Quail

[hillhunter]

Since the prescribed burn topic it has gotten me thinking about some different ways to replenish or rejuvenate the wild population on our place if possible. Has anyone on here know anyone or have themselves used a surrogator to release birds to an area. Basically they live in this thing for the first five weeks with little human activity, then you just let them out in the wild and they can come and go until they are large enough to break away and live on their own. Any thoughts or ideas on this?

One website looks pretty good and has some good testimonials, but then again they are selling them. They don't look too complex and was thinking if I bought one, and had some success then maybe I could built several more pretty cheap and cut costs down. One of these things is around 2 grand, and I'm not sure everything is included in that.

[the tree]

A lot depends on the predators in the area.

[Wingman]

Call John Gruchy, Rick Hamrick, and Dave Godwin at MDWFP and ask for the survival stats using a surrogator. I think you will think of something else to better invest your time and money into after you hear the survival stats.

[D1]

If memory serves me right, when I was thinking of raising some quail to release on my club, I read an article on quail growing flight feathers, and the basics were: it takes five-six weeks for them to develop flight feathers AFTER they have been in open areas(kind of like they have to be able to fly for thier body to adapt to grow them). And watching the video of the release from the surragator, the birds do not seem to be able to fly as well as they should to be able to survive when released(partly because of lack of flying time to exercise the muscles).

I also noticed while researching this, that they offer a "PREDITOR EXCLUDING RECALL ENTRANCE FUNNEL"(best I can remember the name of the item), leaving me to believe the quail will return to the surragator at night for safety. If this is the case you would have to leave the top open for them to leave the next morning, allowing preditors to get in as well.


Disclaimer::: I AM NOT A PROFESSIONAL, HOWEVER I DID STAY AT A HOLIDAY INN EXPRESS ONE TIME.