Just thought I would start a thread on my experiences with raising ring neck Pheasants
I am very new to this all, only started back in early April with Dad.
Just to bring those interested up to speed.
We got our pheasanst back in April, they were 1 year old as so the gentleman who sold them to us claimed. We got 9 in total at first, 2 hens and 7 roosters.
Three of the original 7 Roo's were not jumbos but not regular ringnecks either, kind of inbetween but definately bigger than the other 4 which are all common ringnecks.
We started with three pens, two 8x8 breeder pens and a 16x8 community pen. We put the most dominate male roo in with the two hens and with in a week we started to get eggs. The other 6 males got along great for the first 2 weeks but things changed and we used the second 8x8 pen as a seperation pen to seperate the roos as they began to start the Pecking order. Now I should mention that one of the males we got had a large growth under his left wing, not sure how he got it or if it was an injury but NONE of the other males picked on him. He never got pecked and he never was chased or picked on, kind of like the other's respected him.
Sadly he passed away, down to 6 males.
The 6 remaining males started to become aggressive towards each other, which makes sense as the time of year, so we split them up further by seperating them. 3 birds per pen, we lost another bird who had no markings or signs of being pecked at by the others, but there were coyote tracks near the cages, maybe got scared to death? Down to 5 males. Dad wanted to Cull one for a treat one night, down to 4 males + 2 hens, That are now laying an egg a day each.
I live in the city and my Parents live on an acreage.... thought I should mention that..lol
Dad calls me a few days later, says "hey we have new birds"
Thinking a miricale has occured and the Eggs hatched early I rush out to see the new birds.
Nope Dad had boughten 2 hens and a rooster all 3 years old. +3 birds.
Pheasant Total so far 4 hens 5 Roosters (9 birds)
Everything is at peace, things have calmed down now... Archie, the Dominate Rooster, and his two hens are just laying egg's left right and center.
Buddy and his two hens (the newest birds) are also laying egg's at one a day so that works out to 4 eggs a day.
Many of Archie's hens eggs went to the incubator, a few became breakfast.. I have to say I really prefer them to chicken eggs.
We collected eggs from the nests, and kept track of who the parents were and placed them in our cold room and held them before setting them.
Dad and myself started to incubate all of the egg's collected over 10 days, starting with Archies we placed 20 eggs in the hatcher and had 17 hatch.
While this was ongoing Buddy, the latest male the 3yr old died to unknown causes. We then placed Ozzy into the pen with the hens so he could continue to give us fertile eggs, Ozzy is our second most dominate male and he made himself at home.
As of today we have 17 healthy baby pheasants that range in age from a week to days apart, 4 adult males & 4 adult females,
Everyone is healthy and happy.
Also we had a baby call duck hatch over night, not sure if the others are going to hatch, bought 12 eggs and only 3 developed.
2 are in the hatcher and I am hoping they hatch...
Thanks for reading.. I will post pics soon.
Now you are all up to date......LOL
Sorry for the long threads
Cheers.
I am very new to this all, only started back in early April with Dad.
Just to bring those interested up to speed.
We got our pheasanst back in April, they were 1 year old as so the gentleman who sold them to us claimed. We got 9 in total at first, 2 hens and 7 roosters.
Three of the original 7 Roo's were not jumbos but not regular ringnecks either, kind of inbetween but definately bigger than the other 4 which are all common ringnecks.
We started with three pens, two 8x8 breeder pens and a 16x8 community pen. We put the most dominate male roo in with the two hens and with in a week we started to get eggs. The other 6 males got along great for the first 2 weeks but things changed and we used the second 8x8 pen as a seperation pen to seperate the roos as they began to start the Pecking order. Now I should mention that one of the males we got had a large growth under his left wing, not sure how he got it or if it was an injury but NONE of the other males picked on him. He never got pecked and he never was chased or picked on, kind of like the other's respected him.
Sadly he passed away, down to 6 males.
The 6 remaining males started to become aggressive towards each other, which makes sense as the time of year, so we split them up further by seperating them. 3 birds per pen, we lost another bird who had no markings or signs of being pecked at by the others, but there were coyote tracks near the cages, maybe got scared to death? Down to 5 males. Dad wanted to Cull one for a treat one night, down to 4 males + 2 hens, That are now laying an egg a day each.
I live in the city and my Parents live on an acreage.... thought I should mention that..lol
Dad calls me a few days later, says "hey we have new birds"
Thinking a miricale has occured and the Eggs hatched early I rush out to see the new birds.
Nope Dad had boughten 2 hens and a rooster all 3 years old. +3 birds.
Pheasant Total so far 4 hens 5 Roosters (9 birds)
Everything is at peace, things have calmed down now... Archie, the Dominate Rooster, and his two hens are just laying egg's left right and center.
Buddy and his two hens (the newest birds) are also laying egg's at one a day so that works out to 4 eggs a day.
Many of Archie's hens eggs went to the incubator, a few became breakfast.. I have to say I really prefer them to chicken eggs.
We collected eggs from the nests, and kept track of who the parents were and placed them in our cold room and held them before setting them.
Dad and myself started to incubate all of the egg's collected over 10 days, starting with Archies we placed 20 eggs in the hatcher and had 17 hatch.
While this was ongoing Buddy, the latest male the 3yr old died to unknown causes. We then placed Ozzy into the pen with the hens so he could continue to give us fertile eggs, Ozzy is our second most dominate male and he made himself at home.
As of today we have 17 healthy baby pheasants that range in age from a week to days apart, 4 adult males & 4 adult females,
Everyone is healthy and happy.
Also we had a baby call duck hatch over night, not sure if the others are going to hatch, bought 12 eggs and only 3 developed.
2 are in the hatcher and I am hoping they hatch...
Thanks for reading.. I will post pics soon.
Now you are all up to date......LOL
Sorry for the long threads
Cheers.
