Texas Rolling Plains a seem to be looking up this year. OK Panhandle and parts of SW Kansas also look good.

We were out at the lease and put $500 of this stuff into 4 quail feeders.  10 years of research says that eye and cecal worm are a major cause of mortality in bobwhite quail in the Rolling Plains.

The dogs got some points in and it seemed that every time I slammed the truck door, a covey flushed.   Have not seen that since '16

Attached File

The first medicated feed ever approved by the FDA for wild game.

We'll check harvested birds and compare those from the area with feeders to those from the rest of the ranch.

Every commercial that starts with “you might be entitled to financial compensation” is for something the fda approved

Glad to see they are back. I hope they grow in number. I had a few on my 2400 acre lease, but I have not seen them in years.

Never seen that before .
All my stuff has always been non medicated.
Protein content seems low, minimum for me 28%.
Hopefully it helps, and please keep updating.
This is very interesting if it works out.
BTW, do you have any Blue Scale in your area?

We have a few coveys now due to clear cutting and replanting. But when the pines mature, they will probably leave. We plant food plots about year round for the wild life.

This medicated feed came from the eye worm (Oxyspirura petrowi) research project.  We have been following that research closely for several years and waiting for the medicated feed to be approved.

The research has been focused in Texas, and mostly in the rolling plains region, where the eye worms are perceived to be the worst. The research is slowly expanding in geographic area, but the eye worm seems to be concentrated in that region (I do not think they know why, yet).  
South Texas has quail, but they do not seem to have the eye worms issues there.

This medicated feed also knocks out  gastrointestinal Ceacal worms.  I am all for anything that helps quail survive and reproduce :) ...we gotta save them to be able to kill them.

If you hunt quail and are not familiar with  Rolling Plains Quail Research Foundation , its worth some time to visit their website.  

There is also a podcast: Dr Dale on Quail  The most recent episode talks about this feed.

I have seen hundreds of quail since dove season opened. I mean WAY more than ever in the last 20 years. I sincerely hope that the new medicated feed has had something to do with it. I watched 34 quail, two coveys, one with 14 and one with 20 come water at a small stock tank while I was dove hunting.

Unless you are on one of a small number of ranches in the Texas Rolling Plains that have been involved in the current round of research, then it is just Quail doing what they do best.
Quail are about the combination of habitat and the right amounts of rain at the right times.

In the area of lease, last year left us with a decent amount of cover and we were up on bird counts a little.  This spring and early summer hit the rain perfectly!  It looks like there were three hatches this year...I saw half grown quail this weekend and a guy near me posted pictures of week-old chicks from a few days ago.

Central Texas and the Hill Country has lucked out on the eyeworms. My own theory is the species of grasshoppers most prevalent in the regions either being good hosts or bad hosts for the worms. Our local issues are feral house cats and hogs.  Part of my biology research and work was in quail restoration and I pretty quickly started up a hog eradication company that ended up lasting a decade.  The old ranchers know their land and what’s living on it, however in the case of the feral cats they almost always had no idea.  The birds spared by the cats then had to try to find nesting sites the hogs wouldn’t fine, which was near impossible. I wish we could teach them to nest in the thick brush piles we build for them. 80% of the covey falls to predation or other factors so successful egg clutches is everything.

As others have stated, this year the numbers look very good compared to the last 6-8 years.  My go-to tool when surveying a new property for a client is to glass for mockingbirds. They’ll almost always produce a bobwhite call if they’re in the area.