to check with your Fish and Game Dept. first before releasing any pen raised quail into the wild. The reason being is that your pen raised quail can transmit disease to the local population of quail and it is illegal to endanger the local population of birds.

Second of all, you will be gravely disappointed in the release. The birds will most likely die within the first few nights due to predation. And if the predators don't get them, thirst and or starvation will kill them. The quail you are raising will be bonded to the first thing they see from the incubator, you. They will depend on you to fill the waterer, put crumbles in the bowl and change the bedding. Do you really think they will survive? Would you turn lose your Cockatiels because somewhere in the world they do live wild?

There are many unsuccessful programs going on all over the country in hopes of repopulating the quail populations and they have maybe a 1% success. Even the wild quail are not making it due to habitat loss. Quail need to be raised properly in order to survive...never seeing their keeper, cleaning, feeding at night, and released in a predator free environment untill they get the hang of it. And even then very few ever survive. No doubt the loss of habitat killed them off, not the hunters.

So. Please do not send these birds off to their deaths because you think they will survive. I have been raising quail for 5 years. And I can tell you, none of your birds will survive. Sorry.

 

[ginbart]

I see your heading is, I've gotten requests to help reintroduce quail to our area . Who requested it? Do you know how many predators you have where your releasing them? So many questions sorry? I hope it works if you doing it with the help of the fish and game.

 

[pnp4kidz]

My thought on this is...

I'm happy to chase some over from OUR ranch and neighborhood to yours if you want!!!
We have an OVERpopulation, along with turkeys, and are more than willing to share!
ours are born wild, and apparently can survive quite well with finding their own food and avoiding the coyotes... skunks, possums, racoons... I dunno, whatever should eat Quail...
Maybe here those things dont eat quail? they are protected here in CA you know...
maybe those things just were told to stop???
anyways, glad to share!

 

[Oregon Blues]

Wild Quail here were getting mighty thin on the ground, so I've been giving them some support.

My son and I build brush piles for them, scattered around the property. That's gives them shelter from the predators.

I put out shallow pans of water at the brush piles.

The grain type plants I've planted for them get eaten by the tweeties, but the quail have been eating fruit and veggies out of my garden. So they are getting a little bit of help with food.

Quail populations have increased noticeably. The biggest difference is that they are getting the babies raised. I've got several flocks with lots of nearly grown juveniles.

The brush piles are what make the difference. The quail have a safe place to hide. It also helps that a neighbor with tons of loose cats moved away. Cats kill a lot of quail.

 

[pete55]

Quote:
Really interesting to hear that you've seen an increase in breeding and population since introducing your measures. How fantastic to be contributing to wild populations

Is your local species Californian Quail with the head crest? Enjoyed hearing about that and that the shelter makes a significant difference

Pete