Ground vs Wire

[bfrancis]

twocrowsranch, good looking pics.....Looking at your bobs and 7L's, can't wait to get our permit. Do you both keeping breeding pairs in cages then colony off season? Or do you just run a colony in a flight pen year round?

7L, you said 10 x30...my peacock runs are 10x 40x 6' tall... would that also be good size/height for a bob flight pen? Bob's require more sq ft per bird too, don't they?

I wonder where all the cage people are? I'm curious about their set ups and why they choose wire over ground.

 

[rittert3]

You might check on those permit requirments it you havn't yet, bfrancis. Here in KS we only have to have it to sell or release them and domestic variations don't count as game. Domestic variations being any color but normal and jumbo or butlers.

 

[bfrancis]

Quote:
I have thoroughly looked into it and understand all the requirements for Oklahoma and am going through the process of getting our facilities approved for multiple breeds of game birds.

Much different here if that's all that Kansas really requires. I might even move back there if it was that easy...not really, lol. I lived in Wichita for a number of years. Have my lifetime hunting license for Kansas. Thanks for the thought though.

 

[rittert3]

I looked into getting mine a few years ago I had bobs and a few ringneck pheasant but failed and didn't have the room for the facilities they wanted so I opted to just a few barn/ roller mix pigeons around for a few more years until I moved out on my own. Now I need to find a place where I can have birds again. I still have my bator, some brooding equipment and a few things that I can use to build pens. Do you know if you can keep domestic colors without a permit? Maybe you could get a headstart if you were intersted in some of them. I know a breeder in KansasCity Mo that has some really cool unheard of colors.

 

[TwoCrows]

Quote:
During breeding season for the bobs, the pairs are each caged in extra large dog kennel cages all lined up in the 20 foot and 30 foot aviaries. I have never had any luck with any thing but one male to one female. Some folks have a higher ratio of females. I have never had any luck, too much fighting. The second year I tried the colony type raising and let them all breed together, (I only had 5 pairs) however there was a lot of bickering. And once I started hatching out more, I had to start keeping them caged for the breeding season. Once the season is over, as it is now, they all get along again and crave being together for the winter season. (this goes for adult bobs. Juveniles can be kept together on their first year... that being the spring, summer and winter until the following spring where they will need their own territory.)

 

[TwoCrows]

Bobs need a lot of room. They say about 3 or 4 square feet per bird, however they would like to have more room. They are large, hyper and feisty birds. So the more room the better. A pen that big you could probably keep 100 birds comfortably during the winter season. Come breeding season, and you would have to experiment, however you MIGHT be able to keep 8 to 10 pairs, 16 to 20 birds in breeding mode with out too much squabbling as long as you used plenty of hiding places, brush piles, dust bathing areas and each had their own water and feeding stations.

 

[Mek]

Here is my wired cage

 

[Missi]

Quote:
That is SO cute! I want one of those! Did you design it yourself?

 

[bfrancis]

That is a neat cage! Looking at the top, it looks like handles, is it moveable too?

 

[aprophet]

If the dismal swamp ever dries out to the point of OK or TX or NM I might try them on the ground until that time wire is best for my geographical location LOL