Do pheasants need more housing?

[bekaboom]

I tried to include pictures but it told me permission was denied. So I'll try again without pictures.

I have a 1250sq ft flight pen for Ringneck pheasants. Originally we were going to feed them out and eat them. Now, after all of that work, we want to breed some and keep going! The flight pen doesn't have much natural coverage right now. There's very little place to escape if the weather turns nasty. So to get them through the winter I'm trying to figure out if I should build one big "coop" type structure for all of them to go into or multiple smaller "boxes" for them to pick from.

They all get a long fine right now. There are only 17 birds in that massive pen and they are 2 months old. There is plenty of room to get away from each other. But when the weather gets cold and wet this winter, what would be best for them? They will be older and will have reached puberty, and I don't want them eating each other while trying to stay warm. Any thoughts?

 

[GitaBooks]

If you do offer one large building, make sure it has plenty of separate perches, places to hide, things to hide behind, ect and multiple entrances and exits. Smaller boxes would also work, or you could do a couple smaller boxes for bullied birds and one large one as well.

I don't keep pheasants, so I can't be sure. Adding some trees and bushes into the pen will allow natural cover.

Best of luck!