Can Male Pheasants be kept together if there are No hens?

[Dadsaid]

Crazy story but here's how it goes, I have been reading on this informative site for years, waiting for the day I too could keep my own chickens. It's taken awhile, a long while to get to that point, so in the meantime I also have gotten into reading here about ducks because the property I recently was able to buy also has a pond. n

I learned that they, ducks and chickens 'could' be kept together in a coop but it was better for them to have separate arrangements as the chickens have a pecking order while the ducks tend to be a little more mellow, copacetic, that's of course unless a rooster and drake decide on a face off.

I've looked truly at a gazillion great coops built by members here. Thanks for all the great pics, ideas, plans and your ingenuity. Much appreciated and inspiring!


But the truth of the matter is that I am not much of a carpenter myself, and even a nesting box might prove a challenge for me, so I have even considered a Snap lock Coop, though even the larger looked a little small for my purposes and so Ihave prerused several craigslist cities looking for a good already built coop at least for a couple of years.

A couple of days ago, I finally found one and only about a 1/2 hour drive away!!!

All excited! Really excited!

The ad said good for chickens or pheasants, and here is your first clue.

It was a home built, well built 5' x 12' shed/coop with a human sized walk in door in the middle, windows to either side with wire cloth for predator proofing and for ventilation and best yet inside it was divided in to two sides with separate doors, each with it's own outdoor entrance door, so I am thinking perfect! I can keep 4-6 chickens on one side and 4-6 ducks on the other side.

So I call the guy to make sure if it's still available and to get directions.

Then I called him a second time because in one of the corners of the pics I could see the attached runs, and I forgot to ask whether these are included as well?

He says sure, And you can even have my Pheasants if you want them too!

So this is the start of my long story and why I am now on the Pheasant forum too!

As if learning about keeping Chickens and Ducks for a first timer wasn't enough!!!

How do I get myself into this stuff? :/

More to come about this story and hopefully some questions answered....please, please, please!

 

[Tony K T]

Yes you can keep all males together with no hens.The best thing about this is,you can have males from all species as long as there is room for all.But,you can not keep pheasants near chickens as chickens can pass diseases that they can tolerate but will kill pheasants.You may get away with it for a while,but then all of a sudden your pheasants will die.
What kind of pheasants are you getting?
In N.H.,Tony.

 

[Dadsaid]

Thanks that is what I wanted to know, if male pheasants could be kept together if there were no females/ hens to compete over. Because this is what I am considering, given the circumstances.

I went to see the coop for my future chickens and ducks but was curious about the so called 'you can have them if you want em pheasants' which I had never even considered having before, but had seen photos of before and they sure are beautiful.

Went to see the coop and behind it were the two quite long attached runs. Maybe 12 by 6 or 8 ' but only maybe 30" tall.

In the back coop there is one ring neck cock and two hens. All look I thought okay, but what do I know about Pheasants? Nada.

In the front run facing me there are 4 other pheasants. One that looks entirely white, but which he tells me is a very rare Yellow Gold Juvenile. I read/ google later maybe a Gold x Lady Amhearst cross? He thinks it might be a male because the rear development of claws, which he can not remember the name but I think he meant spurs.

Anyway in addition to the Yellow Gold which is still white, is a brownie tawny teenager which he says is a Green. In addition to that are two more males ring necks, one of which had a bloody scabby head, poor thing. So I asked him about that, whether the other birds were picking on him.

He said no, that when anyone walked by this bird would startle and bop his head on the wire roof.

So I went home and googled, read about pheasants.

Clearly they are meant to be kept in much larger spaces with much more headroom then say chickens are so I am dead tired quickly trying to built an aviary for them in a matter of a couple of days.



Presently it is 20 by 28' and 11 ft tall so they don't bop their heads anymore.

I'm trying to figure out whether I can or should divide it into 4@ 10 x 14 pens or just 2@ 10 x 28' pens.

There are currently 8 Pheasants. 4 Ringneck makes, two Ringneck hens, the Yellow a Gold male, and juvenile green undetermined.

I am thinking maybe I should take only 4,

Divide the aviary in progress only into two.

Put a pair of ring necks on one side and the yellow golden and the green on the other.

Do you think this would work?

And can I have chickens just a few if they are in a separate coop, but in proximity a.

 

[Dadsaid]

I did call the owner this afternoon and told him that if I took them all, (because he has to get out of there) that I might have to find a home for a 'couple' of them unless he might know someone.

He said maybe he would keep a ring neck pair.

So that would leave me with 5 cocks and one hen.

Should I keep the one ring neck hen and one ring neck cock on one side of the aviary in the works? Or give away this pair and just keep the remaining four cocks, one gold, one green and two ring necks all in one big open aviary?

If it is fine to do so, with no hens in the mix, I am fine with this as I didn't plan on breeding them anyway and I'm sure they would love the more open and undivided space to fly around.

Please let know what you all think. Tomorrow I must get it, the aviary at least somewhat ready to move in as we must pick them up on Sunday.

I kind of think it as a rescue as presently their housing borders on puppy mill-ishness.

 

[Tony K T]

If he can keep the pair,then why not a trio?This would solve all your problems and he should have more then 1 hen with a male ringneck.They can get real aggressive during breeding and the more hens the better for the hens.If he has the 1 hen she will be taken a beating from him for sure.As for a 30" hi pen,that is just asking for trouble,any predator can reach thru from anywhere and grab them a tasty meal.I would leave the pens there if possible.They will do you no good for any bird.
I would suggest him keeping all hens he has.If he has raised ringnecks he knows how aggressive the males can get.Yellow goldens are far from rare.I think this is some peoples way of a sales pitch.
But please go and save the males that he has.I don't think he is caring properly for them.If you can get all of them you can keep the trio as long as they are away from the bachelor pad.Or even let the hens lose on your property.They may come back,but it's a chance in a million that they will.
In N.H.,Tony.

 

[Dadsaid]

Thanks so very much, Tony.

You are helping me to clarify my thoughts on this.
I kept googling before and pages and pages said not to keep males together, but this all was predicated being with females, not by themselves as a male grouping.

Per your advice, I will either get them all and divide the aviary into two.
One side for the trio of one male, two female ring necks....
The other/ separate side for the other 5 males

Or get him to keep the trio and have an completely open aviary for the remaining 5 males.

I like this idea better as I can run tree branches for roosting etc up in the center, the highest point and have a much more open space for them all to fly around.

Thank you again for helping me with this and so quickly.

Very much appreciated!

Great advice!

 

[pheasantfrenzie]

Yes Tony is correct that the male ringneck will totally abuse her always best to have 4 females with them. Also the Yellow is not rare but very pretty when he colors out but you won't be able to keep him with the ringnecks as he will normally kill and other males.
I would also create a bigger pen for them.

 

[Dadsaid]

Thanks for your reply PF.

Long day yesterday. After 3 days of working dawn to dusk to get some sort of enclosed pen for them, made from three frames from my greenhouse, although not quite completed, the day had arrived that we had to go pick up the coop with the pheasants placed inside for transport. It was quite an ordeal with the guy who gave them to me crawling around in the runs on all fours, catching them with a net as they tried to flee and kept bobbing their head on the wire roof.

We made it home but one of the ring necks was injured and bleeding from his beak. I suspect it was from the capture.

Along our way home we stopped to buy some corn from a guy on the side of the road and upon seeing the coop on the trailer and asking what it was for, he told me his friend who kept them told him pheasants kill each other.

By the time we got home, I was really whipped and since it was already getting late, sunset in a hour, I gave the birds some water and food and decided to leave them in the coop for the night and tackle the transfer to their new enclosure in the morning. Now I'm kind of afraid to look in the coop. Hopefully they did not go at each other.

I was mistaken up about a couple of things. Turns out there were three females, two ring necks and the 'green' which is the one he was referring to as rare (not the yellow gold). He only wanted to keep a pair of the ring necks


So this is what I have assuming they are all still alive. 3 male ring necks, 1 female ring neck, 1 male yellow gold and 1 female green. Total of six birds.

So which do I keep? And in what combination? My enclosure is large enough that I could divide it into two, 10' x 28' pens that are 11' high.

I have to transfer them this morning. Would any of the ring necks stand a chance of surviving if I were to let them go on my ten acre property? It's grassy and has a pond, and the perimeter is surrounded by large trees, oaks, pecans and brush. My neighbors are cattle.

 

[Dadsaid]

I know that they can be prey for owls and hawks but maybe a taste of freedom would be better then me trying to give them away on a Craigslist and for them to end up again in some small inhuman cage?