Catscratch
5 year old buck +
Anyone put grit piles (sand and calcium) for quail? I've heard of it for doves and believe we have a member that considered doing it for grouse...
Grit?
- Thread starter Catscratch
- Start date
This time of year the pheasant here like to use the road. Except for the next few days especially, the ice covered roads and snow will make it harder to find gravel.
I was wondering if some sand trails near heavy NWSG and brush cover would provide gravel that would be safe for them to go to rather than piles that would become feeding points for predators.
Turkey Creek
5 year old buck +
Hmmm good question. How long does grit remain in a gizzard? I know grit is not required for pen raised birds that are fed commercial feed as it is water soluble.
Follow up:
Yea leave it to me to be interested enough in grit and gizzards to research it! LOL
I can only read the abstracts from studies published in the Journal of Wildlife Management, since I don't have a paid subscription anymore. However, I did find a couple abstracts that point to it not being a necessity in most situations. Grit can be retained for quite some time in birds apparently. At least a few weeks. So unless you have deep snow cover for long periods of time the birds are going to "run out" of grit in their gizzards. I would venture to guess that the quail are going to starve to death from overall lack of food, before they die from not having enough grit in their diet. Calcium is primarily needed for egg laying and at that time of year the insects and their exoskeletons provide enough calcium for the birds needs.
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Catscratch
5 year old buck +
^^^ but, necessary and better are 2 different things. If available would it be utilized? Would coveys maybe have higher egg laying and recruitment rates? A few extra offspring every nesting attempt, or a couple more winter survival birds a yr and maybe a trend towards higher numbers? (I'm just being hopeful)
Turkey Creek
5 year old buck +
(Shoulder shrugging emoji here) I can't imagine it would hurt anything, the birds would consume it if they needed it and found it. Relatively a low cost investment to put it out I guess.
Here is a pretty in depth study of pen raised quail diets and some correlation to wild birds.
Supplemental feeding of northern bobwhite (Colinus virginianus) and dietary requirements: a review
Northern bobwhites (Colinus virginianus) are a well known game bird that has been extensively studied and managed throughout its range for many decades. Despite this, bobwhites have continued a steady annual decline across the United States, irrespective of many well established conservation...
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I really hope this discussion continues, even if there is not agreement,
If I can improve my pheasant recruitment, I want to see what ideas people have.
I didn't look at the posted article yet, as I was watching the DETROI LIONS beat the la Rams. I'll try to look tomorrow.
If I can improve my pheasant recruitment, I want to see what ideas people have.
I didn't look at the posted article yet, as I was watching the DETROI LIONS beat the la Rams. I'll try to look tomorrow.
SD51555
5 year old buck +
I tried it. I put down dual piles of crushed granite and crushed oyster shell. It got a little use, but I didn't notice a huge response. Now, that was also a late summer experiment for grouse on my place. Observed no pics of grouse using it, but crows and turkeys seemed to like stomping around by it. I'll keep an eye on it this year. Maybe they'll use it more as time goes on. I should get another bag of each and get some piles in the shade somewhere that won't be swamped by weeds.
Catscratch
5 year old buck +
Thanks for the link Turkey. Good read!
I have developed a goal. I have 82 acres in a stretch that's 1.1 miles long. Mix of grass, early successional shrubs, and hardwood forest, it's all in strips and blocks. Lots of elevation changes. AND... no cattle on it. My house sits right in the middle of this mile of edge and I do a lot of trapping around the house to cut down predators. I want 2 coveys to live on this strip. I want them to be 25+ birds each.
Plan:
Burn this Feb or March, and again in August. It's been years since this has burned and I want to cut down on fuel load this spring, then do a growing season burn to encourage forbs. After that an 18 month rotation.
Put out grit
Supplemental feed in winter (not feeders but broadcast strips). Do this on acres near the house to reduce predation.
What's your guys's thoughts? Things to add, things to do, things not worth doing?
I have developed a goal. I have 82 acres in a stretch that's 1.1 miles long. Mix of grass, early successional shrubs, and hardwood forest, it's all in strips and blocks. Lots of elevation changes. AND... no cattle on it. My house sits right in the middle of this mile of edge and I do a lot of trapping around the house to cut down predators. I want 2 coveys to live on this strip. I want them to be 25+ birds each.
Plan:
Burn this Feb or March, and again in August. It's been years since this has burned and I want to cut down on fuel load this spring, then do a growing season burn to encourage forbs. After that an 18 month rotation.
Put out grit
Supplemental feed in winter (not feeders but broadcast strips). Do this on acres near the house to reduce predation.
What's your guys's thoughts? Things to add, things to do, things not worth doing?
Turkey Creek
5 year old buck +
Have an aerial you would share? How much acreage is in "weeds" / forbs. I was down that way this weekend as the new Grandbaby is currently living in Winfield. You guys have some much nicer looking quail habitat in that area than what I see around here for the most part. You can't ever go wrong with burning as long as you protect your most valuable trees from fire damage.
Catscratch
5 year old buck +
I circled the said ground in red. House is blue dot. Everything east is pasture. West is farm ground (beans/corn) and a creek.
If you're going to be in Winfield once in a while we should meet up sometime. We're only 30 miles away.
If you're going to be in Winfield once in a while we should meet up sometime. We're only 30 miles away.
Turkey Creek
5 year old buck +
Heck ya we will catch up in person one of these days. Super tough finding days to get away, but I am sure Grandma is going to be finding a way for us to make the time more often! LOL
Turkey Creek
5 year old buck +
Looking at the aerial I think you are going to have tough sledding in order to make that timbered area open enough to hold quail. The area south of your house looks promising though. With that much tree cover it will be tough to get enough sunlight to the ground to produce quail cover and food. What is the grass like to the south of your house? Cool season, warm season? Once I get my place back to NWSG and forbs I envision lightly strip disking or knocking the grass back by chemical means in 20-30 yard wide strips every few years to keep the grass from getting too thick and choking out the forbs and probably some high intensity grazing on the areas with good fence. You have to find a way to have some bare ground interspersed throughout the area you want the birds on.
Catscratch
5 year old buck +
The area south of the house is by far the most promising (in my opinion). It's a good mix of grasses and woody cover. It does have JG on the south end of it though. I don't think I remember kicking many quail out of JG. I was being hopeful with the woods north of the house since there is good ag on one side and pasture on the other... it has a lot of "edge".
Gravel Road
5 year old buck +
Looks pretty good to me. If you burn it in Feb or March I wouldn't think there would be enough fuel to burn again in August. Maybe if it was fairly wet in March, where you might get a patchy burn?
Catscratch
5 year old buck +
Maybe not. I won't have cattle on it so it'll have a full growing season. If it won't burn I could just wait a yr.
