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?

 

[Zenmonkey]

Are sheep and goats Birthdayed same as horses?

Maybe only the ones entered into the Triple Crown events?

Domestication isn't the only thing that will impact photoperiod sensitivity. Tropical birds won't normally see a spread in day length of more than a few hours. Birds with more temperate ranges could easily see 6+ hour swings. The tropical birds are going to start with greater sensitivity.

 

[cavemanrich]

Maybe only the ones entered into the Triple Crown events?

You do have a good point there. I have watched a few Triple Crown Events. Those goats, and sheep must be realllllly sloooooow. and come dead last. Race is over,, and I'm still looking for those goats and sheep to cross the finish line.

 

[cavemanrich]

Domestication isn't the only thing that will impact photoperiod sensitivity. Tropical birds won't normally see a spread in day length of more than a few hours. Birds with more temperate ranges could easily see 6+ hour swings. The tropical birds are going to start with greater sensitivity.

On the subject of birds. Parakeet in my case. It is suggested they receive 12 hours of darkness each day for good health. So we cover the cage with dark cloth, for the night. Our rooms are not totally dark due to nightlights, so we don't stub our toes when walking in the dark of night.
In the tropics, close to the equator, that is the light schedule. 12 light 12dark.

 

[Zenmonkey]

I'm not sure which parakeets were discussing. I've been told that any small parrot could be called a parakeet. I don't know if that's accurate.

However around here parakeet often means the Australian originating budgerigar. I'm not on board with labeling those as tropic dwelling birds. A good portion, perhaps a majority of, their native range is squarely in the southern temperate latitudes.