Pheasants!!

[walleyejoe2003]

Does any body know when is the best time of the year too release some mature hens too help jump start some nice crp acres!! Is spring better or is it better too release younger hens right before fall about the time that they first can fly!!! Thanks for any help

[stevejedlenski]

well i dont know much about releasing birds, but i would say that in the fall because pen raised birds will have to learn how to find their own food. if you relese in the spring they will have to find food when it is at its scarcest point. if they cant find food they will obviously die and your efforts would be fruitless. but like i said that i dont know much but i would assume that would be the biggest factor.

[Auggie]

I have never had much luck releasing birds. Mid summer seemed to be the best results. Plenty of feed and good weather and cover. I have tried many different times and methods. We found the less time you spend around the birds the better while raising them. Feed and water in the dark and just spend a minimal amount of time around them. We banded roosters, and the years we let them out mid summer produced the most recovered bands. I assume the hens did about the same. IMHO all the pen raised birds do is take pressure off the wild birds as far as predators. A few reproduce I am sure but the coyotes, raptors, and ditch cougars feed well on them. But we still do it most years anyway! They gotta eat too!

[beeker]

check with phesants forever I bet they have a local contact that would be willing to help.. or maybe their website would be able to tell ya

[HD]

Yea, Augg's is right.

If ya do it, have very minimal interaction with the birds.
I got a rather large pen, and on one side where they are fed, it has a plywood wall with slides in the side. That way the birds never see me feed or water them.

I raise them till they are half grown, then release in mid summer.

But still, the mortality rate is high.

Hunter

[HUNTER2]

I released 80 hens last spring and I don't know if any of them survived.  I saw a lot of hawks that were getting fatter though. I have talked to some other people and they said the mortality rate is really high. I don't know if I would do it again.