My first Quail Release

I turned 50 pairs out this last weekend, my pens had gotten so wet I was affraid the quail would get sick. The first day most birds stayed close to the pens and by the second day they had ventured out. I have found most to be paired up in the tall grass and the females have already built nest. I have found a few pair as far as 1/4 mile from where I had released them. So far so good, I feel the tall grass has allowed them to stay safe from predators for now!

Good luck. Keep us informed.

That's cool, I'll be interested to see what you have to say about them in the fall! Keep us posted!

Will do, I have another 50 pair ready to go and 300+ chicks less than a week old in my brooder doing great. The rains have given me concern on my quail that are in pens exposed to the weather due to there feet being on constant wet ground. I have noticed when I drive up to my pens in my mule the birds I have turned loose will whistle up knowing its feeding time.

I hope they do well. Time for some predator control to help out the little guys.

Went out this morning to check my birds, they were sounding off as they herd me driving around. They have gotten their wings now and flying well. They were in the pen so long they hadnt tested their ability to fly. They are staying in the thick cover and tall grass. I have seen a few road runners not sure if they are a danger to mature birds, I know they are very bad for chicks and nest. might be time to relocate them!

My pen released quail seem to be fairing very well on their own, they are paired up and cover most of the ranch now! I am going to let out another 100 or so birds 50 pairs, and we will see how they do. I do have about 10 quail that return to the pens in the evening to get a free meal. I have 300 chicks i am fixing to put in the pens to replace the ones I turned loose. This has been fun and I am happy with the results.

Greatness. I love them.

Best of luck

Man this is fascinating. I had no idea this kind of "stocking" took place. Very cool indeed!

Good luck and thanks for sharing

You guys that release quail have my gratitude, and I don't hunt them. I just grew up with them scaring the crap outta me when they flushed in my face and I love hearing their calls. I whistle back and they would answer.

I dont hunt them, but do enjoy watching them and listening to them whistle. I have found 6 females that I released sitting on nest with a good number of eggs on each. I just hope that nothing else finds the nest before they hatch. All the females have stayed pretty close to where they were released as did a good number of males. I do enjoy eating quail, but I can just run down to Shott's meat market in Helotes and pick up a box. They are already cleaned stuffed and seasoned and ready for the grill.

Good luck. We have released birds over the years but have not been very lucky. They stick around a while but eventually they are gone. The wild birds are fine and a few release birds mixed in but never survive. They lack the instinct to survive it seems.

I have had my first wild hatch from a pen raised bird. I had a male bring up 6 chicks to my pens the other day. I have also seen a small group of chicks with a grown pen released bird out in the pasture. I have been blessed!

Great. Keep it going.

Will do, Thank you for the Encouragement!

I've seen more roosters than hens leading chicks from my feral quail.

I thought it strange, but maybe the hen has done her work and the rooster does the educating.

This is exciting. I took it differently. There were two totally different clutches at the entrance of our subdivision. You could tell by their size. Each clutch was led by a different rooster. I took it as, the hen was setting another nest. They call it double clutching. The attrition comes next late spring. Good luck.

I went to my bird pens this morning and found more than 20 quail outside the pens ranging from mature birds to just able to fly. I guess my re introduction is working for all these birds were either early release birds or wild hatched. The cool mornings has them coveyed up and singing. they were not very affraid and flew only a short distance when I approached but the mature birds came right back when I threw grain out.

It seems as if you and I are the only ones excited.

Awesome cant wait to do the same thing on our place.

I appreciate the encouragement, seeing juvenile quail flying around a place that has'nt seen quail in better than 20yrs.

You need to put a flusher in there on them to toughen them up.

I took my Lab down to the pens and she is so used to them in the pen and they have gotten used to her that when we came up on loose birds she looked up at me and I could tell she was wanting to say who left the door open!

Sounds like a perfect predator buffet! Curious how this all ends up.

I'm exited reading about your success!!
I've heard the lack of survival instinct thing before and all the stories of where the introductions didn't take.
Also heard stories of females just dropping eggs at random on the ground with no nesting attempt at all.
It's great to hear of someone having some success. Just getting some chicks hatched from your released birds is a really super cool thing to my way of thinking.
I wonder...If the chicks that hatch and grow up in the wild will gain back some of their survival instinct?
If they did and then raised some clutches of their own, the survival instinct might get stronger each generation. Maybe.
I would work on some serious predator control if I was you for at least the first 3 or 4 years to give these birds the best chance they can have of making a surviving breeding population. That would just be totally awesome.

I have noticed with the wild hatched chicks from my pen released birds, that the young chicks take flight immediatly upon my approach and then when they land they start sounding off to re-group. I am very happy with the turn out. Yes I have lost a good number of birds to predators I am sure mainly hawks. But I also have had a great survival rate.

What kind of pens do you have? Are the johnny houses? Did you raise your birds from chicks or buy them slightly older?

We are upgrading our habitat and next year are planning on doing something similar primarily for put and take hunting. I just wasn't sure if it would be better to go your route or just release 20-50 quail every time we are out at the property.

We built 3 fly prep pens that measure 20'x10' each, they have shelter boxes in each with chicken wire type enclosures. We have a large solid side house we put our incubators in and after they hatch we put them in solid bottom highside water troughs with a screen top until they reach 4/5 weeks then we put them on the ground. I release them onto the ranch at 4 months. I am having fun

Man I had a four month remodle at work and of course we open right before bow season lol. I have tried to fish my self to death if that's possible. Just got to jump back on here. I read through all the post on this and I really am ecstatic about your results. I saw the first cubby at my place in mills county and 15 years this year I am so excited to see those bobwhites coming back across the state and I applaud your efforts to help! I look forward to continuing with you in the journey to see how this all turns out. I have been traveling way west for blues and now I have found a place this last year with Bobs which have to be the funnest thing to hunt in the world! Those little suckers will just scare the crap out of you when they take off under your feet. I am 35 and one of my best friends I hunt with his 70 we both agreed we saw more Bob Watson 2 1/2 days and neither of us had seen in the last 15 years last season. I really hope this rebound continue statewide and keep up with the great work.