Quote:
My husband and I got licensed to do this, this past year. We have a 20x40 pen. We ordered 100 pheasants. We got them as day old chicks and kept them in a 4x10 coop under lights until they were a few weeks old and started outgrowing the space. Then let them out into the run. After some cannibalism, we released roughly 85 birds. We released about 25 the first time(to thin out the flock because of cannibalism), and then left the door open on the pen for the last ones to go out.
They do like to hang around, because they know where the food is. That is the hardest part, making sure they understand how to find their own food. We fed them outside for 2 days, after that they were on their own.
We have 40 acres of woodland, with farms around us, and we back up to a grassy wetland.
Within the first week, we found feathers on the trails from a handful of pheasants. We have alot of gray and red fox around and a large fisher that lives on our property.
Our neighbors are saying they are seeing some of our birds from their deer stands, so that was nice to hear. But depending on how hard the winters are and how well they can adapt to the wild, they say 15-20% usually survive.
Hopefully that is not the case, but it seems fairly likely. We still have 3 that live in the brush pile on the edge of our yard, we see them over eating chicken feed almost daily.
The DNR wants you to release birds at 12 weeks of age. Most websites and other places like Pheasants Forever, say to release at 8 weeks, because they have less human contact.
They are skiddish and dont like humans. But we are the ones bringing the food. Therefore, upon release the ones we had stuck around waiting for me to go out. That is why we stopped feeding after 2 days. We wanted them to make try to find food on their own.
We also see one or two on the trail cameras here and there, so some of them have made it so far. We released the last of them on Sept 25th, (duck opener). Still seeing a few around.
I dont know how much this will help you, but this is our first years experience.
We were hoping to raise grouse, but the DNR does not allow that. We were licensed for everything on the list except Mallards. This year we might try chuckars if we dont do pheasants again.
Also, we ordered from Strombergs hatchery in MN. They were able to get us the Vet cert required by the state of WI. We ordered straight run hens (they were cheaper) we ended up getting about 9 roosters out of the 100 birds. I guess that is pretty common because they cannot be accurately sexed at a day old. WIth 1 rooster able to accomodate 15 hens, that was a perfect ratio to us!
Sorry I was all over the place, but hope this helps!
