Anyone try raising Pheasants?

One of my best friends raised quail and phesants by the thousands. These birds were sold to ranches and pay to play type hunting leases.
The biggest problem was that if you didnt have enough enclosures to rotate several out of service for sterilazation disease would run rampant.
He had fly pens 150' long and 50' wide covered in netting to avoid injury when they all took off. It was really something to see and hear as 3000 quail blasted off at one time. Lots of great memories on that farm. Catching phesants in a big net on the fly was a real hoot. The quail would walk into traps but phesants were a lot more of a challenge.
He also raised a bunch of wild turkeys one year, we would sit on the porch and call with a slate and listen to the thunder when they responded.
Sorry for the long post but lots of good memories there. Best of luck with your venture the best advice I can give is to steralize between batches and then let the sun bake the pen for a good while.
Best
T

I've had one pheasant, but mostly I raise chickens. My brooder set up is a bit different than that, but same idea. Don't forget to work on the habitat and any other major issues around your place. There's a reason why the pheasants disappeared in the first place.

I'm not an expert, but I do know that the penned roosters will start to fight as they mature. Many breeders use "peepers" to control this: http://www.cutlersupply.com/cart/index.php?main_page=index&cPath=4_111

I raised pheasants years ago. They have a low survival rate as compared to chickens at a early age so don't get frustrated. They need plenty of room as they grow or you will have to "spectacle" them as others have said so they won't peck each other to death. They spook easily and I have seen them die from fright when clipping beaks. It's best to stay away other than to feed and water them. In their pens, they will draw predators, so be sure the pens are secure and cannot be dug underneath. Planting rye/oats and allowing it to get a foot high or so in their pens before putting them in helps. They'll eat the greens, and feel like they have cover. It also keeps them cleaner as they don't have to walk in the mud and their own feces.

I see you are losing some already.I would put something on the floor and spread some feed on it cover the whole floor. I would water them in a waterer or low bowl put marbles or stones in it so they can't drown.Take each one and stick their nose in the water so they know what it is.You will need to get blinders and or trim their beaks the dog toenail clippers that the toe nail fits in work good.Don't put any wood shavings or sawdust in the pen.They will eat it and starve to death I found that out the first time I raised them.

A dentist friend had a hunting and shooting place in NV where he raised pheasants by the thousands - he had the incubators, flight pens, the blinders or whatever those orange things are to keep them from killing each other. One thing he told me was that they are cannibalistic, so those orange "spectacles" seem to work. He had a small 6X6 shed/entrance to each flight pen - when he needed to put more out in his fields, he would herd a small number into the totally dark shed - the birds immediately calmed down and he could pick them up one by one and put them into the transport boxes.

His huge incubation and chick area was dug into a hillside so the temps were constant from the varying N Nevada summers and winters

Good luck with your quest

The point about habitat around the farm (and why pheasants are getting scarce) is well presented. I know nothing about RAISING them- when I lived in the UK, nobody RAISED them, that's like Texans raising wild hogs. (Breed them? You can't STOP 'em!).

The thing the Brits found in the '80s, if i recall correctly, was that their wildlife count was dropping due to habitat loss (which is why one now has to ask permission before cutting down or moving hedgerows on one's own land there.) Multiple narrow belts of hedge (with occasional standing trees)buffered by broad swaths of tall grassat the edge of every field and mixed-density woodland seems to be the ticket.

...I thought domesticated birds don't survive in the wild when released because they don't know what to eat to survive.

....that is what bird hunting guides have told me about birds that have been released for hunting but have not been shot. apparently, they last only a day or too.

I have a good friend that raises pheasants in South Dakota, he has good luck.

It sure is a shame what companies like Syngenta and Monsanto have done to our bird populations via pesticides, herbicides and fungicides. Even more disturbing is how they have convinced farmers that it's the right way to grow crops. Unfortunately I don't see us going back, the big biotech companies have a foothold, and consumers clamor for cheap food no matter the cost.

We raised ringnecks in the state of Pa for 15 years for the game commission. We got them the same day they were hatched and at Cambridge Springs Pa and it was a mad dash home to get them under the brooders.

We did use wood chips that were 3/4" or larger and very thin. They would grab them and carry them, as far as eating them, they will try to eat anything.

We used mason jar waterers and just aluminum pie pans for the food with very small gravel mixed in for their gizzards to help them digest their food.

In a week or so we started putting them out in the small pens which were 15'x30' under chicken wire, each day, to get them used to outside. We would chase them back in every night with fly swatters.

In about 3weeks we put them in the big pen (1 acre under wire) and they would stay there for another 3weeks. The wire around the sides was buried in the ground a foot down to keep the foxes from digging in.

We kept the small pens mowed but the large pen we would mow 3 weeks before we put the birds in there so it was grown back up with soft grass instead of old hard stuff. We would mow down paths down the center and then latterally like a grid right before the birds were put in permently and put put the waterers up and down the paths. There always ended up being a family or two of rabbits living in there also. We would raise them with the ringnecks

We put out an acre of lettice for them to suppliment they're diet.
Man do they love lettice. Two five gallon buckets stuffed full, we they saw us coming with that we would get mobbed. we would dump it and run.
At the end of 6 weeks the Game Commission would come and we would start netting birds inside our pen,
A lot of years my father would get 505 or 510 peeps and would still end up with over 500 netted when it came time for the GC to catch them.
They would give us the birds and the food and pay us $1.35 a bird for raising them.
They shut the program down in the1970's I don't remember what year.
As far as canibolism with the birds attacking each other, Dad had some kind of red gel he would put on the birds wound, It must not have tasted very well and maybe made them a little sick but it sure broke them of chasing one down with a wound and pecking it to death.
I don't expect they lasted very long in the wild and alot of them found they way back to our pen and expected to be fed. There would be about 25 or 30 of them find their way home and we always had extra food left over so we would close all the doors again at night to keep preditors out and keep feeding them to get rid of the extra food. We would open the doors every morning and they usually moved into the garden to finish off the rest of the lettice.

Beautiful birds but dumb as a rock.

I have thought about it but right now we just don't have room since we live in town. I think they are by far some of the best tasting birds.