With some improvement to their habitat by LO Maybe it would help bring back some birds.

Incentivize them and they may. Right now most the government programs do the opposite. Mesquite and cedar removal is counter to Quail populations, even more so in drought years

Yep the only money I have heard of is years ago USDA paid to leave the edge strips. You had to apply through ASC. Wished the soil bank programs would have used some grasses that were beneficial seeds to quail. We had some pretty good luck with Love grass for habitat. I know they had to use ground cover type grass for erosion control. Even the Kansas live grass programs did not benefit the birds.

Heck I'd be happy if TPWD would just close the season in counties without a huntable population. Come on man, at least make some effort at management.

Most quail hunters that hunt with dogs are management minded. It’s the potlickers that take ground sweeping skillet shots that have no skin in the game.
Very few of those released birds will survive. Only a select few, probably that Governor and his cronies, will get to hunt them.

I think you're probably right. I stocked some many years ago and they didn't last long. I think you have to start with habitat and predator control. So much of our habitat has been converted to improved grass and economic development, the birds can't help but be affected by that. Kill off the fire ants and pigs would be a good start. To me, it's a lot like stocking a lake. You have to have the conditions/foundation first and build from that.

That is cool...!!!

When the fire ants arrived here, the quail slowly disappeared.
I know of a few local attempts in last 15-20 years to reintroduce them in my immediate area that lasted a short while.
A neighbor about a mile from here released 500 at a time at least twice with quail they raised and then cut back to just enough for family use.
During the same time, my parents raised and released 20-50 multiple times over a 5 year period.

I haven't seen or heard a quail in probably 10 years.
But I do have a bumper crop of fire ants!

I don’t buy the fire ant theory. There’s fire ants in South Texas, and plenty of quail.

I completely agree.


Release of pen raised birds is a put and take proposition. Regardless of how much you want a viable reproducing population, they are not equipped to avoid predation and do not do well foraging in the wild. To establish a self sustaining population in my experience takes quality habitat and relocation of wild birds. Being able to medicate quail against eye worms with feed is a new development that could be a game changer if everything else is in place. Re-establishment of wild quail is an expensive proposition that few landowners are willing to bankroll with today’s diminishing agricultural margins.

This has little to do with quail disappearing

We have quail at the ranch. We also do not have fire ants. Have some quail at home also do not really have fire ants there either. Both are in sand, fire ants seem to not prefer sand we have tons of red ants both places.

The predators in West Virginia will be happy. Them pen raised birds are easy pickings. I wonder how many they realistically expect to survive.

In Arizona the biggest predator of quail that I saw was road runners. Every time there was a clutch the road runner would chase of the mother quail off the nest and eat every last chick, saw it happen numerous times. Road runners are eating killing machines and not only of snakes.

This is so true!! I had several places I hunted in the rolling plains. Only would see 1 or maybe two roadrunners on a weekend. When the quail were running around with their clutch of little ones- there were roadrunners all over the dam place!! They would chase and gobble up the little ones- they can do some serious damage!

The smartest "quail guys" I've been around always go back to the same point... "everything eats a quail". They're not a particularly tough bird, they nest on the ground, and they're subject to extreme predation. I love quail hunting. I've had a panhandle lease for years, and it's been boom/bust cycles of 3-4 years. Right now, we're on year 4 of a bust cycle. We've kept detailed records of rainfall and temps. There's something there. The 2015/2016 season, we were seeing 25 covey days. That spring/summer had good rain in May, late June, early August. The temps were relatively mild as well. These last two years, we were seeing 2 coveys a day. We all know about the temps/rain in those years.

I will say, the super freeze was really tough on them in the panhandle. We hunted a few days after it broke, and our dogs pointed 4 dead birds that had most likely froze, or died of thirst do to no ability to find water that wasn't frozen.

Curious if any of you all that had quail still have some native grasses or CRP of significant acreage on your land?

It's been a couple of years but we're headed back down in late Feb next spring to pig hunt and we'll get to hunt some land that has had a small number of coveys every time we've been down previous. That LO does not hunt his birds though because of numbers. It will interesting to see if he still has any birds. He borders the family place and both have native grasses and good cover areas, lots of green briar cover and cedars.

I have a place in Coleman county, and this year is the most quail I’ve seen since I bought it in 2019, this year is the first year I’ve seen fire ants.
I’m not over grazing and I’m not clearing anything even the cactus.
We’re not planning on hunting them, I enjoy watching them too much.
Predator control is necessary, just can’t do anything about the raptors.

I didn’t know that.
But I haven’t seen many road runners, just a few.
Are they legal to control?

Not really.

Rain and cover are the magic formula. Also lots of herbicide has been sprayed on mesquites in the last 40 years.
Before then mesquites we’re cleared by bulldozer or chaining. It had a tendency to make things worse as far as mesquites but it did not effect the wildlife as much. Also the main surfactant used in pasture woody herbicides was diesel fuel forever. Quail ate very fragile and a little remedy mixed with diesel can’t be good for anything. Lots of small wildlife has disappeared to, horny toads, striped skinks come to mind also and they live in basically the same areas quail used to be in high numbers.