Light exposure and golden pheasant breeding season?

[Susan Skylark]

I run some Christmas lights in my garage for my quail (light sensitive layers) during the darker months of the year, will this screw up golden pheasant breeding/laying or not be an issue? Thanks!

 

[cavemanrich]

Let me Tag @007Sean . That is the only member (I know) that I'm pretty sure deals in Pheasants.

 

[007Sean]

It may or may not be a issue, depends on how much ambient light they are receiving from the lights?
Artifical light can and does interfer with seasonal layers.

My neighbor, who is about a 1,000 yards away from some of my pens, turns on some if his outside lights, which are directed towards my pens....not on purpose, anyway, I haven't notice any effect as far as breeding/laying is concerned but it does make them not go to roost. If he leaves them on all night, it does interfere with their normal cycadin rhythm.

 

[Zenmonkey]

To the best of my knowledge *all* birds use light to sync their hormones to the season. If there enough light to trip the quail hormones, there *may* be enough for the pheasants.

Maybe someone has done studies on thresholds for golden pheasants, but I suspect not.

 

[Susan Skylark]

In domestic mammals it varies significantly between species, cattle breed year round so no issues there. Horse people want foals as close to January 1st as possible but mares naturally cycle in the spring (11 month gestation) when there is more light so exposing them to artificial light can bring them into heat in the bleak midwinter. Sheep and goats cycle in the fall (5 month gestation), which is a big problem if you milk either and want a steady year round milk supply, they aren’t as easy to bring into estrus with artificial light as mares. I’m assuming birds are equally variable across species. Coturnix have been domesticated and bred for egg production long enough that it won’t take much to keep them laying but pheasants are still relatively wild so to speak, I’m guessing they’ll be more like goats than Holsteins (much harder to influence with artificial conditions). We’ll see what happens!

 

[cavemanrich]

Are sheep and goats Birthdayed same as horses?