Multiple Johnny House Hunting Setups

[Chameleon]

I'm new to the world of bird dogs and would like to understand how best to create a personal hunting preserve with pen raised birds for myself and my English Cocker pup. I have plenty of land in Central Texas, but it does not really support sustainable hunting populations. After lots of research, I've come to believe that a series of Johnny Houses would be the best way to have bird hunting on demand in a way that approximates wild birds.

I'm trying to figure out how many I should build, how far apart I should put them, and whether I should just focus on bobwhites, or go with a combination of bobwhite and chukar. I'm not trying to do anything huge, just provide fun for my family friends and dog so that we could go out and hunt birds for a few hours whenever we felt like it.

I would like to know what others have experienced trying multiple Johnny House setups?

How big do you build the Johnny houses? How old do you start the birds? Do wood floors with sand work better than wire, and can chukar handle the sand floors as well as quail? How many Johnny Houses could a flushing dog hunt in a half day? What are the problems and challenges with doing this?

Thanks!

[topher40]

If you are only wanting to go out and shoot some birds it would be easier to plant your own birds every time you go out, otherwise you will end up shooting all your JH birds. JH's are designed mostly to provide good quality birds for training purposes, not necessarily for sustainable huntable populations. You would end up putting birds back in the JH's just as fast as you shot them.

[Chameleon]

topher40 - It is a 4-hour round trip to the flight conditioned bird suppliers, so it is really Johnny House vs. flight pen. But I figure that me and the dog will do lots of training on the birds and I'll only need to restock a few times a year while always having some available.

I realize it is kind of a twist on a traditional way of thinking of the Johnny House as a cost-effective way to train on birds.