Raising Quail

[Pat]

Bird, I have heard various "theories" but never fire ants. I have a small problem with the fire ant theory as the quail population drastically fell in some areas prior to significant fire ant intrusion. I know that I don't know the cause or causes but I don't think it was fire ants or alien intervention. Some folks say too many hawks, too many feral cats, too many bobcats, too many coon, coyotes, possum, or too many whatever the animal of the day happens to be.

Areas where there were significant quail populations but that were hunted lightly or not at all seemed to suffer equivalent losses to those of hunted areas. This is one of the reasons I think hunting is not the major contributor to loss of bob white populations.

I used to like quail hunting. It was fun and they are good eating but the population on my section/4 is just barely sufficient to let me hear them calling as much as I like. I have not "busted" a covey in excess of 5-6 birds in 5 years. Now, even if I had a population that would sustain a decent harvest, I'm not sure I would shoot any/many. At times we have seen turkeys in flocks up to 40-50 wandering between our property and adjoining ones but I haven't goten around to shooting any in 5-6 years.

I haven't gone pacifist anti-gun tree hugger, just find the supermarket more convenient most of the time. In fact I just yesterday got out my 22-250 which hasn't been fired in 10 years, put it in a clamping arrangement and mounted an illuminated reticle 4-16 power 50mm objective scope on it. I then used my laser boresighter to set up the scope. I'll be "on the paper" on the first shot and will have it dead on for 200 yds within 3 shots. Then there are a few varmints to be dealt with. I used to handload all my 22-250 but bought some factory ammo at Wally World which is "quicker" than I remember for factory stock stuff. Used to be about 3870 fps but this is 4000, almost as fast as my handloads. Close enough. If it is accurate and consistent I won't take the time to roll my own.

Oh, by thte way... I heard from a reliable source that regular large red ants (typical Oklahoma residents) attack and kill fire ants (small black ants) and help slow or stop there spread wehre the big reds are in abundance. I now avoid disturbing the big red ones, I will try to make life easy for them. An enemy of my enemy is my friend.

[img]/forums/images/icons/smile.gif[/img] Pat [img]/forums/images/icons/smile.gif[/img]

[Bird]

Pat, I heard the theory of the fire ants when I was living 60 miles south of Dallas. Everyone says the bob white quail used to be abundant, but in the 8 years we lived there, we never saw or heard one. But the area surely did have an abundance of fire ants. And I do even less shooting than you. If I were where I could kill my own meat cheaper than the supermarket, I'd still do it, but since I don't really have any desire to kill anything, I'm sure not going to spend more for my meat and have to kill and dress it. [img]/forums/images/icons/wink.gif[/img]

[GAFarmer]

Pat, I already have a deal with a few of the plantations around here to sell them birds. They plan to use them on their released-bird hunts. If you don't know what I mean, this is a type of hunting where they will release the birds and then send the hunters out. They say it gives you a better chance to get to shoot something!!!!!!!!!! [img]/forums/images/icons/tongue.gif[/img] [img]/forums/images/icons/tongue.gif[/img] [img]/forums/images/icons/grin.gif[/img]

[Pat]

Bird, I have no doubts that the area in question is short of quail or that there are fire ants there but I don't see any connection beyond coincidence. There are probably more TV stations there now than there were when there were abundant quail but it is also unlikely that the TV stations are the cause of the popoulation decline.

A lot of the good ole boys around here make the falacious reasoning (logic error) called "post hoc propter ergo hoc" (if I recall the Latin correctly) which means after this therefore because of this. The gist being, just because one thing happens before a second thing that does not prove the first thing to be the cause of the second.

Apparently some of your good ole boys may do that too.

[img]/forums/images/icons/smile.gif[/img] Pat [img]/forums/images/icons/smile.gif[/img]

[Pat]

GAF, I am familiar with the concept but have never participated. There are at least two versions: 1. you "stock" the area with birds to increase the quality of hunting 2. employees release cages of birds from behind cover as the "hunters" approach. The first is a parallel to and equivalent of the put and take fish stocking for pay to fish operations. It is quite a lot like hunting in the good ole days when birds were abundant.

Thinking of this gives me flashbacks to a hunting scene with Peter Sellers as Guy Grand and Ringo Starr as his adopted son in the movie, "The Magic Christian."

Best of luck in your bird raising venture. Beyond the typical advice to have a buisness plan and do an analysis of profitability I suggest you don't put all your birds in one population and maintain strict controls so that any disease does not spread through the population and wipe you out. H5N1 isn't the only threat to raising birds.

[img]/forums/images/icons/smile.gif[/img] Pat [img]/forums/images/icons/smile.gif[/img]

[GAFarmer]

Pat, you've got me thinking now (dangerous thing for me to do [img]/forums/images/icons/grin.gif[/img] ). I forget to check on shots for the birds. Does anyone know what kind of shots bobwhite quail need???

[DUMBDOG]

Eight shot would be adequate. [img]/forums/images/icons/grin.gif[/img]

[egon]

Could also depend on the barrel length and choke. The best bet is to pattern some different loads to see what works best in your gun.

Egon [img]/forums/images/icons/grin.gif[/img]

[Pat]

I used to use #6 for quail but I always tracked them till they got a good distance away before firing so as to not destroy the meat. Of course it was an economy move. I could only buy one box of shells at a tiime on my budget so I got what would work good enough for rabbit, squirrel, and quail.

On the serious side... Think H5N1

I haven't a clue about meds for quail.

[img]/forums/images/icons/smile.gif[/img] Pat [img]/forums/images/icons/smile.gif[/img]

[GareyD]

GAF..you are stepping off into a real adventure...I owned/operated a game bird farm - shooting preserve south of Macon, GA for 10 years and can probably answer some of your questions.

The state will want you to register your operation so they can know where you are in case of infectious diseases in your area...only used to cost a few dollars a year, involved an initial inspection by local fish and game biologist and gets ya a certificate to hang on the wall...after the inspection, I never saw them again as long as I was in the business.

As far as diseases go, quail in captivity are nothing short of a living creature, looking for a reason to die...the primary disease they will catch is "Quail Pox" from mosquitoes and the droppings of wild birds that fly over their pens...you haven't lived till ya spend 48 hours vacinating them speedy little rascals...the vaccine is applied by catching one of the birds, picking a bare spot in the web of the wing, dipping a needle in the little vaccine bottle and then sticking the bird...I've done 10,000 birds at a time with my wife and teenage daughter helping...you will stick yourself in the hands/fingers, and you will start feeling like crap before ya get finished.

Since ya will be raising birds for the shooting preserves, you will need to spend some serious money for housing and "Flight pens"...the goal is to raise birds that act and fly like wild birds....nothing worse than fat, lazy birds that aren't afraid of people and either run from the hunter/dog...or worse yet, run toward the hunter looking for food [img]/forums/images/icons/blush.gif[/img] [img]/forums/images/icons/blush.gif[/img]

My housing for raising 1,000 bird from day old to 8 weeks was a house that was 20x20 that opened onto a covered pen that measured 20 foot wide x 20 foot high x 300 foot long...leave the back side where it can be opened wide enough so ya can get a small tractor and tiller into the pens to plow everything under between flocks...sunshine on bare ground for a couple of weeks while a new cover crop is sprouting will help prevent carrying disease from flock to flock.

Will stop for now and try to answer questions as they arise..

GareyD