Banty Hen raising Pheasants? and Newbie questions about Pheasants

[Bleenie]

I traded a lady today for some chicks, 2 mixed chicken chicks & 4 teeny Mutant Pheasant Chicks. her babies haven't had a momma hen before so I am hoping they will take to eachother

, they're just 3 days old.

I just wanted to know if anyone else ever had a hen raise Pheasant chicks before? Did you have any issues? Did it work out well? I need to know about any special requirements for Pheasants too, I have never raised them before.

These babies are Green Mutant Pheasants. A couple look like Chipmunks & a couple are Black/White... is it normal for them to be that different in coloring?

 

[J3172]

I've put ringneck eggs under my broody oegb hens before, the hens do a great job of hatching the eggs, but the chicks dont listen to her clucks and i havent had any success with the hens raising the chicks up.

 

[free_ranger]

Hi,

I remember a post on byc saying that the pheasant chicks don't recognize a mama hen's attempts to call them or talk to them, BUT if you kept them in a confined space where the chicks couldn't escape, or get too cold in a corner, etc., they will eventually listen to her and learn to understand her. Just keep them somewhere small so that while they're trying to stay away from her they don't get too cold. They eventually learn her language and realize that she is trying to take care of them. You would have to watch them at first to make sure she wasn't going to hurt them, because in a space that small they wouldn't have anywhere to go to get out of her way. I haven't tried this because my hens are never broody at the right time.

As far as your chick colors, I know when I had little chicks shipped to me, the regular, jumbo and Kansas ringnecks all started out looking like the little striped chipmunks and the melanistic mutants were black and yellowish. I don't know anything about the green mutants.

There are lots of posts with great information on raising pheasants here, but for starters they need to be kept warm like chicks (95 degrees the first week, 90 the 2nd, etc). The biggest difference is that they need a high protein gamebird starter feed or they develop leg problems, and presumably other problems. I feed turkey starter that is 28% protein since the pheasant starter isn't available here. I don't raise them with chicken chicks because of the different protein requirements- I don't know if the chickens would do well with turkey starter. There are a lot of discussions here on the reasons you don't raise them together. I use a quail waterer to prevent drowning. They fly out of brooders pretty early, around 7-10 days. Mine want to be wild no matter what I do so I get them for release on my farm.

After you look at some of the pheasant raising threads, and if you still have questions, post them and one of the more experienced people will come along to help you out.

Good luck with your little babies. Pheasants are my favorite birds to raise.

Edited to add: Look at "Ringneck Pheasant info page" by ticks at the top of this (Pheasants and Partridge) section.

 

[ranit]

I let a silkie hatch some ringneck pheasant eggs for me one time. Thinking that maybe if she raised them they might not be quite so spastic. She did a great job hatching them but then they all ran every which way and wouldn't let her "mother" them. I ended up catching them and putting them in a brooder. Silkies are normally great mothers and I have used them to hatch and brood guineas, but it just didn't work for me with the pheasants.