Im interested in pheasant...help me decide

[Egg Rookie 2010]

Ok so I wonder just what the market is. I plan to ask at fine restaurants, markets and gun clubs etc. This might be a stupid idea anyway. I saw that babies are expensive. Does anyone make any money? Why do YOU raise these birds? Do they take housing and care very different than chickens? I lave a LOT of space. Any input?

 

[londonbridges]

hi
Depends on what breed of pheasants you want to raise and for what.R ing necks are most common for hunting purposes,need alot of space and are real common ,males are aggressive when put in pens that are to small. Goldens are real good starter birds if you want avariety of color ,rare to have an aggressive golden unless you have two males to gether with hens .They are abit more tame than other pheasants,I have peach golding and lady amherst pheasants. pure peach go for150.00 to 200.00 dollars apair for good colored peach,peach splash go for 100.00to 150.00 dollars apair.lady amherst 50.00 dollars apair. I have calls all the time for peach, you can sell every peach you can hatch , no problem. have peach eggs incubating and more to put in,peach are laying excellent and fertility seems real good. ihave an extra pure peach male and peach splash male, i may find hens for this fall.But peach are more of achallenge to raise than other goldings and amherst, thats why the price is high.buy from good breeders,breeders tend to crossbreedgoldings for avariety of different colors, also avoid bird auctions,unless you check it out and make sure the breeders good and respectible breeders. goldings are also very cold hardy, live up here in maine ,right on the canadian border where in anormal winter it stays pretty chilly and ihavent lost apheasant yet to the cold
doug

 

[Dogfish]

Ringnecks are fairly easy to raise. Smaller pens are possible if you keep one rooster per pen with multiple hens. Warning, the suckers fly at an early age, like a week or so. As far as feed, they really don't eat much compared to turkeys or CX. Feed is more expensive (higher protein), but price per finished bird is reasonable at about $10 per bird at 8 weeks or older here. You should check into getting a gamebird license if you will sell them.

In Washington it is $72 for the GB license, plus an inspection, testing on a percentage of birds, and some basic record keeping on who you sell birds to. If you were to sell 100-200 birds per year, you would likely cover your pen costs the first year and break even, and then from there on out you would be looking at a minimal profit unless you go whole hog.

We are only raising enough birds to cover feed costs and give us enough birds to do some training. If you set your initial goal to break even and you actually cover feed costs, it allows you to learn the "species" without a huge outlay.

I started with 10 ringnecks. Lost 2 early on, just died. Had one escape, now I have 7 left. If I didn't sell eggs I would have 150 chicks + eggs in the incubator, and it would be quite easy to raise 200+ birds from these 5 hens. Depending on the scale you wish to achieve, this will give you an idea on minimal productivity.

I would suggest bringing in fresh blood, males and females, on a yearly basis.

 

[Egg Rookie 2010]

Thanks for your responses. This is NO chicken project! WAY more involved. Do you have any sort of coops? I read about space requirements but it sounds like lots of folks do huge batches and have large rooms or buildings...thanks for you time.

 

[Colinus Ruckus]

I see this is an old post, but I have a related question. I've been looking at some of the rare and pricey pheasants (like the Impeyan and Tragopans). Does anyone raise these at a profit? The eggs are obviously pricey and the breeding pairs even more so. I can see how one mistake could be very costly. But what kind of a market is there for these? Is it just hobbyists? Are they easy to sell once you have them? I'm not in a position to invest in anything right now, but I'm curious. Who's making money, or not, on the odd birds?

 

[user66647]

Hello everyone, it's been a while since I have been to byc, so nice to see all the new faces!

Well If I were you, and this is just my opinion, I would start off with golden pheasants, or silvers, both are beautiful birds that require fairly easy care. There isn't too much involved with keeping them. They are almost similar to chickens, however do not house them with chickens, I am just saying they are fairly hardy and inexpensive. There is a site called "allandoo pheasantry" they are very helpful and don't mind emails, also they have a complete run down on the most common species. Good luck!

 

[Oregon Blues]

If you are thinking of marketing to restaurants, your first stop is the department of agriculture to see if you can sell dressed birds that aren't processed in a licensed USDA processing plant. Next is to find a processing plant and see what the cost is there.

Ringneck chicks can be purchased for about $2 each, plus shipping. If you have high end restaurants and if you have available legal processing, you should be able to raise and sell dressed birds at a profit. Locally raised food is very fashionable right now.

I looked into raising quail for restaurants but the closest licensed processing plant was a good 10 hours away.

 

[Colinus Ruckus]

I'm raising quail now, mostly for eating myself, but I looked into selling the dressed birds at farmers markets and restaurants. In North Carolina (and Texas, too. Probably other states as well) there is a loophole for small producers. If you process less than 1000 animals per year you are allowed to do them at your own house, provided you have some basic amenities like running water and a place to dispose of waste. You have to have a special label for your product as well, but other than that, you're set. It's a very local food-friendly law. There are a few high-end restaurants around here where I could probably sell pheasant. Do you know which kind of pheasant is the best eatin' bird? Impeyan monals, right?

I've seen silvers before and it's hard to imagine eating anything so beautiful.

 

[aprophet]

Quote:
a coupla of my hunting friend their hunting clubs raise the jumbo ringnecks for eating you might check into the 1000 limit exemption and you will probably find they can processed at your place but the customer needs to pick them up there as well