recalling Bob whites back to the Johnny house

luke0927 · Post by **luke0927** » Mon Oct 22, 2007 3:06 pm

So i have a johnny house with some quail in it I let few out to work my dogs about a week after being in the house (there were birds still in the house for recall) The things would just walk around the outside and just seemed to stupid to walk up the board through the funnel....do you think i just didn't leave them in the house long enough or is it pretty hard to get them to recall back? any tips?

how far do you think one will recall back? they were on the same field where the house is but i would like to take them down to my grown up food plot...

Don · Post by **Don** » Mon Oct 22, 2007 4:15 pm

Walk up what board? They shouldn't have to walk up a board to get in the re-entry funnel.

Karen · Post by **Karen** » Mon Oct 22, 2007 5:04 pm

We keep them in the pens for 2 weeks before using them, and then always use in the field the pen is in (we have 4 different pens where I train).

Sometimes it takes up to 36 hours for some to return to the pens, and we loose a fair amount of those to the hawks unfortuntely.

Post by **topher40** » Mon Oct 22, 2007 5:45 pm

If you can figure out how to get them all to recall or even 50% let me know. My birds dont recall well at all, about 30%. Good news is they stay around and have actually done well acclimating themselves to "wild life." Luckily I have nearly 0 predators around here and a few more "wild" coveys.

Yawallac · Post by **Yawallac** » Mon Oct 22, 2007 6:39 pm

We have 5 active houses that all call back fairly well. The key is to give the birds safe return cover to the box. We had a couple that weren't working very well. Once we moved them a little further into cover they now work much better. If a box isn't working try moving it. Sometimes a little change from the bird's view will make all the difference.

luke0927 · Post by **luke0927** » Mon Oct 22, 2007 8:03 pm

Don wrote:Walk up what board? They shouldn't have to walk up a board to get in the re-entry funnel.

I built my house on 4 x 4 skids so i can move it so the funnel is not directly on the ground where they can walk in...I have a little board like ramp into chicken coop that they can walk up too the funnel...i let one out yesterday I will go tomorrow and see if it came back in.....

I have it sitting on the woodline on the edge of the field...I was thinking of piling some brush up a around it to make them feel safer and maybe spend a little more time trying to get back in

Ive also got a 10 x flight pen i would just like to leave them in there but i don't have a way to get them to recall to it. right now i have some jappenese quail in there but those things will never learn to fly so i guess ill just eat them and put the bob whites in it too.

Yawallac · Post by **Yawallac** » Mon Oct 22, 2007 8:23 pm

I have little ramps on a couple of my boxes and they work ok. I usually sprinkle a little feed on and around the ramp with new birds. Once they learn about the ramp they have no problem with it. I also put some brush around the base of the houses to provide additional cover.

I just redesigned my newest house. I left a larger rectangular hole at the bottom so that the birds can see inside very easily. They really learn to recall much faster with this box. On the inside I have a callback cage that is tacked to the inside of the house to cover the hole. So the funnel leads into the inside of the house but the birds actually go into the cage. I did this so that if a small predator gets in it will only get the birds in the cage and not all of my birds. After collecting the birds I open the cage and they hop out into the house.

I also added a door to cover the rectangular hole. It is on hinges and folds down creating the ramp. When not in use I close the door.

bobman · Post by **bobman** » Tue Oct 23, 2007 6:24 am

Take the 4x4 four skids off and replace them with 2x2 pressure treated skids then put a flat rock in front of the hole to make up the 2 inchs and they will go right in the funnel.

All mine recall all the time unless something catches one, I spend at least two weeks letting them recall before I used them for training.

luke0927 · Post by **luke0927** » Tue Oct 23, 2007 11:57 am

Thanks for the reply's i was thinking of putting a cage outside that goes to the funnel and putting the birds in it and let them walk back in.

Yawallac · Post by **Yawallac** » Tue Oct 23, 2007 4:55 pm

This is what I was trying to describe.

Door to funnel

Open creating ramp.

Birds view of buddies.

Inside.

Dude · Post by **Dude** » Wed Oct 24, 2007 9:33 am

got any more pictures of your johnny house? I'd like to build one to use for training.

Dude

Post by **topher40** » Wed Oct 24, 2007 10:02 am

Yawallac, VERY NICE! I dont see how that couldnt work!

bobman · Post by **bobman** » Wed Oct 24, 2007 11:58 am

How do you manage heat with the metal sides??

Yawallac · Post by **Yawallac** » Wed Oct 24, 2007 6:43 pm

I'll take some more pics. All of our boxes are metal. The heat has never been a problem, the boxes have plenty of ventilation. I like metal because the boxes are both very strong and very light.

The idea of collecting the birds into a "holding" pen actually came from Scott Miller, of Honky Tonk Kennels. I saw his and liked the idea. His is slightly different, in that the holding pen is actually underneath his house, but the concept is the same. It prevents predators from killing all of the birds in the house.

bobman · Post by **bobman** » Fri Oct 26, 2007 12:15 pm

I'll take some more pics

I would like to see em

Yawallac · Post by **Yawallac** » Fri Oct 26, 2007 3:55 pm

Sorry, I didn't take pics today. I was training in the rain (which we need!!).

But there is a flaw in my design. The door to the cage on the inside needs to be on the side of the cage and not the top. They can't seem to figure out how to get out. Tomorrow, I will put a door in the side of the cage so that they can easily get out.

The other point that I wanted to make is that after many, many years of using quail in johnny houses and callback boxes of various shapes and sizes, it doesn't really matter how long you leave the birds in the box for effective callback success. The key is to release the birds from the johnny house w/o frieghtening them. I let a few birds walk out the door and carefully move away. I also sprinkle food on the ramp. The next day a few more. I do this for a few days before ever working dogs on them. They do not need to "home" like pigeons, they covey up naturally and if they are not pressured too quickly and learn to recall with no pressure they become very reliable.

bobman · Post by **bobman** » Fri Oct 26, 2007 4:55 pm

Yeah it was raining here too and we need it bad.

I do the same thing in the rest of the post except I dont use feed

Don · Post by **Don** » Sat Oct 27, 2007 10:11 am

I've used johnny houses a bit, not a great deal tho. My understanding was to not release both sex's at the same time? I kept them seperated and released either males or females but not both. I also opened the release door and let them filter out as they wished.

Boy do I love my pigeons!

WiskeyJaR · Post by **WiskeyJaR** » Sat Oct 27, 2007 1:28 pm

Silly question about quails. Do they return like piegons, just with a slower time? Or do they need a direct run back to hutch?

luke0927 · Post by **luke0927** » Sun Oct 28, 2007 6:46 am

WiskeyJaR wrote:Silly question about quails. Do they return like piegons, just with a slower time? Or do they need a direct run back to hutch?

in the fall and winter you can get them to recall in the spring when breeding starts they usually won't recall. You just leave a recall bird in the JH and as long as a predator doesnt get them or they are smart enought to get in they will come back.

bobman · Post by **bobman** » Sun Oct 28, 2007 7:02 am

they will recall year round, in the spring you just have to seperate the hens and roosters and not let them out together

luke0927 · Post by **luke0927** » Sun Oct 28, 2007 7:14 am

bobman wrote:they will recall year round, in the spring you just have to seperate the hens and roosters and not let them out together

so in the spring as long as the same sex are out they will come back? Im sure the males would go to the femals pen woudlnt they? Still you could just sort them out and use them again.

Also how do i tell a male bob white from a female?