Pheasants from this year...

[SamPAtrapper]

Hatched out 2 dozen bird this year and released all that I hatched. Still flush up a few now and then in the lower field but I think predators hit the little ones pretty hard this year. Here are a few pics of the birds.
Enjoy! ;D

[Admin]

That's cool ;D I always wanted to do that.

[Greg]

very cool!

[SamPAtrapper]

Thanks guys! But what makes it all worth while is what I saw today. I hear my parents yelling.."Sam Sam come look" so I go outside and they are pointing over at the treeline that borders the 2 fields I released the pheasants into back in June. Low and behold there are 2-3 beautifully colored cock birds and 1-2 hens. I could care-less that it was just 4 birds I was just sooo happy to see my chicks again! I plan to raise and release birds every year but that depends on feed prices and my willingness to do so.

[Greg]

yeah i hear ya with the feed prices and willingness. i raise chickens and i did raise quail but a weasel got the quail. good luck in the future

[bowhunter1970]

Nice job! I started with 8 birds this earlier this spring, that I got from CJ. I'm down 2 hens, and 1 rooster, but they are doing very good. I'll try to get a pic on here soon.

[determinator]

Ah, pheasants!

There used to be a lot of them here in my neck of the woods (east- central WI). Now, the DNR site show only .5 birds per square mile here, with over 5 birds per square mile in the southwest part of the state.

When I was I kid, I considered pheasants the coolest critter in the world. I'd roam the nearby fields along the railroad tracks to try to see a few. I even had a notebook that I had copied all the pheasant info from books from the library. I wrote down how many birds I saw that day, and if they were male or female. I wonder where that book went...

Seeing this post made me think of raising some birds, and releasing them in that area. Bring back the pheasants! In winter, I had a pallet leaning against the biggest tree in a thicket, with branches over it. I put corn cobs under it so they had food. Slowly, the area got more built up, with less cover. It's still fairly verdant, though. I think they'd survive.

I've raised lots of leghorn chicks, back when I had a few snakes, so I'm not a rooky bird raiser.

Just an idea, maybe next year.

Later,

Kerry

[redbonerunner]

nice lookin chicks ;D

[blueduck]

Pretty cool thing to do. I saw a hen turkey yesterday with a batch of chicks that couldn't be two or three weeks old. Their wings were feathered out but the bodys were still covered in fuzz. Pretty late for that kind of thing.....

[redbonerunner]

ya that is really late for eggs to be hatchin