Incubating Ring Neck Pheasant

[crazzzymike13]

I've been thinking about raising up game birds like Quail and Pheasant. A friend told me that his dad use to Incubate alot of eggs for people and that Pheasant eggs were the hardest and he always had a low hatch rate. Are they real difficult to hatch?

 

[nivtup]

We only hatched pheasant once last year and had a pretty good hatch rate, somewhere around 80% if i remember correctly.

It really didn't seem to be any harder than anything else.


I say go for it!!

 

[crazzzymike13]

Cool! Thanks. I just wanted to make sure cause those eggs are not very cheap.

 

[iamthehuffer]

Check out B&D Game Farm in Oklahoma for good pheasant egg prices. Lots of other fowl eggs too.

 

[deserthotwings]

Pheasant eggs are not any harder to incubate than any other eggs. I don't know how familiar you are with incubating eggs but if your a beginner you might want to start off with several chicken eggs first to get the hang of it. They are a lot cheaper than pheasant eggs. Also after they hatch you might want to get a little familiar with raising the chicks. They are not quite the same as raising baby chicks. Pheasants are fun and fairly easy to raise if you know a little about them. Good luck and keep us posted on how your doing.

 

[wpalmisano]

I agree, at two weeks pheasant chicks can leap pretty well, and not long after can fly. Chickens don't. I say you order the baby pheasant (one day old) from a reputable hatchery, like Strombergs, or Murry McMurry, This way you know you are getting 25-30 chicks rather than buying 40 eggs to get 7-8 chicks, depending on your incubator. You follow the learning curve on brooding them, and next year you'll have your own eggs to hatch out. That's just my opinion.

 

[crazzzymike13]

Sounds like a good idea. I think I may order some chicks first, that way i can experiment on the eggs. Something else I was wondering. Are they mean? I've heard that when they get a certain age they kinda turn on ya. Is this true? Are they easier or harder than raising chickens?

 

[deserthotwings]

I agree, at two weeks pheasant chicks can leap pretty well, and not long after can fly. Chickens don't. I say you order the baby pheasant (one day old) from a reputable hatchery, like Strombergs, or Murry McMurry, This way you know you are getting 25-30 chicks rather than buying 40 eggs to get 7-8 chicks, depending on your incubator. You follow the learning curve on brooding them, and next year you'll have your own eggs to hatch out. That's just my opinion.

Excellent advise. I've raised pheasants for over 20 years and currently have around 80 laying hens with 12 cock birds. Really they are not much different than chickens. The males can get a little aggresive then it comes to protecting their ladies. I have 2 pens that I have to use a board to hold back the male when I go in, but they are both beautiful cocks, and I usually have about a 86 percent hatch rate. Can't complain about those guys. Just remember then it comes to breeding time next spring you will have to have all your male birds seperated from each other. I've ordered a lot of chicks from McFarland in Wisconsin. They have really nice birds too.