How to Make Brush Piles for Bobwhite Quail

Bobwhite quail nest on the ground, usually in thick tufts of tall, native grasses, and use brush piles to travel safely between nesting sites and food sources. They need a high protein, high energy diet, which they get from berries and seeds. In heavy rain, ice storms or snow, quail huddle in brush piles, as close to food sources as possible. The brush piles serve as cover from predators, as well as providing a temperature differential as much as 15 degrees warmer than the outside air.

According to the Iowa Department of Natural Resources, bobwhite quail need an area that is 30 percent brushy/weedy, 10 percent woodland and 60 percent cropped fields. They live along the edges where these habitats meets. Bobwhite quail spend most of their time walking, so they need nearly bare ground under dense vegetation.

Things You'll Need

  • Second-growth trees such as poplar, ash, birch, and locust
  • Blackberry or raspberry bushes
  • Honeysuckle vines
  • Young spruce and fir trees
  • Oak saplings
  • Ragweed
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Instructions

    • 1

      Check your property for signs of existing coveys of quail. Build your brush piles close to where you have already seen these signs. Plant additional brush piles 200 yards apart. If you have no existing coveys of quail, you may have to reintroduce them to the area. Purchase full grown, free range birds rather than chicks as your losses the first year will be nearly 100% with immature birds.

    • 2

      Start your brush pile within 200 feet of a field that has been plowed and planted within the past year, close to the edge of a wooded area. Ideally, the crops should be broadleaf plants such as alfalfa, flax, buckwheat and soybeans, as they will provide additional shade and cover. Corn, soybeans and wheat are a good source of ready protein, and even a recently harvested field will have enough gleanings to support a covey of quail. Ragweed, hated for its allergy-inducing pollen, is a diet mainstay for the bobwhite quail.

    • 3

      Check your woodlot for young second growth trees that have been girdled by poison oak or grape vines, or that show signs of insect infestation. These trees will typically have a diameter of 10 inches or less. If you see woodpeckers working on a tree, it has an insect infestation. Cut down no more than a third of the trees on your lot at any one time.

      Attach several guide ropes to the tree, as high up as you can. Have helpers on the side away from where you want the tree to fall hold the ropes while you cut, in order to guide the tree down when it falls. Using a hand saw, axe, chain or power saw, cut the tree about two to three feet above ground level, making a small cut on the side away from where you want the tree to fall, then a larger cut on the other side. Do not cut the tree all the way through. Make sure everyone in the woodlot is well clear of the fall path of the tree. Push on the side away from where you want the tree to fall. Have your helpers slowly let the rope loose, allowing the tree to fall.

    • 4

      Trim small branches from all the trees you have felled. Stack three to five large-diameter tree trunks in a square, building the stacked trunks two feet high. Make sure the trunks are spaced several hand widths apart. Lay the trimmed branches on the top and sides of the pile, keeping as many openings clear as possible.

    • 5

      Plant honeysuckle, sweet peas, raspberry and blackberry bushes next to the brush pile. Intersperse your woodlot with walnut, chestnut, oak, spruce and pine trees. As the trees grow, they will eventually provide more fodder for your brush piles.

    • 6

      Be sure to open up each brush pile every year, adding large, thick trunks to serve as the backbone of a healthy brush pile. Clear out enough vegetation underneath the brush pile that several quail can pass freely through it at once. Thin the berry bush canes, draping the trimmings over the top of your brush pile as an additional barrier against predators. Transplant healthy canes to new brush piles.