Gun Dog Forum

I'm thinking of putting one or two on my the farm. Any advice would be great. I have mostly trained with chucker and house about 50 at all times. If I put the recall pens out that will also serve as my holding pen for the quail. How far can I use quail from the recall pen and still have them recall? For those of you that use this system what size Penn and setups work Best?

I use a 4x4x6 FT Johnny house for mine, 25 birds per house is the max recommended. Once the birds have been released a few times, mine naturally fly very good distances and recall. However, I am not sure about housing them with Chukar. I know from past experience that Quail are very suspect to catch diseases from pigeons if kept together.

As far as catching the birds and placing them yourself, I am not sure. However, I feel that mine recall from well over 100 yards when they fly off from releasing, dog contacts and etc

I have the same size pen but when I put 25 birds in they started killing each other and I lost about half to that. Is there a way to stop the fighting was it to many males?

I wouldnt be mixing them I house my chuckers in the barn separate from my pigeons I've found out the hard way mixing birds equals dead birds. Have you had problems with predators getting in the recall tube? My thinking was to have the pen in crp grass so the birds have a little cover for safer travel

The CRP would be a good addition. I would recommend starting with very young birds just out of the brooder.
Predators are always around and I have found snakes and possums in mine but rare. Many JHs have fold up ramps that will cover the return hole.
Also, they do make the predator proof funnels but I have not tried them.

I have on JH and the entire corner was badly chewed up. I believe Coyotes were responsible but whatever it was learned it couldn't get in.

I was thinking coyote and foxes would be a problem too so I was going to make my sides from tin roofing. Have had weasles and minks get up the recall tube?

Weasels and minks not too common here in SC. However, I bet the predator proof funnel would keep them out

Do you folks use your birds in the spring?

Seems a lot of the birds don't or won't recall because they try to pair-up. They don't come back to the JH and are lost to varmints.

A good friend once told me to always put young birds in the JHs through the spring and into summer. Most of the time, they have to be of a certain age before pairing up so this will give you as much time as possible to use the birds.

Just turn out the hens, leave the cocks penned up and they will call the hens back into the jonny house---works for me.

I recommend Phantom kennel JH plans.

We are using the loin country supply Johnny house with good results. I had 30 full grown quail in it all winter. Only problem I have found is that the quail do not like to walk up the ramp to return to the house. They just hang around the house. We had to build a separate recall cage for recall. They recall from several hundred yards away.

Can they see the birds from the Ramp? I was reading that having wire on the side with the recall tube so they can see the birds helps. I figure on doing this with mine hoping it works

They cannot see the birds from the ground. It is a completely enclosed Johnny house. The recall pen solved the problem but it would have been nice if they would have learned the ramp. They would just circle the house for hours and hang around it. I even tried a sheet of plywood alongside the ramp to force them along a wall but they wouldn't go up the ramp.

I have not been on here for a while but here are some past posts on JH's.

viewtopic.php?f=69&t=34934

viewtopic.php?f=89&t=34564

viewtopic.php?f=69&t=30336

viewtopic.php?f=69&t=33806

viewtopic.php?f=69&t=30888

Sorry for the 3 posts but I could only put 2 links on at a time.

Good luck.

I am thinking about doing the same thing at my place this spring. My only question is if I keep the jh at my place how will I keep my dogs away from it? We live on about 6 acres with the better part of 4 acres in prairie I use for training. If I keep the jh at my place will it affect my dogs by having them around their scent all the time? Also I talked to a fella today who has mature quail for 5$ per bird, is that a decent price?

Yup in spring and early summer pairs might not recall so well, hens will recall better.

5 for spring birds is a decent price

I trimmed a lot of brush this spring. Rather than burning as I usually do, I threw a pallet on the ground and covered to pallet with it; lots of it. Put out a couple waterers and couple feeders. Then turned loose the 10 quail I had left from two springs ago. They were not coming out of my bird box so I stuck my hand in and boy did they come out. Unfortunately only one went into the brush pile, the rest flew away. Didn't see any for several days after that and yesterday my big dog's found quail in the fence line near that brush pile, they fly better than ever. The feed was being used, trash birds I'm sure get a lot and water is being used. So now I am pulling sage brush and making cover piles out of it. I am thinking I'm going to build an enclosure like the surrogator to put young birds in. Hold them a few days in it and them open a release door at night and from then on let them come and go as they please. Water and food will always be there and the birds will have complete freedom to roam as they will and a secure place to eat, drink and roost. Boy do I have a lot of sage to pull and I have plenty of it. One big mess I have I am pulling it out in patches leaving cover with it. As the grass grows the cover will only get better. Have the lady that owns the horse here told to remove the horse by the end of May; good cover in the upper pasture that hasn't been grazed for several years and turned the horse in it. Cover is going fast so the horse was removed. I've had Johnny House's in the past but the inconvenient thing about them is you have to go let the birds out before you get there or have an electronic means of doing it. I'm thinking now that I can eliminate the Johnny House and use free range birds. years ago we had some we'd let loose and they got pretty wild after a while. Unfortunately I believe predators got them in the end. had no brush piles out for them then.

The predators will hone in on those free range birds pretty quick. We are at the point where the hawks are flying around within an hour after training sessions picking our birds off. I like the security of the jonny house as long as you can get your birds back in it by nightfall.