Gun Dog Forum

Good afternoon,

Does anyone have any experience using a surrogator to raise chicks in the wild and then release into the habitat that they were raised in?

I was recently pheasant hunting in south/central NE and we primarily hunted some corners of irrigated fields that had been planted to habitat with the assistance of the local Pheasants Forever chapter. For once, we actually saw pretty good numbers of birds and among the group of 7, we took 11 roosters and a coyote.

After talking with the guys, it appears that they are also using a surrogator on some of the corners in the spring. They feel like it has helped to increase the bird numbers, coupled with the additional habitat. Otherwise, this is a area that is basically farmed fencerow to fencerow.

Thanks for any insights or experience.

You can search through the old posts - lots of discussion on the issue. Basic thing is that they don't work well. You are way better off to just buy flight ready birds and release them the day you hunt.

I had done a search but only came up with one thread where they were mentioned, maybe I didn't go back far enough but that thread was from 3 years ago?

I have only done them for quail in Alabama. Two surrogators with three releases per breeding season. All banded and what not. We found no positive results. I have heard they worked better for pheasants, again heard, but never done it myself. We sold our surrogators and have moved on. Roosters mom sounds like she has more pheasant insight than I. Habitat and live birds probably the way to go. I have yet to find the silver bullet.

Roostersmom - thanks for the link. I don't know why that thread didn't show up when I was using the search term "surrogator"? Weird.

Kind of a bummer to read about the lack of results in so many different areas. I hate to think the bird hunting of my youth will never be known by my kids.