feeding grouse

[Cheers]

We enjoy feeding birds in the winter . Would like to try feeding grouse . Has anyone else had any success ? What do you feed them ?

[CaptainMusky]

Never done it, but I would think if you had some sort of berries they would enjoy the heck out of it. If its on your yard or land, plant some crabapples. I had a ruffie in my crab apple this past September and I have never seen one around here before. Fun birds.

[leech~~]

I think it would be pretty cool to be able to do it but they seem so solitary just kind of wondering around foraging not sure how you would get them to start coming in day after day? But it would be cool!

[leechlake]

I bet you are just trying to bait them!!! Just kidding.

We feed the birds up north and I've never seen a grouse at the feeders or in the corn feeder either. I actually never thought of it until you posted this and agree it would be a great sight to see. I'm wagering that all the song birds at a feeder are some really small percentage of birds that inhabit an area. Lets say you've to 1% of birds visiting your feeders the rest are out and about or at neighbors feeders. There aren't enough grouse to make it probable that one would come in to a feeder. It's a complete wild guess though. I think they are recluses too.

[ncesi]

We have the Siberian crab apple trees in our yard, several of them. We have grouse running around our yard like chickens in the fall and early winter as long as there are apples. We get anywhere form 2 to 8 at a time in the trees and on the ground. They run across our garage roof and jump into the tree closest to our house, we sit and eat our supper and watch them just 5-10 feet out the window. They know they are safe as we will not shoot them and our old English setter now 15 just does not care anymore. We have tried sunflower seeds and they do eat them but the still seem to disappear later on in the winter. We are going to try to get some all natural dried cranberries with no sugar etc... and try that. It is really cool to watch them. Now we have 2 fox that seem to be trying to get to them as well and they are fun to watch as well. hope the grouse make it.

[CaptainMusky]

I bet you are just trying to bait them!!! Just kidding.

We feed the birds up north and I've never seen a grouse at the feeders or in the corn feeder either. I actually never thought of it until you posted this and agree it would be a great sight to see. I'm wagering that all the song birds at a feeder are some really small percentage of birds that inhabit an area. Lets say you've to 1% of birds visiting your feeders the rest are out and about or at neighbors feeders. There aren't enough grouse to make it probable that one would come in to a feeder. It's a complete wild guess though. I think they are recluses too.

Dont squash my dreams leechlake, I was hoping to feed the one grouse I saw in my area through the winter to hopefully have a huntable population in a few years. :-)

After saying that I should confess, I did try and shoot it with the pellet gun when I did see it, but the bugger bolted. :-)

I agree it is probably going to be a difficult to get them to come in. They scrounge around on so much out there and do not need much each day.

[tacklejunkie]

I feed birds in the winter and the only grouse I ever see feeding in the yard are the ones in the aspens and birch eating buds.

I have read that grouse are bud, berry,leaf, and flower eaters and not so much seed eaters. When I shoot a grouse and it's crop is full, the contents confirm this. I have never seen any seed or grain in a grouse's crops or gizzard. The only seeds I've seen were those of Sumac, at least I think they're sumac(those red fuzzy seeds)

[Early Riser]

I have had up to three at a time at our feeder at my cabin in the Grand Marais area. We watch them walk in from the surrounding woods in the morning after sun up and late afternoons. We start to see them in the yard late into the rifle deer season and then off and on through winter into early April. We feed almost exclusively with sunflower seeds up there.

[Bureaucrat]

We have the Siberian crab apple trees in our yard, several of them. We have grouse running around our yard like chickens in the fall and early winter as long as there are apples. We get anywhere form 2 to 8 at a time in the trees and on the ground. They run across our garage roof and jump into the tree closest to our house, we sit and eat our supper and watch them just 5-10 feet out the window. They know they are safe as we will not shoot them and our old English setter now 15 just does not care anymore. We have tried sunflower seeds and they do eat them but the still seem to disappear later on in the winter. We are going to try to get some all natural dried cranberries with no sugar etc... and try that. It is really cool to watch them. Now we have 2 fox that seem to be trying to get to them as well and they are fun to watch as well. hope the grouse make it.

That's good to hear about the siberians. I planted 12 this year on our property. My plan is to graft most of them with something different, but I will keep at least 4 for pollination. I also put in a half dozen american mountainash for the same reason. When I planted them, I wasn't sure they had any holding capacity into winter, but one guy buy town that has one still had fruit as of Christmas.