Pheasant Chicken Hybrids

[TJChickens]

Have either of them shown signs of fertility, or have you not even let them make an attempt?

The bigger gold one struts around and acts like a male pheasant and has followed his sister around quite a bit lately. I doubt they would be fertile, but I may find out...For lack of pens, they are in with a few silkies....

 

[chooks4life]

The bigger gold one struts around and acts like a male pheasant and has followed his sister around quite a bit lately. I doubt they would be fertile, but I may find out...For lack of pens, they are in with a few silkies....

Absolutely beautiful birds. I've seen some ChickenXPheasant birds before but those must be the most beautiful. Thanks for sharing.

 

[RedBaron]

Wow! Great thread...I accidentally made two cheasants last year! They are gorgeous. I no longer have the father, but if I did, I would sure be tempted to make this cross again. Here's how it happened....I had a pigeon who stole a silkie chicken egg. He hatched it before I realized he was sitting on it. Yes, a male pigeon! So I have one lone silkie chick that ended up being raised by himself inside. Since he turned out to be a little roo and all my chicken pens have more than enough roosters, he ended up in a pen with some Golden pheasants and Valley quail. Never really knowing he's a chicken, he got along great with the other birds...especially one of the Golden hens! Well, the pheasants started laying and I incubated their first crop of eggs. 2 hatched earlier than the others and they looked nothing like golden pheasants. I still didn't get it until the rest hatched and they looked like they are supposed to look. I later put some pheasant eggs under a silkie hen to hatch. One hatched early and looked like the first two. Unfortunately, I gave this one away to somebody who was interested and now I don't know what that one looks like. This is the father, "Gunther". Ignore the Amherst female in the background... One of he babies! Both babies. Growing up.... This is the girl all grown up. Pictures are hard to get, she likes to stay under stuff. And the adorable male! Super vibrant colors and fuzzy cheeks! These two are not as docile as chickens but not as flighty as pheasants. When they were chicks, they acted much more like pheasant chicks. As a side note....I have been breeding pure lines of pheasants and parrots for 30 years and don't need any grief over this little thing

Those are cool! One of mine has started crowing in the morning ... but it doesn't sound like a rooster or a pheasant, but somewhere in between. Keep us posted on their progress.

 

[mattperth]

Wow! Great thread...I accidentally made two cheasants last year! They are gorgeous. I no longer have the father, but if I did, I would sure be tempted to make this cross again. Here's how it happened....I had a pigeon who stole a silkie chicken egg. He hatched it before I realized he was sitting on it. Yes, a male pigeon! So I have one lone silkie chick that ended up being raised by himself inside. Since he turned out to be a little roo and all my chicken pens have more than enough roosters, he ended up in a pen with some Golden pheasants and Valley quail. Never really knowing he's a chicken, he got along great with the other birds...especially one of the Golden hens! Well, the pheasants started laying and I incubated their first crop of eggs. 2 hatched earlier than the others and they looked nothing like golden pheasants. I still didn't get it until the rest hatched and they looked like they are supposed to look. I later put some pheasant eggs under a silkie hen to hatch. One hatched early and looked like the first two. Unfortunately, I gave this one away to somebody who was interested and now I don't know what that one looks like. This is the father, "Gunther". Ignore the Amherst female in the background... One of he babies! Both babies. Growing up.... This is the girl all grown up. Pictures are hard to get, she likes to stay under stuff. And the adorable male! Super vibrant colors and fuzzy cheeks! These two are not as docile as chickens but not as flighty as pheasants. When they were chicks, they acted much more like pheasant chicks. As a side note....I have been breeding pure lines of pheasants and parrots for 30 years and don't need any grief over this little thing

WOW! These hybrids turned out incredible looking birds! Second time this week I've heard of this cross, very interesting, I never thought it would happen

 

[cluckcluckluke]

Subbing...again!

These birds are amazing!!!

 

[TJChickens]

WOW! These hybrids turned out incredible looking birds! Second time this week I've heard of this cross, very interesting, I never thought it would happen

I really like how they are turning out also. I am going to try to find the one that I gave away as a chick.....

 

[ColesCreek]

They are terrific I have heard of these hybrids many times in WA they love the hybrids there and have many of them like these

 

[WildernessLofts]

They are terrific I have heard of these hybrids many times in WA they love the hybrids there and have many of them like these

You mean chicken/golden pheasant hybrids? Have you heard whether they are fertile or sterile?

 

[DAC]

TJChickens. Wow! Amazing looking birds. I think confusing the young pheasants (or chickens if you're going to use chicken roosters over hen pheasants) is the way to start. When I eventually get off my rear and attempt to create some hybrids, I'm going to set Ringneck Pheasant eggs under bantam Cubalaya hens, and Silver Pheasant eggs under bantam Sumatra hens. When I can sex the chicks, I'll remove all female pheasants from the pens, leaving the young pheasant cocks with their foster mother, with no female pheasants to catch their eye. Hopefully the young cocks will have imprinted on and bonded well with (what they consider) their mother, and consider her the same species as they are. When the young pheasant cocks are approaching breeding age, I'll remove all the pheasant cocks but one (the one that shows the most interest in the chicken hen, probably). Hopefully the pheasant cock left with the chicken hen will consider the hen an appropriate mate, and I'll eventually get Ringneck Pheasant X Cubalaya, and Silver Pheasant X Sumatra hybrids.
Looking at the color developing on your hybrid cockerel makes me wonder what I'd get by crossing Cubalaya with Golden Pheasant. The Cubalaya cocks already have such vibrant colors.
As far as playing around and making one generation hybrids goes, I don't see how it can cause any harm. I understand the problem of mixing Lady Amherst and Goldens, but crossing pheasants and chickens is no more likely to cause a decline in the numbers of either pheasants or chickens than making working mules caused the decline in either Belgian horses (or any other breed used) and Mammoth Jacks. Some Mammoth Jacks were famous as sires of both. I would hope no one would be foolish enough to take the last few examples in the country of a rare pheasant species and waste them by trying to breed them to a chicken.
I am constantly crossing my bantam Sumatra onto other breeds, just to see what I'd get if for no other reason, but I still keep breeding pens of Blue, Black and Splash purebred Sumatra, and for all the crossbreeding I do I still have more Sumatra than I can shake a stick at.
Please keep posting photos of your hybrids as they mature (you may well already have, I've only seen the March photos so far, I don't come onto BackYardChickens often enough). Thanks for the photos and the interesting story of how you created your hybrids.

 

[ShelbyCoral]

Those are cool! One of mine has started crowing in the morning ... but it doesn't sound like a rooster or a pheasant, but somewhere in between. Keep us posted on their progress.

Video it! I wanna hear!