Hi, my name is Phil. I have a lot of experience with mammals, but I have not had birds since I was about 15 years old (I'll be 46 in June). I have kept exotics all of my life, right now I have am not keeping any because of a health problem I am dealing with but I normally have several different cats, my favorites are servals and caracals, but I have kept binterongs, coati mundi, I have a small herd of common or plains zebra that are mixed with a friends herd for added genes, and I am working on getting some European mouflon right now.
I started with birds again last year, and although I have a few wyandotte chickens my main interest is in jungle fowl and pheasants. I have grey and green jungle fowl, 5 other species of pheasants and both helmeted and vulturine guinea fowl. I have been reading the posts here and there for about 3 months and decided to join. I have property in both California and Florida, and all of my exotics are in FL because that is where I have the permits to keep them. The birds are here in California, my only requirement with my birds is they have to be able to take the cold winters. I live in the foothills between Sacramento and Lake Tahoe, and I do heat the jungle fowl and vulturine guineas because they are the reason I started keeping birds again but everything else is kept outdoors year round. My pens are all double pens, I have foxes and mountain lions on the property, last month a mountain lion killed a deer right in front of the house about 50 yards and in full view of the living room windows, (it happened at 2 in the morning and we heard it but it was too dark so we didn't know what happened until the next morning) and last fall I lost 5 helmeted guinea fowl to a fox until I started putting them in the barn at night. The smallest pens I have are 8x8 foot with a 6 foot high cover, and the larger pens are 40x10 feet with an 8 foot high cover and a coop at one end. I have the bird pens on a 1.5 acre graded pasture below the house. The chickens and guinea fowl are free range except at night, and in the winter I pen the vulturine guineas.
This is my first post, and I just wanted to introduce myself and give some background.
I started with birds again last year, and although I have a few wyandotte chickens my main interest is in jungle fowl and pheasants. I have grey and green jungle fowl, 5 other species of pheasants and both helmeted and vulturine guinea fowl. I have been reading the posts here and there for about 3 months and decided to join. I have property in both California and Florida, and all of my exotics are in FL because that is where I have the permits to keep them. The birds are here in California, my only requirement with my birds is they have to be able to take the cold winters. I live in the foothills between Sacramento and Lake Tahoe, and I do heat the jungle fowl and vulturine guineas because they are the reason I started keeping birds again but everything else is kept outdoors year round. My pens are all double pens, I have foxes and mountain lions on the property, last month a mountain lion killed a deer right in front of the house about 50 yards and in full view of the living room windows, (it happened at 2 in the morning and we heard it but it was too dark so we didn't know what happened until the next morning) and last fall I lost 5 helmeted guinea fowl to a fox until I started putting them in the barn at night. The smallest pens I have are 8x8 foot with a 6 foot high cover, and the larger pens are 40x10 feet with an 8 foot high cover and a coop at one end. I have the bird pens on a 1.5 acre graded pasture below the house. The chickens and guinea fowl are free range except at night, and in the winter I pen the vulturine guineas.
This is my first post, and I just wanted to introduce myself and give some background.
