# Buying birds to release on your property -- does it work?



## dogwhistle (Oct 31, 2004)

we had lots of predators in the 50's and 60's but we had lots of pheasanst due to habitat- the Soil Bank Program.

releasing pheasants is a waste of time unless you go out and hunt them immediatly. they dont learn how to seek cover and food. the only exception is using bantam chickens that incubate the pheasant eggs and teach them how to survive.

releasing pheasants has been tried many many time on large and small scale and never sucessful.


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## Shotgun Kennel (Feb 9, 2007)

jlcrss said:


> I wish the DNR would work as hard at bringing the pheasants back as they did with the wolves.


This is the best post I have seen - Amen brother. I wish I would have thought of it.


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## FindTheBird (Dec 18, 2004)

Shotgun Kennel said:


> This is the best post I have seen - Amen brother. I wish I would have thought of it.


I could be wrong, but I thought that the DNR did very little to bring back the wolves other than to protect them just as they attempt to do with any critter who is out of season?


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## goodworkstractors (Aug 7, 2007)

Rysalka said:


> I had good luck using Banties and Game Cock hens as suragote mothers.
> 
> First year we free ranged the chickens hens (fed but not house them), the next spring we replace the setting chicken's eggs with pheasant eggs and allowed the surviving hens to hatch and teach the pheasant how to survive the wild plus roost in trees.
> The game cock hens did best as the seemed to have an ingrained survival sense, very protective of their chicks and roosted in trees and reverted back to the wild easily.
> ...


That's pretty interesting. Seems like one of the more promising methods. Did you have good cover for the birds already established or work to improve it as you went along? 

Do you just buy some chickens from someone and let them go in the fields or where do you get the free-range chickens? Also, where do you get pheasant eggs? How many of each do you get?


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## BradU20 (Jan 17, 2005)

Shotgun Kennel said:


> This is the best post I have seen - Amen brother. I wish I would have thought of it.


I hope you are being sarcastic.


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