Pheasant order.

[Jack Peterson]

I'll be ordering 60-75 pheasants again this spring for my own pleasure and to release them. I've raised pheasants over the past 8 years, and have experience with raising poultry as well.

If anyone is interested in me raising pheasants for you, let me know.

I don't know if there are legal issues or anything, but I'd definitely be willing to raise birds for people.

So if you're lacking time and ambition, but want some pheasants to release next fall, post here and we can start discussing how we can figure something out.

Thanks, Jack.

[pureinsanity]

You do realize the mortality rate on pen raised birds correct? Just making sure you realize you might be getting a better bang for your buck spending that money to enhance your current habitat and a food plot vs releasing pen raised birds.

just my

[pureinsanity]

Best of luck though!

[Jack Peterson]

Yeah, I realize that they die, but I've had very good success over the years.

My fields are perfect pheasant habitats already anyways.

Also, I'll be using some of the birds to work with my new Springer.

I spread my birds over a couple hundred acres of private property, and feed them throughout the fall and winter. I've seen a rise in bird population on 2 out of the 3 sections of land I release birds on.

[pureinsanity]

Wish there was a way to better study this, but I bet the bird increase is due to the wild birds reproducing, not the released birds. Wish you luck though!

[Jack Peterson]

Negative Nancy!

Eliminating predators (foxes and cats), and providing a shelter and grains have worked well for helping the birds survive.

The birds stick around the shelter next to the food for a couple weeks, and some even learn to fly or "flush" when I drive up.

Many of my birds perch in trees as well. I always place branches in my pheasant cages for them to perch on, and after releasing them, I have often found them perching in trees at dusk and dawn.

The rise in population is probably due to the wild birds surviving better, but one can always hope that some of our released birds are making a difference. It all depends on location, and care after release.

Private land is easier to keep the pheasants alive, because you can plant the type of cover to release them in. Typically I'll put the birds next to chest high CRP grasses that are away from brush piles and rock piles. Tossing corn/grain on the ground, and the natural seeds in the grass all help the pheasants get accustomed to their surroundings.

I've had success, and the 1:100 survival rate isn't necessarily true. If you make an attempt to keep the birds alive, they definitely have a better chance. Especially when they are about 5-7 weeks old.

[scsavre]

4 years ago I put out about 20 birds on my CRP land.

3 years ago about the same.

Last year I put out 10 roosters and a handful of hens.

This year, I bought 2 roosters to train my pup, I ended up shooting 2 roosters, and kicked up a hen and a young rooster.

My land is a few miles from Detroit Lakes and I can honestly say I have never seen a wild pheasant in my area. 10 or 15 miles away there are a few.

Not sure where the hen and extra rooster came from. I assumed it was from the ones I let go the year before. Maybe?

[Jack Peterson]

You'll never know unless you band their legs. Very possible, despite what others think.

Winter is a horrible thing to pheasants, and the majority of the wild birds don't make it either.

[LandDr]

Pheasants are prolific breaders...they will always bread sufficiently to maximize their population within the carrying capacity of the land. Carrying capacity is based on food and cover...but other variables obviously impact survival and reproduction such as predators, weather, etc.

But these variables would impact pen raised birds as well as wild birds...it would be safe to say that pen raised would be impacted more since they don't have the skills and experience wild birds do.

With that said, your current population of birds is already at the carrying capacity of the land. If you don't have any birds or very few, that means your property doesn't have the carrying capacity to support very many or maybe none at all. Releasing birds into low carrying capacity locations will almost always result in poor success.

Kinda like a house half built...no heat, no food, no shelter, etc. (or very little of these variables), this would result in a low carrying capacity of you or your family living there or even growing in size. Add the walls, the heat, the food, etc. and you have increased the carrying capacity...you and your family will do much better and maybe even grow in size.

The key is getting the hens thru the winter since they are your breaders. You will need to have THICK winter cover designed with windbreak dynamics...shrubs acting as a living snow fence (protection from drifting snow) and conifers for thermal protection...build the house and have the heat on! Next you will want to install the food sources...food plots and/or feeders...and these food sources need to be reliable and consistent...fill the fridge! You will want to design all of this in locations that do not have tall trees that allow perches from avian predators...I would recommend that you cut them down if you do, or at least cut the ones by your winter core area.

Now you are getting your hens thru the winter...we have a saying "Dead Hens Don't Lay Eggs". You have to get the hen thru the winter to have any chance of reproduction.

Nesting success can be increased by trapping predators down during the nesting season. Trapping down during the winter will reduce predators, but as soon as you stop trapping, others predators will quickly move in. Most trappers don't want to trap during the nesting season because the pelts are not worth much or anything during that time. If you don't like killing predators, then use live traps and "relocate" the predators to a location far away where there probably are no issues. Everyone will have their opinion on this one.

Now you have hen survival, hen reproduction and birds in the fall.

I don't recommend releasing birds right away. I always recommend my clients to first "build it and they will come". Often by developing the right stuff, birds will just show up. I had a customer that had not seen pheasants on his property for years...we got some trees planted, implemented food plots and feeders and also did some nice native grass plantings...and withing a couple years he had over 20 birds on his place...they just showed up and like the place so they stayed.

Give the wild birds a chance to show up first before releasing. If there are no wild birds, then releasing is the ony option...but make sure you have your property set up first otherwise they are at high risk of mortality. Even dumb released birds can have a better chance of surviving in excellent cover and food. I would also recommend getting some Banty chickens to help "train" your pheasants. When a hawk flys over, the Banties will head for cover...it won't take too many times that your pheasants learn to do the same thing and the Banties will help your pheasants along.

Hope this gives you some ideas as well.

[HookEmHard84]

Hey Jack, I might be intersted in a some to use for dog training. How much per bird? and where are you located?

[pureinsanity]

Winter is a horrible thing to pheasants, and the majority of the wild birds don't make it either.

!!!!!!

Thank god for shelter belts! My father has a beautiful shelter belt and just for fun I will send the dog in there in the dead of winter. Man the birds that are in there is crazy!

[Jack Peterson]

I'm located about 30 miles north of st. cloud.

Probably $5 bucks a bird after care and food. I think the roosters cost about $2ish a piece nowadays.

[Jack Peterson]

Landdr -

I've had bantams in the past as well, but the neighbor dogs always find a way to kill them. GRRR!!!

[pureinsanity]

That's cheap! Id say that's a very fair price.

[Jack Peterson]

I'm not in it to make money, and as long as I come out even I'm happy.

Also, if you want to release pheasants, try placing whole corn stalks in their pen. They should learn how to eat kernels off the cob of corn, and will do this in the wild as well. If you place them next to a corn food plot, of course!

[BLACKJACK]

Pheasants are prolific breaders...they will always bread sufficiently to maximize their population within the carrying capacity of the land. Carrying capacity is based on food and cover...but other variables obviously impact survival and reproduction such as predators, weather, etc.

But these variables would impact pen raised birds as well as wild birds...it would be safe to say that pen raised would be impacted more since they don't have the skills and experience wild birds do.

With that said, your current population of birds is already at the carrying capacity of the land. If you don't have any birds or very few, that means your property doesn't have the carrying capacity to support very many or maybe none at all. Releasing birds into low carrying capacity locations will almost always result in poor success.

Kinda like a house half built...no heat, no food, no shelter, etc. (or very little of these variables), this would result in a low carrying capacity of you or your family living there or even growing in size. Add the walls, the heat, the food, etc. and you have increased the carrying capacity...you and your family will do much better and maybe even grow in size.

The key is getting the hens thru the winter since they are your breaders. You will need to have THICK winter cover designed with windbreak dynamics...shrubs acting as a living snow fence (protection from drifting snow) and conifers for thermal protection...build the house and have the heat on! Next you will want to install the food sources...food plots and/or feeders...and these food sources need to be reliable and consistent...fill the fridge! You will want to design all of this in locations that do not have tall trees that allow perches from avian predators...I would recommend that you cut them down if you do, or at least cut the ones by your winter core area.

Now you are getting your hens thru the winter...we have a saying "Dead Hens Don't Lay Eggs". You have to get the hen thru the winter to have any chance of reproduction.

Nesting success can be increased by trapping predators down during the nesting season. Trapping down during the winter will reduce predators, but as soon as you stop trapping, others predators will quickly move in. Most trappers don't want to trap during the nesting season because the pelts are not worth much or anything during that time. If you don't like killing predators, then use live traps and "relocate" the predators to a location far away where there probably are no issues. Everyone will have their opinion on this one.

Now you have hen survival, hen reproduction and birds in the fall.

I don't recommend releasing birds right away. I always recommend my clients to first "build it and they will come". Often by developing the right stuff, birds will just show up. I had a customer that had not seen pheasants on his property for years...we got some trees planted, implemented food plots and feeders and also did some nice native grass plantings...and withing a couple years he had over 20 birds on his place...they just showed up and like the place so they stayed.

Give the wild birds a chance to show up first before releasing. If there are no wild birds, then releasing is the ony option...but make sure you have your property set up first otherwise they are at high risk of mortality. Even dumb released birds can have a better chance of surviving in excellent cover and food. I would also recommend getting some Banty chickens to help "train" your pheasants. When a hawk flys over, the Banties will head for cover...it won't take too many times that your pheasants learn to do the same thing and the Banties will help your pheasants along.

Hope this gives you some ideas as well.

Good post Landdr!!! Lots of good points, especially with the predator trapping, I've been trying to eliminate the coons, opossums, and skunks in the spring and it seems to have helped the nesting success.

Not sure that I agree with you that avian predators are that big of a problem, I have a food corn plot right below my house, in between some conifers and a willow patch, and there are a few bigger trees that have grown up in there - and I don't see hawks hanging out in those tall trees. If they were having luck catching pheasants, they'd be there all the time. Guess I haven't drank the Fish and Wildlife koolaid where the only good tree is a dead, cut-down tree.

I live about 25 miles south of Glenwood, what would you charge to come to my place sometime this winter and give me some recommendations on increasing pheasant habitat??

[LandDr]

Jack...what variety or strain of birds are you getting?

The Ringnecks Forevermore group out of Bertha, MN have been using a more "northern" variety of bird which originated from more wooded areas and actually nests a couple weeks later. The only difference between our wild birds and this bird is a slightly broader white collar...otherwise they are exactly alike in appearance. If you are raising or releasing birds in more central and northern counties, you may want to give these birds a try.

Again, I can't stress enough to either release birds into excellent cover and food or develop the habitat/food first and then consider releasing birds if none show up.

Raising birds is a lot of fun and the kids will remember it forever if you get them involved.

I would like to have some authentic Hungarian Chukars released...got any of those?

Land Dr

[Jack Peterson]

landdr -

I've been ordering pheasants from my local co-op creamery over the years.

I think they come from Iowa.

If you can find a link to where I could buy those birds, that would be swell!

Also, Hungarian Chukars sound like fun. I'd definitely be interested in raising some.

[pureinsanity]

Chukar will not survive a winter here, just be aware of that.

[LandDr]

Jack...here is Ringnecks Forevermore's web site...

I think there is some contact information on that site. Tell them Kyle from PLM sent you.

Rock Chukar or Red-legged Chukar...those goofy ones they release at hunting preserves...do not winter well in MN. But Hungarian Chukar (or Gray Partridge) were released in MN many years ago and thrived when there were more cereal grains and pastures. They thrive in South Dakota and parts of North Dakota...very fun to hunt and very tastey.

With more native grasses now being established for CRP and other conservation programs, there are more food sources for these little birds. Suplimented with cereal grain feeders, I think they could do well again.

Jack...I don't know a source for getting Gray Partridge eggs but maybe you can check around. Ask the Ringnecks Forevermore people cuz I beleive they were raising some of those as well.

Land Dr

[pureinsanity]

BlackJack a quick read of this and you should have a great idea of what to do..

Winter Cover:

Shelterbelts should be designed to contain 10 or more rows of trees and shrubs primarily on the north and west sides of farmsteads, and for maximum protection should be at least 150 feet wide. The shrubs are planted in the outermost rows to catch drifting snow, while the tall, center deciduous trees "lift" the chilling winds above the farmstead. Evergreens are on the inside four rows and effectively reduce the remaining wind and drifting snow. Field windbreaks are often much smaller in scale and contain 2 to 4 rows of smaller shrubs planted outside two (2) rows of evergreens.

Broods:

When chicks emerge from the eggs, there is a high demand for protein-rich food, specifically in the form of insects. Broods only move far enough to satisfy their needs - the shorter the distance, the better. And, home ranges can be pretty small if cover quality is high. Movements of just 1-4 acres per day in the first weeks of life characterize the limited travels of broods in good cover.

Broods, Biomass and Bug Power:

Insects are the fuel chicks need to grow. Chicks feed on bugs almost exclusively their first 4-6 weeks, feeding constantly throughout each day. Insects continue to be an important, albeit smaller, component of the diet through 14 weeks. Soft-bodied insects, including leafhoppers and larval stages of moths and grasshoppers, make up a large part of the diet. The management challenge with brood habitat is to provide the very best cover possible for those insects, so that more of them are produced for brood food. Chicks consume from 1,000 to 2,700 milligrams of bugs per day, so they need cover that produces a high insect biomass, such as oats and sweet clover as opposed to corn and beans. Pheasant broods forced to range over larger areas have reduced survival rates. Single species stands of native (eg. Switch grass) or cool-season grasses (eg. Brome grass) are also poor producers of insects. Adding forbs (broad leafed annuals or perennials) to these grasses increases diversity and insects.

Pheasant broods on the hunt for food have certain considerations. Broods need good lateral and overhead concealment from predation, since they are being hunted themselves by most everything with teeth and talons. In fact, from a hatch of a dozen chicks, only six will survive until October. Broods also require openness at ground level to feed freely throughout the stand (and to escape should trouble show up). Fields choked with the litter of dead vegetation from years of neglect will not see much use by broods. And, as talked about previously, brood cover must be comprised of vegetation attractive to their insect quarry.

Brood Cover:

Good nesting cover can be great brood habitat, as well, but generally not without some thought. Early-successional areas, characterized by open stands with a high diversity of grasses and succulent broadleaved plants, fit the requirements for both nesting and brood rearing. Well-designed habitat for both nesting and broods will pair diverse forbs (broadleaves) with several species of either warm or cool-season grasses (or both) that will provide more cover variety. Broods are often found at the junction of these native and cool season habitats. These complexes of plants also provide habitat for nesting, night roosting, daytime loafing and escape cover.

The value of cover for broods and nesting declines significantly as the stand ages. If you have your own plantings, diversify them and create a plan for regular disturbance (disking, grazing, haying, burning, etc.) that rejuvenates the cover.

Nesting Cover

Three Keys for Good Nesting Cover:

* It should contain several species of grasses and forbs

* There should be no disturbance (i.e. mowing, dog training, etc.) during nesting season: April 15 – July 15

* Nesting cover is dynamic, so plan ahead to manage grass cover successfully in successive years. Planning ahead to manage for diversity is likely the best thing you can do for pheasants in your area

Increase nesting success by implementing buffers on the landscape. These "travel links" along cropland edges, stream or riparian corridors, field borders, and grass waterways protect water quality while providing nesting areas between fragmented agricultural habitats. Wider is better – nesting success for pheasants increases measurably or every 1-foot increase in strip width.

Food

The importance of food plots oftentimes overshadows the real need on the landscape - Nesting cover! That being said, food plots do have a role in pheasant management because of the relationship between food, winter cover, movement and mortality.

Winter food is usually in abundant supply and starvation of wild pheasants is practically unheard of, so the principle objective of food and cover plots is to help carry female birds through the winter in good condition. This is accomplished by establishing safe foraging patterns, providing a dependable source of food and restricting unnecessary movements.

The two critical design factors for food plots are location and size.

* Locate them next to heavy winter cover and other shelter (shelterbelts, cattail sloughs, etc)

* If there is no winter cover available, food plots must be large enough (4-15 acres) to provide significant cover in addition to being a source for food

Grain-based Food Plots

High energy, grain-based food plots (including corn, sorghum, millets, etc.) are an essential wildlife management practice for game birds and other wildlife on private lands. Regardless of winter severity, it makes good sense to provide additional food and cover for crisis situations, to use food plots to increase habitat diversity, and to create habitat for hunting and wildlife viewing. Where primary winter cover is limited, planting grain-based mixes (like sorghums) will provide great cover structure in addition to food, and creating larger plots will improve shelter for your birds. That will help you achieve your primary objective—to bring your hens through the winter in peak condition for breeding, where improved spring body weight helps maximize chick production.

Population Dynamics

Stocking with pen-raised pheasants will not effectively increase wild pheasant populations. When habitat conditions improve, wild pheasant populations will increase in response to that habitat. Only by addressing the root problem suppressing populations –habitat - will you have a long term positive impact on pheasant numbers. Habitat is the key to healthy pheasant populations.

Studies have shown that stocked pheasants, no matter when they are released, have great difficulty maintaining self-sustaining populations. Predators take the main toll, accounting for 90 percent of the deaths and at the same time predators become conditioned to the idea that pheasants are an easy target. Pen-raised birds do provide shooting opportunities, a good way to introduce new hunters to hunting in a controlled situation and a chance to keep your dog in shape. Release birds as close to the time you want to hunt as possible, just keep in mind that these pen-raised birds are not going to produce a wild self-sustaining population in the area.

Effects of Hunting

Questions continually arise from both hunters and non-hunters alike about the effects of regulated sport hunting on ring-necked pheasants. Because hens and roosters are easily distinguished in wing shooting situations, and because hens are protected through game regulations, pheasants are actually managed much more conservatively than almost all other upland game birds. Hunting simply removes "surplus" males not needed for reproduction the following spring. In most cases, hunting pressure, success and harvest are greatest during the early part of the season. It is common for 30-50% of the season’s harvest to take place during opening weekend in many states. And considering the majority of hunters are active only during the first two weeks of the season, the effect of restricting season length and daily bag limits would be minimal.

Liberal, lengthy roosters-only seasons do not harm populations. When seasons work as designed, the outcome is a reduced standing population of male ring-necked pheasants. Extensive research has shown this has little or no effect on pheasant reproduction and subsequent populations.

Predators

As they are for all small game species, predators are the principle decimating factor for pheasant nests and adult birds, a fact that is not unusual or unsolvable. Through sound management, the detrimental effects of predation can be reduced. Removal and exclusion of predators are small-scale remedies that are cost prohibitive on a landscape scale. The effect of predators can however be diluted through the addition and management of proper habitat.

Well-designed habitat projects can reduce predation by up to 80%. In addition to decreasing the overall impact predators have on existing nests, this tactic also increases the number of nests on the ground and subsequently the pheasant population in the area. Through the addition and management of habitat, we not only decrease the impact predators have on existing nests, but also increase the number of nests and population size in an area. And habitat for pheasants and other wildlife comes at a fraction of the cost of other predator reduction methods.

Effects of Weather

Weather is another extremely important factor in determining pheasant numbers! Severe winter storms can literally decimate pheasant populations overnight. Cold wet springs can claim an equally devastating number of newborn chicks who do not develop the ability to regulate their own temperature until they are three weeks old. The direct effects of weather are obvious, less obvious is the indirect role that weather can play on pheasant numbers. Hot dry summers can impede insect production, depriving chicks of the protein they need early in life. Drought like conditions will stunt vegetation growth reducing the amount of cover on the landscape and leaving birds vulnerable to winter storms. Precipitation is essential but too much or the wrong form at the wrong time can be the difference between a great and poor pheasant year.

Life Cycle of a Pheasant

The nesting season begins with courtship as roosters scatter from winter cover to establish territories. Hens, attracted by crowing, locate roosters, and if they can find good nesting cover, begin nest building. Once the nest is built, hens lay 1 egg each day. The average clutch (number of eggs in a nest) is 12, but they may lay up to 18. After all the eggs are laid (the actual number will depend on the energy reserves of the hen and time of year), the hen will begin incubating and only leave the nest 1 or 2 times to feed each day. Twenty-three (23) days after incubation begins, the eggs will hatch. Some nests are destroyed, but pheasants are determinant nesters and will try again. Hatching marks the beginning of the brood rearing season.

Average Nest Initiation Date: May 1 (March 15-July 15)

Average Incubation Start: May 24 (April 1 - August 1)

Average Hatch: June 15 (April 15-Aug 15)

Brood Rearing

All fertile eggs in a nest hatch within 24 hours of one another. Shortly after hatching the hen leads the brood to alfalfa or other fields of forbs that are saturated with grasshoppers and other insects needed in the chicks diet for rapid growth.

More than 90% of a chick's diet is insects during the first week and 50% during the first 5 weeks. During the first few weeks the brood will stay relatively close to home (10-20 acres surrounding the nest site), but eventually expand their home range to nearly 70 acres. At 3 weeks the chicks are capable of short (150ft) flights, and by 8 weeks they can sustain adult-like flights.

The hen will remain with the brood through 8-10 weeks, but even under her watchful eye half of the brood will be lost to mortality. By the time the young pheasants reach 16 weeks of age, their plumage is virtually indistinguishable from adults.

Food and Foraging

As fall approaches in late September, the juvenile and adult birds begin a feeding binge as to build up fat reserves that will be needed throughout the winter.

Pheasants will eat many types of grain and seeds, but in these fall months, corn will compromise more than half of their diet. The foraging season also coincides with that of hunting, which will claim approximately half of all roosters.

Winter Survival

Winters in the upper Midwest represent the time of greatest mortality for pheasants. Rarely do pheasants freeze or starve, but often the blanketing snows and frigid temperatures reduce their health or concentrate them in limited habitats where predators are the direct cause of mortality.

Core Wintering Area's can be used in areas where there is sufficient nesting cover to increase over-winter survival and ultimately bring more hens, in better condition, into the nesting season.

Mortality

Rarely if ever does a pheasant die of old age, in fact, the average life span is less than 1 year. The pheasant is a prey species and must face 4 major sources of mortality beginning the day it is laid in the nest as an egg through the day it dies.

[grousehunter]

No such thing as a hungarian chuckar. They are just called hungarian partridges or gray partridge. Not to many in SD anymore, Montana or Idaho would be the place to be for hunting Huns in the US. They are come cool little birds. Have put up a few coveys in SW MN over the years.

[BLACKJACK]

BlackJack a quick read of this and you should have a great idea of what to do..

Winter Cover:

Shelterbelts should be designed to contain 10 or more rows of trees and shrubs primarily on the north and west sides of farmsteads, and for maximum protection should be at least 150 feet wide. The shrubs are planted in the outermost rows to catch drifting snow, while the tall, center deciduous trees "lift" the chilling winds above the farmstead. Evergreens are on the inside four rows and effectively reduce the remaining wind and drifting snow. Field windbreaks are often much smaller in scale and contain 2 to 4 rows of smaller shrubs planted outside two (2) rows of evergreens.

Broods:

When chicks emerge from the eggs, there is a high demand for protein-rich food, specifically in the form of insects. Broods only move far enough to satisfy their needs - the shorter the distance, the better. And, home ranges can be pretty small if cover quality is high. Movements of just 1-4 acres per day in the first weeks of life characterize the limited travels of broods in good cover.

Broods, Biomass and Bug Power:

Insects are the fuel chicks need to grow. Chicks feed on bugs almost exclusively their first 4-6 weeks, feeding constantly throughout each day. Insects continue to be an important, albeit smaller, component of the diet through 14 weeks. Soft-bodied insects, including leafhoppers and larval stages of moths and grasshoppers, make up a large part of the diet. The management challenge with brood habitat is to provide the very best cover possible for those insects, so that more of them are produced for brood food. Chicks consume from 1,000 to 2,700 milligrams of bugs per day, so they need cover that produces a high insect biomass, such as oats and sweet clover as opposed to corn and beans. Pheasant broods forced to range over larger areas have reduced survival rates. Single species stands of native (eg. Switch grass) or cool-season grasses (eg. Brome grass) are also poor producers of insects. Adding forbs (broad leafed annuals or perennials) to these grasses increases diversity and insects.

Pheasant broods on the hunt for food have certain considerations. Broods need good lateral and overhead concealment from predation, since they are being hunted themselves by most everything with teeth and talons. In fact, from a hatch of a dozen chicks, only six will survive until October. Broods also require openness at ground level to feed freely throughout the stand (and to escape should trouble show up). Fields choked with the litter of dead vegetation from years of neglect will not see much use by broods. And, as talked about previously, brood cover must be comprised of vegetation attractive to their insect quarry.

Brood Cover:

Good nesting cover can be great brood habitat, as well, but generally not without some thought. Early-successional areas, characterized by open stands with a high diversity of grasses and succulent broadleaved plants, fit the requirements for both nesting and brood rearing. Well-designed habitat for both nesting and broods will pair diverse forbs (broadleaves) with several species of either warm or cool-season grasses (or both) that will provide more cover variety. Broods are often found at the junction of these native and cool season habitats. These complexes of plants also provide habitat for nesting, night roosting, daytime loafing and escape cover.

The value of cover for broods and nesting declines significantly as the stand ages. If you have your own plantings, diversify them and create a plan for regular disturbance (disking, grazing, haying, burning, etc.) that rejuvenates the cover.

Nesting Cover

Three Keys for Good Nesting Cover:

* It should contain several species of grasses and forbs

* There should be no disturbance (i.e. mowing, dog training, etc.) during nesting season: April 15 – July 15

* Nesting cover is dynamic, so plan ahead to manage grass cover successfully in successive years. Planning ahead to manage for diversity is likely the best thing you can do for pheasants in your area

Increase nesting success by implementing buffers on the landscape. These "travel links" along cropland edges, stream or riparian corridors, field borders, and grass waterways protect water quality while providing nesting areas between fragmented agricultural habitats. Wider is better – nesting success for pheasants increases measurably or every 1-foot increase in strip width.

Food

The importance of food plots oftentimes overshadows the real need on the landscape - Nesting cover! That being said, food plots do have a role in pheasant management because of the relationship between food, winter cover, movement and mortality.

Winter food is usually in abundant supply and starvation of wild pheasants is practically unheard of, so the principle objective of food and cover plots is to help carry female birds through the winter in good condition. This is accomplished by establishing safe foraging patterns, providing a dependable source of food and restricting unnecessary movements.

The two critical design factors for food plots are location and size.

* Locate them next to heavy winter cover and other shelter (shelterbelts, cattail sloughs, etc)

* If there is no winter cover available, food plots must be large enough (4-15 acres) to provide significant cover in addition to being a source for food

Grain-based Food Plots

High energy, grain-based food plots (including corn, sorghum, millets, etc.) are an essential wildlife management practice for game birds and other wildlife on private lands. Regardless of winter severity, it makes good sense to provide additional food and cover for crisis situations, to use food plots to increase habitat diversity, and to create habitat for hunting and wildlife viewing. Where primary winter cover is limited, planting grain-based mixes (like sorghums) will provide great cover structure in addition to food, and creating larger plots will improve shelter for your birds. That will help you achieve your primary objective—to bring your hens through the winter in peak condition for breeding, where improved spring body weight helps maximize chick production.

Population Dynamics

Stocking with pen-raised pheasants will not effectively increase wild pheasant populations. When habitat conditions improve, wild pheasant populations will increase in response to that habitat. Only by addressing the root problem suppressing populations –habitat - will you have a long term positive impact on pheasant numbers. Habitat is the key to healthy pheasant populations.

Studies have shown that stocked pheasants, no matter when they are released, have great difficulty maintaining self-sustaining populations. Predators take the main toll, accounting for 90 percent of the deaths and at the same time predators become conditioned to the idea that pheasants are an easy target. Pen-raised birds do provide shooting opportunities, a good way to introduce new hunters to hunting in a controlled situation and a chance to keep your dog in shape. Release birds as close to the time you want to hunt as possible, just keep in mind that these pen-raised birds are not going to produce a wild self-sustaining population in the area.

Effects of Hunting

Questions continually arise from both hunters and non-hunters alike about the effects of regulated sport hunting on ring-necked pheasants. Because hens and roosters are easily distinguished in wing shooting situations, and because hens are protected through game regulations, pheasants are actually managed much more conservatively than almost all other upland game birds. Hunting simply removes "surplus" males not needed for reproduction the following spring. In most cases, hunting pressure, success and harvest are greatest during the early part of the season. It is common for 30-50% of the season’s harvest to take place during opening weekend in many states. And considering the majority of hunters are active only during the first two weeks of the season, the effect of restricting season length and daily bag limits would be minimal.

Liberal, lengthy roosters-only seasons do not harm populations. When seasons work as designed, the outcome is a reduced standing population of male ring-necked pheasants. Extensive research has shown this has little or no effect on pheasant reproduction and subsequent populations.

Predators

As they are for all small game species, predators are the principle decimating factor for pheasant nests and adult birds, a fact that is not unusual or unsolvable. Through sound management, the detrimental effects of predation can be reduced. Removal and exclusion of predators are small-scale remedies that are cost prohibitive on a landscape scale. The effect of predators can however be diluted through the addition and management of proper habitat.

Well-designed habitat projects can reduce predation by up to 80%. In addition to decreasing the overall impact predators have on existing nests, this tactic also increases the number of nests on the ground and subsequently the pheasant population in the area. Through the addition and management of habitat, we not only decrease the impact predators have on existing nests, but also increase the number of nests and population size in an area. And habitat for pheasants and other wildlife comes at a fraction of the cost of other predator reduction methods.

Effects of Weather

Weather is another extremely important factor in determining pheasant numbers! Severe winter storms can literally decimate pheasant populations overnight. Cold wet springs can claim an equally devastating number of newborn chicks who do not develop the ability to regulate their own temperature until they are three weeks old. The direct effects of weather are obvious, less obvious is the indirect role that weather can play on pheasant numbers. Hot dry summers can impede insect production, depriving chicks of the protein they need early in life. Drought like conditions will stunt vegetation growth reducing the amount of cover on the landscape and leaving birds vulnerable to winter storms. Precipitation is essential but too much or the wrong form at the wrong time can be the difference between a great and poor pheasant year.

Life Cycle of a Pheasant

The nesting season begins with courtship as roosters scatter from winter cover to establish territories. Hens, attracted by crowing, locate roosters, and if they can find good nesting cover, begin nest building. Once the nest is built, hens lay 1 egg each day. The average clutch (number of eggs in a nest) is 12, but they may lay up to 18. After all the eggs are laid (the actual number will depend on the energy reserves of the hen and time of year), the hen will begin incubating and only leave the nest 1 or 2 times to feed each day. Twenty-three (23) days after incubation begins, the eggs will hatch. Some nests are destroyed, but pheasants are determinant nesters and will try again. Hatching marks the beginning of the brood rearing season.

Average Nest Initiation Date: May 1 (March 15-July 15)

Average Incubation Start: May 24 (April 1 - August 1)

Average Hatch: June 15 (April 15-Aug 15)

Brood Rearing

All fertile eggs in a nest hatch within 24 hours of one another. Shortly after hatching the hen leads the brood to alfalfa or other fields of forbs that are saturated with grasshoppers and other insects needed in the chicks diet for rapid growth.

More than 90% of a chick's diet is insects during the first week and 50% during the first 5 weeks. During the first few weeks the brood will stay relatively close to home (10-20 acres surrounding the nest site), but eventually expand their home range to nearly 70 acres. At 3 weeks the chicks are capable of short (150ft) flights, and by 8 weeks they can sustain adult-like flights.

The hen will remain with the brood through 8-10 weeks, but even under her watchful eye half of the brood will be lost to mortality. By the time the young pheasants reach 16 weeks of age, their plumage is virtually indistinguishable from adults.

Food and Foraging

As fall approaches in late September, the juvenile and adult birds begin a feeding binge as to build up fat reserves that will be needed throughout the winter.

Pheasants will eat many types of grain and seeds, but in these fall months, corn will compromise more than half of their diet. The foraging season also coincides with that of hunting, which will claim approximately half of all roosters.

Winter Survival

Winters in the upper Midwest represent the time of greatest mortality for pheasants. Rarely do pheasants freeze or starve, but often the blanketing snows and frigid temperatures reduce their health or concentrate them in limited habitats where predators are the direct cause of mortality.

Core Wintering Area's can be used in areas where there is sufficient nesting cover to increase over-winter survival and ultimately bring more hens, in better condition, into the nesting season.

Mortality

Rarely if ever does a pheasant die of old age, in fact, the average life span is less than 1 year. The pheasant is a prey species and must face 4 major sources of mortality beginning the day it is laid in the nest as an egg through the day it dies.

Thanks for the info, but not what I was looking for. As a member of PF for many years, and a guy that has planted over 5000 trees, 80 acres of CRP with many forbes in it, I do burns every few years, and am continuing to plant 10 acres of food plots every year, I knew most of that info, I was just looking for a practiced eye to review my site and give some recommendations. Oh well.

[LandDr]

Blackjack...with the shrub/conifer combination associated close to your food plot, there is a good chance the avian predators are not too successful in the big trees you referenced. However, you might also not be seeing what is going on at night...owls are the most successful.

I am not on board with what USFW has done by clearing down all trees as well. I have some large cottonwoods and other decidous trees on my farms as well, but I really stress to associate food sources (feeders and/or food plots) with thick shrub/conifer cover.

Sounds like you have some good things going on...but "design" is so critical if you want to increase the carrying capacity. You have probably increased the carrying capacity pretty good, but there might be some things you can do to increase it even more...instead of 50 to 75 birds, you can take the potential up to 100 to 150 birds.

Email me your aerial photo or township, range and section number and I will take a quick look at the layout first...info at habitatnow dot com. No cost to look at aerial photos from my office and that is a good start.

Land Dr

[AaronM]

Not trying to hijack the thread, but my father has recently purchased some Manchurian pheasant to release in the spring. Our farm has areas with fairly thick populations of sharptails, so I'm hoping the pheasant won't throw out those. Would grouse be a difficult bird to raise?