Upland Bird Hunting Partner

John Wenzel, operator, partner (grunt)

When calling most will talk to John Wenzel who as a hobby develops Bobwhite Quail nesting, feed and year round loafing/protective cover habitat on his farm and those of his neighbors with his own farm equipment to include a no-till drill. That kind of dedication means a great understanding of habitat, the core product on this Association. Having the right habitat in the right region of the state means the difference between nature walking and good hunts.

Some habitat pictures from John Wenzel's own farm. Little Bluestem shown in early spring as the forbs began to sprout, quail nesting cover.

Pictures are always limited in what they show and this one is a case in point. The missing parts is that this grass field is one on many small ones separated by varying size of brush areas and tree lines. Much of these fields have been cleared with chain saw and tractor to create as much edge or transitory habitat as possible. The cedar trees left standing in the far ground open to another small field directly across and to the left connect to a hardwood tree covered creek bottom and to the the right to a fence line let to grow and onto another field where one of the wildlife windbreaks of a 1/4 mile long, 6 rows wide was planted to break a large field into two making more edge habitat.

Part of a 5,000+ tree wildlife wind break composed of Ponderosa (shown) and Red Cedars to provide more edge habitat along with other plantings. The idea is a mixture of dense and open trees with the cedars providing much ground level branch contact for thick cover and the ponderosa with less branch to ground contact cover. What we have discovered over time is that quail will use a variety of cover types through the year and having a multitude of variety within a relatively small area allows for more quail density.

Pictured is an outdoor chick brooder, with day old quail chicks in this case (inset), being setup on a recent habitat enhanced farm by John Wenzel. This brooder comes from Quail Restoration Inc., and does work exactly as advertised.

The outdoor brooder is a means by which to quickly establish a covey rather than wait on the happenstance of nature delivering a covey through natural expansion.

These are not pen raised release quail with no survival instincts. These quail from being one day old to the release point at 5 weeks have been isolated from human contact and subjected to weather and nature to include predators visiting the brooder. When released at 5 weeks they have sufficient flight feathers and flight/fear response to any threat to ensure their survival at near the same rate as those chicks with a brood hen.

First the nesting habitat and winter food source is developed and the following summer 100 day old chicks will be brooded to 5 weeks of age and released in that habitat.

It is always to be remembered that any of the activities shown in this section are supplement to and not substitute for the very fundamental and absolute requirement of habitat before all else. To do otherwise simply helps the economy, not the quail.

Typically a great effort results in 30 should survive to that spring's breeding season and of that 30 there may be 8-10 pairs that hopefully will produce 60 - 80 chicks that will in turn survive down to 10 nesting pairs the subsequent spring and so forth sustaining the covey for as long as the nesting and food cover remains. To date, nesting cover has an excepted useful life of not more than 10 years before being overcome by invasive plants.

While 30 may be the optimum to expect that 30 is possible only on the best habitat. Weaker habitat as shown 10+ birds to survive through to March break up and breeding start.

Quail are residential birds that will live or die within 10 acres of where brooded. They like turkeys, pigeons and any migratory bird have a "homing" instinct that keeps them anchored to specific locations. Developing first the nesting habitat that will best enhance their reproduction success in the future, the covey is then established with the brooder. By this process sustainable quail coveys are established in areas that previously could not support any.

On that same idea if the brooder successfully releases 80, 5 week old juveniles it would not be reasonable to expect all to survive within 10 acres as that 10 acres would have to be of the most exceptional habitat combination to support such a density.

This covey effort, just as in the case of habitat development, is a hobby for John's own farm and that of his neighbors that allow him dog training land use. The cost in terms of time, sunk asset costs and expendable material money to perform such work on the Association land leases is simply prohibitive in comparison to annual dues.

Take as example the cost to develop one acre of land in terms of chemical spray down, tractor (10,000 hour life expectancy before major rebuild), drill (1,500 acre life span until major parts replacement), soil test and seed is $54.41 (2005 dollars). Add to that the cost of any fertilizer requirements, fuel, follow up spray and forbs/legumes planting, transport time and hourly wage and the cost is much greater. It is far more economically feasible simply to lease the right habitat within the right region of the state than attempt to build it. That lease is then retained until the habitat changes as it always does and better land replaces it. Those that prefer the same land for decades will not find the same hunting quality on that land for decades.

John's efforts are driven by enjoyment, not financial reasons. Even as a hobby, 8 to 10 acres a year is just about all he is willing to accomplish. Anyone that has planted a 1 acre deer food plot would have experienced almost half of what it takes in time and effort to establish an equal area of exceptional ground nesting bird cover.

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