I agree with Scott, releasing pen raised pheasants is not going to increase wild bird populations. From my experience with them, you release them within a couple days of when you plan to hunt them. About 95% of pen raised birds released in the fall will not make it to spring. When they do survive, they are generally not as good a parents and rarely raise young successfully. The most important thing you can do for upland game birds like quail and pheasants is habitat, habitat and habitat. A good friend of mine is the upland game bird biologist in Kansas. He is a big fan of controlled burns to keep good pheasant and particularly quail habitat. If you are looking for more specifics, I can post the info.
I will say that as a small land owner, say under 200 acres, the two most important things you can do to keep some birds on your land when surrounded by open expanses of farmland are winter cover and spring nesting areas. These are usually the two areas that are limiting to an upland game bird population. Swamping wetlands thick with reeds and cattails, briars and brambles, switch grass stands and particularly in the east, newly planted pine stands are all excellent upland game bird wintering areas. Spring nesting sites are usually a mix of clovers, alfalfa, and native warm cool season grasses or non natives like timothy. Don't mow them until after the nesting season is over, at least until after July 4.
I can tell you from having stocked a lot of banded birds over the years, if the habitat isn't there they don't survive.
Most states require a permit to raise game birds, both Virginia and Pennsylvania do here in the east. Some states even require you to keep track of how many and what sex of each bird you release and where you release them. Pennsylvania has worked very hard the last few years to bring back wild pheasants to the state. They tried for years to do it via hatchery raised birds to no avail. It wasn't until they started trapping wild birds on Indian Reservations in Montana and South Dakota did they start to have success. That and huge amounts of habitat work. It takes about 25,000 acre of quality pheasant habitat to sustain a long term naturally reproducing pheasant population!
