So how would you explain the chicks that were with them?

Those were different times, we had a lot of farm land back then. It was by and large put and take hunting but there were birds surviving the winters and breeding in the wild back then.

I also believe the pheasant program is an achilles heel for our state wildlife agency. There is no biological management of a species involved, simply the purchase and stocking of live targets. This gives the anti's real ammo. Additionally as Steve mentioned the stocking sites are small in number and put a lot of hunters in close proximity to each other which has resulted in a number of hunting incidents that reflect badly on hunters via the media.