My friends father- in-law owns a pheasant farm. She invited us over to see the operation since she knows I love poultry. We were very impressed by the cleanliness of the place. They have several thousand pheasants and quail at this time. They had an entire building for incubation and hatching alone. There were 2 giant incubators six feet tall that held several thousand eggs, plus 4 of the GQF Sportsmans. They had a giant brooder with big stacking trays. Six 20'X30' buildings housed pheasant chicks of various ages. Large feeders lined the walls and an automatic watering system was down the center of each building. What an operation!! Then came the flight pens. Eight flight pens, 20'X50' each. They were topped by netting so the birds would not get injured if they hit the top and all of them had a hot wire around the outside to keep predators away. They have had problems with bobcats before. Some of the flight pens had corn planted inside and some had other things like millet and sunflower seeds planted. This gives the birds cover and they also eat the seeds. We had a great visit and they even let me help take approx 500 baby pheasants out of the brooder and put them in one of the grow buildings, so that made my day just being able to get my hands on the babies! As we were leaving, the father in-law said to me do you have somewhere to put a couple of pheasants? Of course I said "Why yes I do", so he gave me 4 adorable babies! I really was not expecting that when I went there, I hadn't brought anything to take birds home in so we found a little cardboard box and boxed them up. These little guys are so cute! They are twelve days old now and I never get tired of watching them. They have such a soft little peep, they are so quiet, but very active, more so that chickens. I understand that pheasants are more nervous and flighty than chickens, so I am trying to spend more time with them. I also have been hand feeding them mealworms a couple times a day and they really love that and get very excited. I do not know if they will stay somewhat tame, but I am making an effort at it. When I put my had into the cage they do not seem afraid of me and will hop up on my hand looking for those mealworms. Here is a couple of pics of them last week. I will try to take more soon.
Sleepy little pheasant in the food dish
Little sleeping angels
Lisa
Sleepy little pheasant in the food dish
Little sleeping angels
Lisa
