ORIGINAL: SamPAhunter
This is just from my own expirence but pen raised quail will and do reproduce in the wild. It's all about the age in which you release....the habitat they are going into...and the amount of predator pressure.
Im also working on a big bobwhite management project next year.
Good Luck with yours
NO WAY NO HOW 1 out of 1000 maybe.
The hens that are raised in a brooder then to a flight pen will not sit on the eggs.
The Surragator People are the only ones that state that pen raised birds released by their methodwill reproduce. They must be ignoring all the work and research done by QU, Tall Timbers, and every University in the south has tried.
The onlyreleasedquailthat will reproduceis trapped wild birds transplanted to another place. I beleive that the birds must live and learn by experience to be able to hatch out a clutch. After raising quail and seeing just how dumb they are. Mother Hen in the wild does alot of work, more than we will ever know.