Rhodes Family Keeps Quail Tradition Alive

By DAVID RAINER

It didn’t matter that Queen was down to only one eye because of removal of a benign tumor. Her nose was just as sharp as ever, and when the English pointer got a whiff of a bobwhite quail she locked into the classic, tail-skyward, muscle-twitching point that bird hunters cherish.

Queen is just one of a kennel of dogs bred for just one purpose – hunting released quail at Rhodes Quail Farm between Stapleton and Bay Minette.

The late Virgil Rhodes opened the quail farm 29 years ago because he knew the landscape of Alabama was changing and his beloved wild bobwhites were disappearing quickly.

“Daddy started it right where are right now,” said Jack Rhodes. “Bird hunting, to him, was a pure necessity. His heart was in it. That was the only kind of hunting he enjoyed. He had done it since he was a young boy. He would come in after school and get his bird dog and single-barrel shotgun and go bird hunting.

“Back in the 60s and 70s we were farming at the time, hunting fence rows and stuff like that. That’s back when there were wild birds. When farming started to decrease, so did the wild birds. Daddy set up the hunting operation to take the place of what we used to enjoy. We started with the idea to buy enough birds for us to enjoy and have enough left over to take a few customers and help offset the expenses.”

Over the years, it developed into much more than that for the Rhodes family.

The first time I hunted the Rhodes Quail Farm was in the late 90s, when Mr. Virgil was a spry 78 years old. I remember one particular bird flushed and then circled around. I was swinging the shotgun, trying to get just ahead of the bird when I realized my swing was going to intersect with where I last saw Mr. Virgil. I stopped my swing and switched on the safety, looking for Mr. Virgil. When I spotted him, he was almost flat on the ground.

I said, “Dang, Mr. Virgil, I wish I could move that fast.”

“Even at 83 he could still duck like a 20-year-old,” Jack laughed. “His famous saying was if you learned to duck, you’d live longer.

“This was his fountain of youth right here. He got more enjoyment seeing a youngster come quail hunting with him than anything else. We really emphasize youth and families at the farm. You know that saying – take a child hunting today and you don’t have to hunt your child tomorrow. We’re trying to keep the sport alive by trying to keep youth hunting. We try to impress on people to get youth involved in hunting. They’re the ones that will be writing the laws when we get old.”

Finally, the years caught up with Mr. Virgil. His health declined to where he couldn’t pursue his cherished hunting and he soon passed away.

Jack and wife, Tina, took over the quail farm when Mr. Virgil died three years ago to continue the family tradition.

“Tina had pretty much semi-ran it for Daddy the last three or four years of his life,” Jack said. “Tina has taken the ball and ran with it and has done an exceptional job of building up clientele. But it takes a lot of work. We don’t use any chemicals, whatsoever. We checkerboard our 150 acres with a bush hog to keep hunting lanes open. We make it as quail friendly as possible. We plant millet in the summer and fall. We always have new ground disked up so new vegetation will come through.”

The Rhodes family doesn’t stop with improving the habitat, they also have a special interest in the dogs that can make or break a quail hunt.

“We use our own bloodline of dogs,” Rhodes said. “We started this bloodline 30 years ago, and it’s been passed generation to generation. We don’t buy outside dogs. We breed our own English pointers, and Tina trains all of our dogs.

“We do that because we know that these puppies will hit the ground and will be pointing before they’re four weeks old. We bred these to be close-ranging dogs. We took the field-trial blood out and got the old-timey, close-ranging dogs back in. I’d rather see two dogs work close together than having one locked up and the other dog running around a half-mile away.”

The quail farm is a member of the Alabama Quail Trail, a statewide organization set up to promote research into the reasons for the decline in wild quail populations, as well as what landowners can do to improve habitat for quail and other ground-nesting birds. Alabama Quail Trail hunting preserves are scattered throughout Alabama with hunts available from October 1 through March 31.

“Our goal with the quail trail is to raise the awareness of quail hunting throughout the state and promote the quail hunting industry in Alabama,” Jack said. “We try to teach people how to maintain and improve habitat. Like us, we try to put in more birds than we take out, so we can have birds survive and raise more birds. We are successful in raising a lot of birds through the summer.

“The fact is there’s just not enough farm land. Too much of the land is being developed, especially here in Baldwin County. You can’t raise quail in a Target or Wal-Mart parking lot. We’re just flat-footed crowding all of the game, especially quail. Quail have to have pea patches and fence rows, and they’re disappearing fast.”

Half-day and full-day hunts are available for $160 and $300, respectively. A three-day, two night package is also available. For more information, go to www.rhodesquailfarm.com or call (251) 937-7580. Visit www.alabamaquailtrail.org to learn more about the Alabama Quail Trail.

PHOTOS:

Top: Guide Jason Vicars takes a quail from Queen's mouth after an accurate shot by Jay Gunn at Rhodes Quail Farm near Stapleton.

Center: Gary Finch levels his shotgun at a flushing quail as Jason Vicars watches the bird's flight during a recent morning hunt at Rhodes Quail Farm.

Bottom: Hoss, an English Pointer offspring of Queen, locks into a muscle-twitching point at Rhodes Quall Farm.

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