Raising Pheasants Again

[fishing4sanity]

Several years ago my brother was raising a few birds trying to help the pheasant population rebound, then his pens got in bad shape and he quit. Then four years ago my youngest son wanted to raise them, so we fixed up a couple of buildings at our old feedlot and made a net pen. My son raised them for two years as a senior project in high school and since we have the setup we're still going, while the population of birds hasn't returned to the good ol' days it is improving. We just got the chicks today.




These two guys remind me of myself at church or if you stick me in a meeting!

 

[Spitz]

That's a great family project. How many birds are you raising?

I'd be tempted to shoot and eat most of them if I did something like that.

 

[breaks hunter]

That's a really cool project. They sure are cute little things

 

[mtmiller]

Sweet, bring on the fall.

 

[fishing4sanity]

Sweet, bring on the fall.

They start off cute and end up as some beautiful birds, in between they look kind of rough. Definitely some amazing color in a rooster.

Spitz, this year we got 375 birds, which is about the most I want to handle at one time. They take quite a bit of attention at first, then around five weeks I'll let some go and move the others to the big net pen, then keep releasing some here and there until fall.

 

[ashersdad]

That is too cool! Love the church poses.

 

['Ike']

Ah, one of my favorite threads...

 

[Brittany Chukarman]

My wife just now got 16 Guinea chicks. She got them to drink but can't get them to feed. Any advice or tricks to it?

 

[pointingdogsrule]

Once raised Pheasnats for a few years then I switched to Chukar. Easier to raise and the take up less space. Also A LOT better fliers. Have fun this fall with those Pheasants!!!

good luck to all
the dog

 

[devon deer]

My wife just now got 16 Guinea chicks. She got them to drink but can't get them to feed. Any advice or tricks to it?

http://www.guineafowlinternational.org/articles/keets.php

Back to the OP, there is a commercial shoot down the road from me, they put down 50,000 poults!
Not good news for the local ecology or the birds.
You have got a genuine reason to do what you are doing.
Cheers
Richard

 

[fishing4sanity]

Brittany Chukarman, I don't know of any tricks to get them to eat. At first they don't eat much at all, I do always use a 'starter' feed with a finer grind and medicated to start the birds, mortality rates for the first few days can be worrisome. When they're about a week old they'll start to eat & drink A LOT more. Good luck!

Pointingdogs, I love chukars, but I'm not sure they'd stick around in our habitat, I would like to find some Hungarian Partridge. We have a few Huns around, but not like they used to be. It would probably be easier in the long-run to move to where the animals are located, but for now we'll keep trying to bring them to us.

 

[fishing4sanity]

June 2, 2012 Just a quick update on the pheasants, they're 2 1/2 weeks old now, they've lost some of the cute puff-ball look they had. They're starting to fly now; controlling where they fly - not so much. While I was feeding them today one flew into the wall so hard I really thought he was going to die, but no dead ones tonight so I guess he just rang his bell real good. This may be their teenage stage, they look a little awkward, but they sure go through the food & water lately.

 

[FishN4Eyes]

Nice pictures, I have 130 in surrogators right now and doing one more batch in July.

Birds are looking good, mine are only four days old today.

 

[Topgun 30-06]

How are your birds doing and do you have any pictures? I would think they have to be about twice as big now as the last photo you posted.

 

[MTbowhunter84]

That's awesome keep up the great work and over time your hard work will pay off!

 

[What Map]

My family and I hunt WY most years. The state releases pheasants it raises. They don't fly as strong as wild birds, but they are great for training dogs and novice hunters.

 

[fishing4sanity]

The pheasants are now just over six weeks old, I moved most of them (approx. 300) to the bigger net pen. I kept a few in the nursery shed which I'm releasing in a few different areas now, it seems like the ones I release early have a worse mortality rate but the birds become a little more 'wild' with shorter time in the pen. The birds are getting big enough now to show which are hens & roosters, and really going through the feed! Just after I moved them to the big pen something got in and killed about a dozen birds, I'm suspecting a weasel and have traps set hoping to find out for sure. They don't look all that majestic yet, but when matured I think they're one of the best looking birds out there.

 

[Brentster7189]

That's awesome. I wish I had the room to take something like this on. Very cool indeed.

 

[Brock-ID]

Very Cool! I enjoy following this thread.

 

[Topgun 30-06]

The male ringneck and male wood duck are the two prettiest game birds IMO.