Pheas Hatch & Brood Size

[lawdog]

Real heavy rains in our area the last few days. Hope we aren't getting anything flooded out!

[tweedlap]

Webster, SD

I talked to a farmer today, Friday, who was spraying thistles. He said he saw a lot of young birds ranging from

a couple of days old to almost three weeks.

From what he saw: about 50% of the hens are still sitting on eggs.

He would stop and shut his sprayer off whenever he would flush a hen or saw little ones.

This explains why not too many people have been seeing broods,yet.

I, also, talked to a farmer in SW Minnesota who said he was seeing good numbers and finished by saying " you better be ready to hunt this fall!"

Everything seem to be falling in place for great hunting this season.

tweed

[HC Eye Hunter]

I talked to a buddy of mine who is a farmer. He was cutting hay the other day and as he was putting down the alfalfa the chicks would come out and the gulls were cleaning house. He said they were getting chowed as fast as they would come out of the cover.

I have seen this first hand and those gulls can be mean SOB's and tear apart the chicks.

There are alot of hurdles for the chicks to get over before we have a shot at them.

[Fish'n guy]

BLACKJACK, I agree 100% with ya.

I have been seeing more and more broads of younger(1 week or less) pheasants around. I even kicked up a nice Hun the other day. That was sure encouraging.

I am thinking that for all of us rooster chasers out there we are going to have a lot of fun this fall !!

[raymondk]

I went for a drive to mankato I seen 5 broods some were the same size as the hen others looked like they hatched a couple of weeks ago . This is the most birds i seen for a long time a brood every 5 miles I had the dog along so both of us can't wait.