Pheasant Plant 2024

We raised and released 60+ pheasants into the wild. Good luck little guys!
Comments are off because it became a problem. Essentially, commenters were misbehaving and not aligning with the goal of productive, thoughtful (and kind) conversation. I also think an AI bot got a little weird because it was discussing politics and insulting me.
Here is a bit more background for those wishing to know more about this program:
Our part is the last step in a grant program to get youth interested in pheasants and gain exposure for the hunting these neat birds.
More interest, more eyes on, more money, more birds.
These birds were released at the specific age that they are (near 8 weeks old) because they can still hide very well, they can fly, and roost proficiently. They had limited human contact to preserve what instincts they have. We released them in an ideal location, in a large number, in the hopes that some of them will reach adulthood (for September hunting). If we shoot just one, it will be a success. Young bird mortality is high so it is a bit of a numbers game, the more the better. I do not know if it will work. But if all of the previously mentioned goals were met, except we miss out on the last one of harvesting one this Fall, it's still a success:
My kiddos and I learned quite a bit about these birds and depending what we observe this Fall it may influence if we participate in the program again. I will try to add an update video this Fall.
If you are wondering why we didn't release breeding pair adults in the Spring... they are unlikely to survive winters in our region due to heavy snowfall. Also, breeding pairs require lots of space and we could only manage one or two pair in captivity over winter in captivity, where we can release 60-70 juvenile from a hatchery. A breeding pair might hatch out 6 or so and then they still need to survive and grow to adult for the Fall.
Cheers!