Managing for rabbit/quail
02-14-2007, 08:22 AM
#11
Join Date: Sep 2006
Location: Western OK
Posts: 856
RE: Managing for rabbit/quail
Thanks, mauser06.
Just finished cleaning out a fence row that grew up over 55 years. Big trees and lots of brush. Cut it up and piled it in erosion gullies. Got a lot of big eastern cedar trees that we are cutting down and just dragging into the gullies and woods.A wildfire came through our place on 27 November, 05 and did a lot of damage. It killed about 50-75 large oak trees and burned the huge greenbrier patch that was good game cover. Dragged about 15 cedar trees intogreenbrier patch with the tractor last year. The greenbriers are coming back thicker than ever. Oak brush, sumac and wild plumare coming back really well after the fire.
Don't know where the quail and rabbits came from to re-populate the place after the fire but they are there. The big bluestem grass on the place makes for good rabbit and quail cover also. There are armadillo holes all over the place and rabbits hide in them. Next brushpiles that we make will have logs from the burned trees for their bases.
Just finished cleaning out a fence row that grew up over 55 years. Big trees and lots of brush. Cut it up and piled it in erosion gullies. Got a lot of big eastern cedar trees that we are cutting down and just dragging into the gullies and woods.A wildfire came through our place on 27 November, 05 and did a lot of damage. It killed about 50-75 large oak trees and burned the huge greenbrier patch that was good game cover. Dragged about 15 cedar trees intogreenbrier patch with the tractor last year. The greenbriers are coming back thicker than ever. Oak brush, sumac and wild plumare coming back really well after the fire.
Don't know where the quail and rabbits came from to re-populate the place after the fire but they are there. The big bluestem grass on the place makes for good rabbit and quail cover also. There are armadillo holes all over the place and rabbits hide in them. Next brushpiles that we make will have logs from the burned trees for their bases.
02-26-2007, 05:32 PM
#12
Typical Buck
Join Date: Jan 2007
Location: Hillsdale,IN
Posts: 552
RE: Managing for rabbit/quail
Prescribed burning has worked better than anything on our property. It gets rid of alot of the dead stuff and makes room for new growth that benefits both rabbits and quail and the thick stuff always grows back so they have a haven to hide from most predators.
02-27-2007, 07:40 PM
#13
Fork Horn
Thread Starter
Join Date: Oct 2005
Location: NorthEast Arkansas river bottoms
Posts: 422
RE: Managing for rabbit/quail
I have read that alot. Im doing some burning, small areas at a time. It is way to brushy and growed up and risky to burn much of it at one time. Im convinced it will help. They say the weeds get to thick for the quail to go through efficiently.
03-01-2007, 09:04 AM
#14
Fork Horn
Join Date: Oct 2006
Location: Miami, Oklahoma
Posts: 422
RE: Managing for rabbit/quail
For quail, they need the previous year's growth of bunch grasses for nesting. A good rule of thumb for burning to enhance quail habitat is to burn on 2 year cycles...so divide yourgrassland/forest edge areasup into as many manageable burn units as possible and burn half of them every year. Also, make sure that every 50-75 yards there is about a 20-30 foot wide clump of sumac/plum/etc. for screening cover. You may not be really increasing numbers very much, but you should see more quail utilizing your property.
