The Chicks of Spring

No, not those kind of chicks, I am talking about pheasant chicks. As we move through the month of June and into July, you may see a hen pheasant leading a tightly formed unit of chicks through the weeds or across the road. But, did you ever wonder where those chicks were born or why they successfully hatched?

We have the grass, but where do we go from here?!?

I know we all hunt food plots and corn fields in the fall, but that is not the habitat for pheasant nesting. I don’t know of a pheasant that has been born in a corn field. Grasses with some vertical cover and preferably a forb (flower) component are where they are born.

One way to increase the amount of pheasants being produced is to implement DNC, or dense nesting cover. Dense nesting cover consists of a grass component and a forb component (this attracts the insects necessary to a pheasant chick’s diet). A DNC mix that has proved successful consists of tall wheatgrass, intermediate wheatgrass, alfalfa, and sweetclover. This is an inexpensive way to increase the amount of pheasants produced on your property.

Another mix consists of green needlegrass, Canada wildrye, western wheatgrass, Illinois bundleflower, and purple prairie clover. This mix is a little more expensive but consists of native grasses and forbs.

Planting these areas in blocks also decreases predation, as predators usually follow the edges and lanes to hunt. As my colleague in South Dakota says, “if it is easy for me and the dog to hunt, it is easy for a predator to hunt.”

If you have questions on these mixes or would like more information on increasing wildlife on your land, drop a comment below.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, June 23rd, 2010 and is filed under Outdoors, Pheasants. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.