releasing bobwhite quail

[Beer can]

Maybe you should check into what they do allow for your project. I know in NY the DEC supplies 60,000 or more ring neck pheasants to those that want to be part of the program. You don't have to pay for them but you have to house and feed them.
Thought is to reintroduce them in the state, increase hunting opportunities.

But like kwhites634 posted above on quail, I don't think any of those pheasants survive. Pretty birds when you do see them, never see any the next yr. They just don't have the instincts to evade predators or forage for feed. And actually you always know when people release them, start seeing them hit in the road, I think most of them become road kill.

 

[AllenK RGV]

Maybe you should check into what they do allow for your project. I know in NY the DEC supplies 60,000 or more ring neck pheasants to those that want to be part of the program. You don't have to pay for them but you have to house and feed them.
Thought is to reintroduce them in the state, increase hunting opportunities.

But like kwhites634 posted above on quail, I don't think any of those pheasants survive. Pretty birds when you do see them, never see any the next yr. They just don't have the instincts to evade predators or forage for feed. And actually you always know when people release them, start seeing them hit in the road, I think most of them become road kill.

Yeah I wouldn't be raising a species for the hunters to kill, nor would I want to try to get them too far off their natural feed. But you never know even if 1% of those become viable introductions into the environment it seems a worthwhile project for recovering threatened species.

 

[Beer can]

@pigeoner
Regardless of what you end up doing or what is legal, I applaud you for your interest

 

[Beer can]

Yeah I wouldn't be raising a species for the hunters to kill, nor would I want to try to get them too far off their natural feed. But you never know even if 1% of those become viable introductions into the environment it seems a worthwhile project for recovering threatened species.

There is a good possibility that it does make a difference here, I just haven't seen much evidence of it. While we are mostly dairy farm land with plenty of corn fields, it's also mostly mountainous and heavy with old forest/woods, not the best habitat for pheasant.
I'm in the Catskill mountains, out in western NY there might be a population of them, different habitat, flatter more brush land, fields and such. We have plenty of native wild grouse and turkey, the pheasants though, awesome when you kick one up, beautiful birds, but do not survive, dumb birds. I thought about getting into the program, but like you said, state wants them released on public hunting property, it's a slaughter house. Every redneck/hillbilly that see's one, tells their friend, and then there is a hunting party. I know this for a fact because I've been guilty of it when I was younger, seen it first hand many times.
Never forget that time at work many yrs ago, supervisor says, Wow, what you got there smells good, I said pheasant soup, he says from where!!, pheasant!!! their trying to introduce them into the state!! you shouldn't shoot them!! what the f is wrong with you!!
Dang dude, they were trespassing, shot two in my driveway and one over by my mailbox, and they taste good!! better than seeing them hit in the road and eaten by crows...
Lol, bout the same time, DW was driving down the road and hit one, her mom made her stop and pick it up , figured I'd want it, I knew I picked a good girl when her mom was picking up road kill for me

 

[BobDBirdDog]

Legal or not, I'm afraid you're in for a big letdown. Birds in the wild have an oil on/in their feathers, from their diet, that prevents their feathers from getting soaked. That oil is not generated by commercial game bird feed.

I spent 40 years campaigning bird dogs on the field trial circuit. Most of those trials are run on pen-raised bobwhites. Invariably, birds are left in the fields that weren't found by the dogs and they bedded down in the cover. Wet feathers from rain or snow, with no oil in their feathers to turn the water, plus cold temperatures equal death for the majority of the birds.

And its a Dang shame that we have to resort to pen raised, miss the 70s and wild birds! Might as well be shooting fish in a barrel these days with pen raised birds. Never done a trial. 8 Llewellin's.
But Ditto "Kwhites634"!