letting pen raised quail loose

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Shadow
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letting pen raised quail loose

Post by Shadow » Wed Mar 31, 2010 3:07 pm

a bit over two weeks ago I let a male and female loose, they were sticking around and coming by the cage- last weekend I let two hens/two males loose-
there's a strip of brush, tall grass, and dead tree brances 30 yards away that runs 100 yards

glad to say I've had 6 quail pair up, basically stick to that strip, but come arround. I do take some feed and sprinkle it along that strip as the sun comes up-

last couple days the males will get up on a branch and call- sometimes off and on during the day-

not to long ago I was sneaking along that stretch and saw a male and female- stopped- there's a nest with one egg in it-
what do you think- think if I keep an eye out for predators and snakes they might raise their chicks

sure is good to be hearing all the calls as the farm covey was killed off by 3rd weekend

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AzDoggin
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Re: letting pen raised quail loose

Post by AzDoggin » Wed Mar 31, 2010 3:13 pm

Shadow wrote: what do you think
*post deleted* That AzHusker ain't right in the head sometimes :wink:

dwilson
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Re: letting pen raised quail loose

Post by dwilson » Wed Mar 31, 2010 4:09 pm

So ya, sorry about those posts yesterday. I'm not going to make excuses but lets say tiny things were setting me off...

Provided the weather stays good without too much rain in the next month they should be fine. After the nesting season I would probably go full on johnny house setup with flying them out each day while leaving a male to call them back in for the evening. As the summer goes on they will get stronger and stronger and you should be able to winter some over as ferals if you wean them off the house in the fall.

Where did you get them? the vast majority of pen raised bobwhites are complete junk so if you have birds with eggs in a wild situation you got yourself some good birds.

Shadow
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Re: letting pen raised quail loose

Post by Shadow » Wed Mar 31, 2010 5:28 pm

hey no problem-

Tommy said there was a person down in Texas who wanted to sell her quail- get out of the business
she said they were hardy quail, should reproduce- this was last July- I got 20- aside from the 6 I let loose and two dieing- I have a few- enjoy watching them and hearing them-
my intent was to let some loose- seemed like a good time

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Re: letting pen raised quail loose

Post by dwilson » Wed Mar 31, 2010 6:33 pm

gather eggs and find someone with an incubator... hardy quail are a rare beast.

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Greg Jennings
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Re: letting pen raised quail loose

Post by Greg Jennings » Thu Apr 01, 2010 6:35 am

See if you can get in touch with a quail forever or quail unlimited chapter to help with habitat. If not, you might be able to get with a county agent.

Greg J.

Shadow
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Re: letting pen raised quail loose

Post by Shadow » Thu Apr 01, 2010 6:39 am

naaaaaaaaa I'd just as soon these three pairs survive and raise their hatch where they are

all sorts of quail calling right now- sun is just starting to come up- I enjoy listening to them- so do the Britt's

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Re: letting pen raised quail loose

Post by Shadow » Thu Apr 01, 2010 7:58 am

Image
Image
Image
Image

not to bad - couple quail in two of these- cut corn fields, old wheat field (burr field) machinery to hide under- and the britt's and I get to watch and listen

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Re: letting pen raised quail loose

Post by dwilson » Thu Apr 01, 2010 8:01 am

Nice chunk of land. You should get some Huns(gray partridge) and stock the land up with those. It looks perfect.

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Re: letting pen raised quail loose

Post by tommyboy72 » Thu Apr 01, 2010 11:03 am

I always wondered about stocking the land with Huns, Sharptails and Chukar around here Shadow. I thought around where we live would be some good habitat for it but never heard of anyone selling Huns or Sharptails. I wish the state DWC's would attempt some stocking of these bird species. It would be kind of neat to see the outcome.

For everyone else, Shadow and I only live about 60 miles from each other which around where we live is a common drive. The part of Oklahoma I live in and Kansas that Shadow lives in are a bit different topographically than other parts of Oklahoma and Kansas. Huge tracts of flat, brown, dry grasslands and crp fields with the occasional crop field thrown in. Not a lot of water where we live in the way of creeks, rivers, or lakes. For those of you that say this sounds like typical Oklahoma or Kansas- supersize the tracts of flat tracts of land and take away every lake or pond or creek and that is the panhandle of Oklahoma and southwest Kansas. I always thought it resembled the prairies of Montana or Nebraska or the Dakotas more than parts of Oklahoma and Kansas or other parts of Texas.

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Re: letting pen raised quail loose

Post by dwilson » Thu Apr 01, 2010 11:50 am

There are a few places that sell huns but not many. Sharpies you won't find for sale. Chukars are everywhere.

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Re: letting pen raised quail loose

Post by Shadow » Thu Apr 01, 2010 4:56 pm

well said Tommy- looks like the nearest water is East of Guymon- thinking of going down there to get the Britt's swimming and camp

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Re: letting pen raised quail loose

Post by tommyboy72 » Thu Apr 01, 2010 6:33 pm

East of Guymon? How far? The closest place I know to camp and fish is near Perryton, south of Hardesty. There is Straight Lake right outside of Guymon but it is a membership lake and it is more like a pond. There is Sunset Lake in Guymon but no one is allowed in the water, no boats, no dogs in the water, they stock it but it gets fished out by the Guatemalans and Illegals as fast as they can stock it with fish. No one checks licenses on it because the city police were told if they checked one license they had to check everyone on the lake fishing for a license. I'd like to find a place to go camp and take the dogs and my family that is a bit closer than the lake at Perryton. Hate paying to out of state license fees in Texas.

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Re: letting pen raised quail loose

Post by Shadow » Thu Apr 01, 2010 8:25 pm

thanks for that bit of info Tommy-
on the way to Colorado, 79 miles from me I found a wildlife area with nice water- Colorado
going to check into it-

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Re: letting pen raised quail loose

Post by Shadow » Fri Apr 02, 2010 2:04 pm

Tommy- got three hens and males that are just starting to lay eggs- if you'd like to try and hatch some eggs

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Re: letting pen raised quail loose

Post by tommyboy72 » Fri Apr 02, 2010 4:56 pm

I might be interested in doing just that. Let me see if I can get ahold of an incubator and I will let you know.

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Re: letting pen raised quail loose

Post by Shadow » Sat Apr 03, 2010 4:21 am

sent you a pm

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Re: letting pen raised quail loose

Post by dwilson » Sun Apr 04, 2010 1:27 pm

I would just make one personally... Google home made incubator. Look at the ones made from styrofoam ice chests for a small batch of eggs.

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tommyboy72
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Re: letting pen raised quail loose

Post by tommyboy72 » Sun Apr 04, 2010 5:24 pm

That's what I am in the process of doing. Have to wait till the hardware store opens Monday to get a thermostat, wire nuts, and some wire mesh. Everything else I had.

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Re: letting pen raised quail loose

Post by Shadow » Tue Apr 06, 2010 2:48 pm

I'm a little scared- Tommy is going to bring his pointers up here when he brings his setup to try to hatch these quail eggs

last year I had 60 some eggs- tried but failed to get them to hatch

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Re: letting pen raised quail loose

Post by tommyboy72 » Tue Apr 06, 2010 6:15 pm

I am in the process of assembling it now Shadow. I have all the parts just need to put it together tonight after the kids go to bed.

I only have 1 fully trained pointer right now. She is my Miller/Fiddler dog. My Elhew male I traded for a couple of pups out of some Old School pointer lines and then I have my young 6 month old Elhew/Miller/Fiddler pup who is gunbroke, ecollar broke, whistle broke, and knows the "come" command but is still learning to hunt. She will get there though. I will bring them all, they could use the experience riding in the dog box.

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Re: letting pen raised quail loose

Post by Shadow » Wed Apr 07, 2010 7:33 am

let me know when you are coming up- got a field we can turn some dogs loose- wondering what mine will think of long tails- bring a camera :)

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Re: letting pen raised quail loose

Post by tommyboy72 » Wed Apr 07, 2010 11:05 am

I am looking forward to it and will definitely bring a camera. I always like to get pics of dogs working, mine and fellow dog trainers.

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Re: letting pen raised quail loose

Post by Crashola » Wed Apr 07, 2010 11:37 am

dwilson wrote:I would just make one personally... Google home made incubator. Look at the ones made from styrofoam ice chests for a small batch of eggs.
I had my kids make one of these to hatch some duck eggs a few years ago. It worked great -- I think 11 of the 13 eggs hatched successfully.

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Re: letting pen raised quail loose

Post by Shadow » Wed Apr 07, 2010 2:05 pm

sent you a pm reply to yours- anytime Tommy-

heck- 1/2 mile field will be something to see Annie eat up- you don't mind if I let Shadow and Lizzi run with her- like to see what they do when they see that Pointer tear out and lock up- birds arround- should be a good time- I'll strap on my 22- maybe the dogs will think we are hunting

Crashola- I'd like to see these quail hatch- seems a waste if they don't- and besides- Tommy told me where to go to get these- hope he can get a nice hatch and let them loose
Texas quail, raised in Kansas, eggs hatched and let loose in Oklahoa- could be something

I'd try again- but then I have three pairs that seem to be nesting here- all things considered- I could have plenty or quail
and my Britt's think they're pets- not sure if they'd point or catch-

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