I huntin OK panhandle. one of the best feeder set up I've seen is a 55 gallon barrel mounted on a 4"x4" platform on 3" high legs. it has a soup can in the bottom where the birds are able to peck out the feed. these are set up in thick brush areas where it is difficult for hawks to get at the birds traveling to feeders. very few varments can get under the platform and the birds can eat in very good cover.

Man...that is an exciting project. My wife's grandad is about to start developing his place outside of Spur. In fact, today he has the biologist coming out of Lubbock to give recommendations.

Found this on the web. Long read, but very similar.

web page

That was depressing. Hevishot worked his arse off and spent a bunch of dough only to have hawks feast on the fruit of his labor. If all of these efforts yield those kinds of results it looks like we'll be hunting fewer wild birds as they continue to decline and more released birds if we want to hunt at all. Sad.

Was kinda of depressing wasnt it? But fourtanately my good buddy is a master falconer. And if we have to trap and remove ever redtail and coopers hawk out of that county, I guess that what will have to be done. They are actually really easy to trap. I been considering becoming a falconry apprentice for a while. Maybe this is the motivation / reason / opprotunity I needed. Needless to say, "the show will go on." Anyways that guy is from GA.

I have been running 10 of these on our 1500 acre preserve and we have had a small brood every year, do to our hunting pressure and lack of habitat out side the preserve I do not think I can build a sustaining population, but the birds fly alot better, and the dogs work better then just pen raised.

Cool, how goes the project? on pins and needles awaiting updates

Everything is well. 1st release is scheduled for next wednesday. Birds are doing good in the surrogator.I have only lost 6 birds.

good to hear all is going well so far. Need those rains this week in prep for them.

I actually know the inventer of the QRP. He was and is a bird dog trianer out of Beggs Ok. Really great guy with an intense desire to make a difference in quail hunting. I applaud all efforts to increse quail numbers. There is some science behind why the surragators work better than other options. I can't remember what he told me, but his success was hard to argue with. Good luck.

I just go trap my neighbors quail and release them on my land



JUST KIDDING

Bad news! We received over 1' to 1' 6" of rain last tuesday - wednesday. Flooded the area of the surrogator. Completely wiped out the birds. Biggest kick to the stomach that one can imagine. Starting over in three weeks with another 130 chicks.

Guess there is not a whole lot to do in Anton or Coyotehill?

Sorry to hear that. It is a trying experience but hopefully something good will come out of it.

sorry to hear that, Cool. That is really a hard blow

Sorry

Dang, that sucks. Will be cheering you on with the next batch. Good luck.

I know you lost your first batch, but have you had any luck with the next batch?

Released the second batch 2 weeks ago and set up two feeders and watere for them. I havent been able to spend a lot of time out there but you can tell they are using one of the feeders. Due to all the rain they had out there in the spring the cover is really thick. I need to get out there with my dogs and find out where they are hanging out. But it has just been to dang hot. I have another batch in the surrogator (which I have named the "titanic") and think I can get in two more cycles after those birds are released.
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This is very interesting......I have thought about making something like it. I wonder how important it is to set them out that early to imprint on the area. How far are they going to range away from food, water and cover if set out later in life? (Nearest water source 1-1/2 miles away)

I am imagining setting up an overhead cage 6"-8" above the ground with a ten foot X ten foot foot print......enclosing the sides to keep out the small and intermediate size predators(I like that dog pin cage).

My friend has hatched several thousand and can do more if we can figure out a way to establish them and make it worth the effort.


Tbar

Thanks for the update.

From Hevishot's experiences, it looks like hawk control would really help, but I don't know how to do it legally. There used to always be a covey around my grandmother's old farmhouse, but since a pair of barn owls have moved in I haven't seen the quail at all. I can't get close enough to shoot the owls. My cousin said it was good (legally) that I couldn't.

This is something I have been interested in as of late. I live in a part of northeast Texas where the quail population has all but gone. I got up to let my lab out a couple of weekends ago one morning and heard a male bobwhite calling down on the fence row below my house. It's the first one I have head in a couple of years.
I was watching a show filmed in Oregon a while back about a man that had a ranch that raised upland birds and the way it looked, guided hunts for these birds was his primary source of income. One of the things that he did that really boosted his bird population was to go to town after Christmas and get all of the unused Christmas trees he could get. He took them and laid them on his fence rows with the trunk up on the fence and the top laying on the ground. He put them side by side like this so they were a solid cover for the birds. He said this by far was the best thing he had ever done to boost his bird population. If I can ever get a place to hunt on I can call my own I plan to do this. Here in east Texas the cedar trees are plentiful and I figure I can get all of those I want for free.

Extremely difficult to overstate the value of brushy fence rows to a bobwhite quail.