Has anyone released birds such as pheasants on their own property?

[burmjohn]

Has anyone released birds such as pheasants on their own property?

[A6A6]

i havent , but if you are thinking of doing it , i believe the DEC has a program for it ..

not 100 % sure though..

[GrouseHunter]

Unless you have the right cover and food source and water and control your predators it wont work. We have a preserve license and release hundreds of birds but they never last from year to year, hawks, foxes, house cats all get them.

http://www.freewebs.com/pheasant/

[burmjohn]

Some nice pics you have there on the site!

[burmjohn]

I figured that would be the case, even with the right cover as you said.

[Fairgame]

Someone in the area has released them by us. Not sure if its DEC or a club or what, but for two years in a row they where on the sides of the road and on the lawn and sometimes even in the woods.  On the edges of your fields next to your wood line you will probably start seeing grouse. I always kick up one or two on the way into the woods

[GrouseHunter]

  [*]Some guys I know with good property use a suragator and have had good luck. They are said to be the best way to raise and release birds in the wild. You can find them online. Thanks for looking at the pictures.

 

http://www.freewebs.com/pheasant/

[STEVE ANKER]

Raising birds is relatively easy, however, integrating them into the wild is, as my mixed metaphor friend would say " that's a horse of a different feather".

Getting pen raised birds to stick, released into the wild, is tougher than chinese arithmetic.

What we do here on the Ponderosa (the place I live, work, and train) is we put out johnny huts for quail, a recall "barracks" for safe lodging of birds, away from the multitude of predators. Pheasant need a bit more cover, water, several food sources, and they need high cover to escape and evade all the critters that want to eat em. Corn fields are a roosters best friend. Tall structure and thick cover to hide em away from all that want em for supper.

Larger johnny huts do work for pheasant but regular visits are required to make sure all is well.

Predators...Owls are voracious for pheasant, raccoons decimate the nests by eating the fresh laid eggs, even possum do damage to an established nest. I don't know of a single property owner upstate who doesn't have issues with Coyotes, so that's an issue all by itself.

Here on Long Island we had issues with fox a few years back, but mange and a few other maladies did in the populations.

-don't mean to discourage you, in fact, with the proper care and attention you CAN have wild birds in your woods, just takes time and patience.

[Lawdwaz]

Quote-"Time with my dogs clears my mind, renews my faith, and lets me see the  world as it is. My only regret loving dogs as I do, is the misery of  their early departure." Robert G. Wehle, ELHEW KENNELS

Mr. Anker-

Great signature line.  Somewhere I have a photo of a statue of Mr. Wehle and a dog from the middle of Main Street in Union Springs, Alabama.  Pretty cool. 

[STEVE ANKER]

I believe Mr Wehle nailed it all with that single statement, in my view on all that we do with dogs. With the passage of time comes loss.

Enjoy your time with your dogs, it's way too short.

[wooly]

Over about a 3 year period I raised and released somewhere around 500 birds on my propperty. Some set free as chicks, some as 1 yr olds, some 2 yr olds and a handfull of 3 year olds. The results were much the same with every age class. They were all released in an agricultural area at appropriate times of year for ripe food sources and cover and would stick to the area for about a month before vanishing completely. We'd see a few of the survivors walking the shoulder of the roads in the spring occaisionaly. I believe their biggest predator here was hawks especially in the winter. We saw quite a few of them fall to the aerial attackers.

These birds were also never hunted by the locals in the area as they just enjoyed seeing them from time to time as well. It got to be too costly to justify raising them with such a low survival percentage.

[GrouseHunter]

I am amazed how well pheasants do in SD and ND yet in similar areas of NY they are gone. I remember wild pheasants as a kid on long island.  I had a Griffon and I use to run him on pheasants between the houses in Westbury. The residents called the cops on me and the cop came he had a gsp he told me to come back later. We also release hundreds and hundres of birds each year on great locations and none live from year to year. I now keep my own birds all year so I can train.

[Doewhacker]

Isn't there a strain of Pheasant that fly's up to roost at night, if so why don't they stick around. Its to bad, I am just getting into bird dogs and it looks kinda glim for opportunities to go after Pheasants.

[GrouseHunter]

South Dakota is not that far and its worth it.

[Doewhacker]

Hell I would love to move west some day, way more game to chase out there. hmm I sense a mega camping trip some year soon, we were gonna go out there camping any way sooo, why not bring the guns..hehe after Gus is trained of course.

[sweet old bill]

the DEC use to let about 20 + birds out a day prior to opening day of the season in North pharsalia Ny. Maybe 300 yards from my house, by the very next weekend the birds would be killed off. A very small % to hunters, but most be run over, or the coyote have a fu ll belly. I had 3 for a full 5 months I would feed from my bird feeders. But come sprink they finally left .

[SteveB]

Our habitat for the most part - at least where I am at - no longer supports a viable wild population.

They where an introduced species to begin with.

[HollowWatcher]

I myself have not released any pheasants but I do know of some people that do. It can provide a lot of fun if you do it the right way. I know of a farmer who has a small pen and raises about a couple hundred pheasants each year. He will release about 10 -20 birds about 3-4 days prior to hunting them and will continue this through the season. He always has action and the more time the birds stay out there the more wild they become. Good Luck!

[FLDBRED]

It is all about habitat!Pa.is having some great success bringing WILD birds back to Pa.! They are using Wild trapped birds from Montana and South Dakota!But the habitat has to be there first! NY.is lucky in that there are still some wild birds here,but again it's the habitat and most importantly NESTING cover that is lacking!Releasing birds can be a lot of fun,and great for training,but pen raised birds just won't raise young in the wild,if that is your goal!