And I will not include ants...

I had a client in the office last Friday morning. He has had a lot of experience with quail. He was/is associated with the Tall Timbers quail studies for 25 years. His specialty is/was quail diseases. He hunts quail. He knows quail.

During his study, fowl pox came onto the scene in the birds they were studyind. They fianlly traced the source to a neighboring plantation which was a smaller place. This smaller place released birds so they could hunt 7 days a week. Somewhere they had picked up birds that had been vacinated against the fowl pox.

When the birds are vacinated against fowl pox, they become carriers to birds that are not. From what I am told the fowl pox appears on the birds eyes & mouth(beak). The sick bird stays with the flock and spreads the disease. THE PROBLEM IS released birds spread this to wild birds which they can't vacinate anyway.

And once you get it in your pens, you have to maintain vacinated birds or they will contract the disease. Then they are released, not shot, and spread it to the wild birds. The wild birds get sick and die.

It took about 8 years before the fowl pox ran its course around Tall Timbers.

Another reason to not release pen birds, at least those vacinated. I wonder about this and ducks.

I won't go into the conversation about today's farming practises vs quail, or the ants.

Just thought you would like to know.