Quail, raising, releasing?

cbhunter

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Here are a bunch of eggs!
 

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rukiddin

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Here are a bunch of eggs!
always puzzled me how coturnix quail have been domesticated for thousands of years and their eggs are still camo but yet bobwhites haven't been domesticated but basically a hundred years or so and their eggs are as white as snow.
In my opinion, coturnix are good for nothing but meat, eggs and maybe starting a pointing breed puppy. They're proficient layers and delicious. Releasing bobs is useless as well but at least they'll flush/fly 1000 x's better than a coturnix.
 

jlanecr500

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With mom passing in March, I almost gave up on the project for 2022. Ive been consumed by fencing in the property , building a gate, and some excavation. Until one day last month. I caught a Bantam pullet at my house in town. I didn't know where she came from but I knew that I have a good many pens at the property that haven't seen a bird in 12 years since my uncle died. My granddaughter named her Annie and she is at home now. Since that day, I now have 25 Rhode Island Red chick's, soon to be pullets and a RIR Cockrell named Roscoe. Lol. I've got 55 Red Bobwhite quail eggs in the incubators.
I've got 14 Jumbo Corturnix chick's in brooder #1 and 18 Jumbos in a grow out cage. Things have exploded. My aunt said " Your uncle Raymond is looking down on you laughing up a storm"
This will be a good retirement hobby for the Brittanys and I. I'm building grow out and breeding cages as we speak. I'll take more pics as things progress.
 

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Planking

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Quail still use my place but you have to have briars and tall unsightly weeds in what used to be a farm. We never mow it all at once, sort of rotate it in sections. The other part is trap and remove all the predators you can.

Hopefully they continue to raise and some fly ya'lls way.
 

DoubleRidge

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They've been saying that for years. They're all talk.

SSlater & Headhunter.....I understand the frustration with quail numbers and I'm certainly not trying to argue....but I'm asking the question....what do we want TWRA to do? Or better yet....what should TWRA have done many years ago when quail numbers began to trend down?

I know what we are doing on our farm....allowing sections of it to return to old field growth, bush hogging strips, not hunting what few quail we have, etc.....and I know we need to be more aggressive with a trapping program.

And I have very fond memories of quail hunting as a kid behind some fine dogs....today that farm that we hunted often is a golf course....manicured and beutiful for the golfer.....but not very pretty for the bird hunter.

So what is or was TWRA to do specifically pertaining to the issues quail face in Tennessee? Again, not arguing...just asking? Honest question that I don't know the answer too?
 

SSlater

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SSlater & Headhunter.....I understand the frustration with quail numbers and I'm certainly not trying to argue....but I'm asking the question....what do we want TWRA to do? Or better yet....what should TWRA have done many years ago when quail numbers began to trend down?

I know what we are doing on our farm....allowing sections of it to return to old field growth, bush hogging strips, not hunting what few quail we have, etc.....and I know we need to be more aggressive with a trapping program.

And I have very fond memories of quail hunting as a kid behind some fine dogs....today that farm that we hunted often is a golf course....manicured and beutiful for the golfer.....but not very pretty for the bird hunter.

So what is or was TWRA to do specifically pertaining to the issues quail face in Tennessee? Again, not arguing...just asking? Honest question that I don't know the answer too?
For starters, they could keep the people that pay their way up to date on what they're doing. I personally don't see them doing much other than burning our gas and writing tickets. I saw them drive all the way across the lake to harass two people on kayaks.
 

DoubleRidge

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For starters, they could keep the people that pay their way up to date on what they're doing.

I agree that communication is always a good thing...I'm just afraid in the case of the quail there isn't allot of news to share...but hopefully the situation will turn around someday.
 

mike243

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Let's look at the facts, TWRA has very little property to try to reestablish any thing, they cant demand that folks let their fields grow up, how many folks kill a limit of quail any year or what was the last year you did? , all these folks beating on TWRA how much property do you own and manage for birds? will they pay the tax's on your land or are you raising crops and cows or hay? the country has been changing since the 1800's and it's really nobody's fault as folks have to make a living 1 way or the other, it's easy to point fingers but finding anything that was done wrong is a lot harder imo. Our only chance of saving a small population is TWRA ,
 

DoubleRidge

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Let's look at the facts, TWRA has very little property to try to reestablish any thing, they cant demand that folks let their fields grow up, how many folks kill a limit of quail any year or what was the last year you did? , all these folks beating on TWRA how much property do you own and manage for birds? will they pay the tax's on your land or are you raising crops and cows or hay? the country has been changing since the 1800's and it's really nobody's fault as folks have to make a living 1 way or the other, it's easy to point fingers but finding anything that was done wrong is a lot harder imo. Our only chance of saving a small population is TWRA ,

Agree...it's hard to find any one thing that was done wrong by anyone or any group.... hopefully more property owners and land managers will consider quail in their management plans and hopefully TWRA will do all they can on the properties that they manage....I know it's a long shot but I'd love to see the quail make a comeback.
 

mike243

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I appreciate your efforts, I would bet most folks dont know much about birds and I am 1 of them, what little I have seen first hand in my youth can be wrote in a sentence lol. I can tell you that having jumped a lot of coveys rabbit hunting is that they will form a circle on the ground and face outwards, when they are flushed they go every which way and I suspect thats to limit the number of birds grabbed by what flushed them. I killed very few and knew early on in my early 20's that the numbers were dropping due to the amount we jumped. We bought our home almost 30 years ago and I could set on my porch in the early mornings and listen to them calling, that stopped after about 5 years, a few years ago I heard them again for a few short weeks and then no more. I have only jumped 1 grouse near my house and that was in the late 80's , I had never seen 1 outside of the Campbell and Scott county mountains so it maybe a fluke or that they simple were killed out by domestic animals along with the yotes.
 

Swampster

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Huron, TN, USA
Quail still use my place but you have to have briars and tall unsightly weeds in what used to be a farm. We never mow it all at once, sort of rotate it in sections. The other part is trap and remove all the predators you can.

Hopefully they continue to raise and some fly ya'lls way.
Same for me. Not a lot of birds, maybe two coveys that will vary from six to ten birds each, but they seem to be hanging on.
 

Popcorn

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With mom passing in March, I almost gave up on the project for 2022. Ive been consumed by fencing in the property , building a gate, and some excavation. Until one day last month. I caught a Bantam pullet at my house in town. I didn't know where she came from but I knew that I have a good many pens at the property that haven't seen a bird in 12 years since my uncle died. My granddaughter named her Annie and she is at home now. Since that day, I now have 25 Rhode Island Red chick's, soon to be pullets and a RIR Cockrell named Roscoe. Lol. I've got 55 Red Bobwhite quail eggs in the incubators.
I've got 14 Jumbo Corturnix chick's in brooder #1 and 18 Jumbos in a grow out cage. Things have exploded. My aunt said " Your uncle Raymond is looking down on you laughing up a storm"
This will be a good retirement hobby for the Brittanys and I. I'm building grow out and breeding cages as we speak. I'll take more pics as things progress.
Those Tennessee red quail are big beautiful birds but be aware they are far more aggressive than other strains and will injure cage mates readily.
Don't overcrowd them that will help but it's in their nature to be mean
 

jlanecr500

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Those Tennessee red quail are big beautiful birds but be aware they are far more aggressive than other strains and will injure cage mates readily.
Don't overcrowd them that will help but it's in their nature to be mean
34 of 55 have hatched so far and their still going. I noticed their aggression in the brooder last night. I planned to give them the entire end of my breeder building 15 x 15 x 8 ft tall as a free flight area to condition them for hunting. With food and water handled externally so they rarely see a human
Thoughts ? I'd like to trio some of them for breeding.
 

Sharecropper

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Nov 25, 2012
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Gtown,TN
Let's look at the facts, TWRA has very little property to try to reestablish any thing, they cant demand that folks let their fields grow up, how many folks kill a limit of quail any year or what was the last year you did? , all these folks beating on TWRA how much property do you own and manage for birds? will they pay the tax's on your land or are you raising crops and cows or hay? the country has been changing since the 1800's and it's really nobody's fault as folks have to make a living 1 way or the other, it's easy to point fingers but finding anything that was done wrong is a lot harder imo. Our only chance of saving a small population is TWRA ,
243,
I agree, they do have some land, a good bit in my opinion. However, what I hunt in the Western part of the State is mostly low ground and for the most part wooded. I can say that at least on a portion of the Wolf River WMA they are trying to restablish some native birds, I'm not sure of the size of the project however I can attest to head high broad bladed type grass that you would use as planted cover to get to a stand unseen. Also and most importantly in my book is we have 1 Warden that covers from Jackson, TN to the MS River, I sure wouldn't want that many square miles to cover and my dream coming up in Mississippi was to be a Warden. Not standing in front of anybody and the Warden gave my boy a ticket his very first day in the woods, that was my fault. But a man can only do so much, and 24 hours a day on call! Now I don't know who is in charge of the planning of our public ground, but the Wardens aren't on the list, they only offer input.
 

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