Releasing Pheasants on Private Land

[Dave P]

Hey Guys,

Big digging through lots of old threads, but there has been nothing recent so have a few questions.

Coles Notes:
I have access to some nice pheasant habitat. It has a few wild pheasants, but I don’t want to exhaust it. Was looking into buying some adult pheasants, planting them one evening, and chasing them the next day.

Has anyone been doing this? I spoke with F&W about the Ground Release Permit.

Other questions:
- Where has everyone been getting pheasants from? In Southern Alberta preferably
- How many should I expect to retain vs how many would get eaten overnight/fly away/etc.

Any advice, tips, cautions, etc would be greatly appreciated!

Thanks,

Dave

[wwbirds]

As far as the other questions it depends on the habitat size and quality. Maybe the cover is only good enough to carry what is there. How are the fox populations and great horned owls which are the most efficient predators of pheasants. When you say plant are you bothering to dizzy and plant each bird in cover or just open the crate and let them fly. Need heavy cover to open crate as if not the flyers may leave the property immediately. Roosters planted or released will be immediately challenged and fought by the resident roosters as they are territorial and don't like intruders. If looking to restock area 5 or 6 hens to each rooster is the ratio.

[Dave P]

Originally Posted by wwbirds

As far as the other questions it depends on the habitat size and quality. Maybe the cover is only good enough to carry what is there. How are the fox populations and great horned owls which are the most efficient predators of pheasants. When you say plant are you bothering to dizzy and plant each bird in cover or just open the crate and let them fly. Need heavy cover to open crate as if not the flyers may leave the property immediately. Roosters planted or released will be immediately challenged and fought by the resident roosters as they are territorial and don't like intruders. If looking to restock area 5 or 6 hens to each rooster is the ratio.

Thanks for the reply!

I would say that the cover would be classified as medium to heavy. Its about a km or two of ravine between some farm fields. roughly 100 yards wide by a km long. Heavy with trees and long grass. Downed trees, some old farm buildings and equipment.

I have seen an owl, and have seen foxes before. So there are some predators out there.

Yes, would plan on dizzying the bird, place in some cover, and proceed to the next one. Leave overnight, and start hunting the next day.

If I planned on shooting the roosters the next day, would you still put out huns?

[wwbirds]

Those planted birds will be up walking within 5 minutes so maybe a mile or two away by the next day when you hunt them.
A km or 2 ravine is only habitat for a couple roosters as breeding range is generally 2 square miles. Perhaps that is why there are only a few. We only plant hens after season closes to give them time to establish before breeding season. With ground release you can also shoot hens which generally are cheaper than buying roosters. What I have done in areas south of Cypress Hills and the Hat as well as along the RD river where landowners have allowed us to hunt deer is show up with a crate of 6 hens to add to existing bloodline for resident roosters and only 1 rooster so less competition with wild birds while enhancing native stock with any that survive

[SLH]

I'd be concerned about releasing any birds where wild birds already exist. WW already suggested a couple reasons but there could be more. Are you just attracting predators to dumb birds leading those predators to then key in on the existing birds, are you putting in "inferior" (for lack of a better term) birds that are not wild, are you adding competition to the existing population and pushing the carrying capacity of the site.

My position would be to spend your money on protecting or enhancing this site by whatever means you have and give the birds that are already there more opportunity going forward. Pheasants can quickly fill in carrying capacity on there own.

The birds you release now have a very low chance of survival past a week and virtually zero chance to make it to next breeding season.

[calvin]

I would suggest you find a 4-h member that is raising pheasants for their project. I like yard sites personally as they're a bit more protected and feed is easier to supplement. Their offspring will filter off to surrounding areas to help increase populations to sustainable numbers. I would like to see you have birds released in 5-7 hens per rooster either provided or hopefully wild roosters are available. As well, this should not be a one of. You may need to release for a few years to get bird populations increased to a level that they're sustainable. Remember that out of those 5-7 hens that maybe only 1-2 will live long enough to have successful clutches the following year.