Pheasant Chicken Hybrids

[cluckcluckluke]

They are awesome!! Thanks for the update

Bemba, you should join the Aussie thread!

 

[jammyjammy2112]

hasnt had an update in a while how are they now (pics)

 

[DAC]

This has been a very interesting thread. I find hybrids of all kinds fascinating, and while I can understand pheasant breeders being worried about things like Amherst genes in Golden stocks, I'm sure a few Ringneck - chicken hybrids will not be detrimental to any pheasant species. I raise several varieties of bantam chickens, and as soon as I get the pens set up, I'm going to try to produce some Sumatra - Black Mutant Ringneck hybrids. One fall many years ago (1966 when I was 16), a friend went out to his mother's chicken coop to collect the eggs one morning and found a cock Ringneck had been closed in with the hens the night before. This pheasant was one that had been raised in captivity by some game club and released for "hunting" purposes, so was pretty tame. I bought the bird from my friend and put it into the big pen (half of an old hay barn) where I kept a small flock of game chickens. The pheasant soon taught the game cocks to leave him alone, and became so comfortable it began attacking me. By spring I was sick of dodging the bird, so just turned it loose when I opened the doors and let the chickens out for the summer. The cock pheasant soon selected a bantam game hen and kept all the other roosters away from her. They were always together away from the flock, and the hen eventually hatched a brood of hybrid chicks in a hedgerow between two pastures. The chicks were developing into fascinating birds with the cockerels getting long curved tails looking like something between a pheasants and a roosters when they were all killed by a stray dog. I have wanted to repeat this cross ever since.
I have raised hybrid ducks and geese in the past (Muscovy X Mallard, and Canada X domestic forms of Greylag) and found it works best with the more aggressive species being the male (Hell, Muscovy drakes will even (forcibly) mate with chickens), so I'll probably use Sumatra roosters on pheasant hens.
To make the pheasant hens more comfortable around the roosters, I'll hatch pheasant eggs out under chicken hens, and let the hens raise the chicks, and as soon as they're old enough to sex, only leave a couple Sumatra cockerels and the pheasant hens together to mature. This should have the pheasants thoroughly confused by the time they're old enough to breed.
If I have any success with this over the next couple of years I'll post some photos on BackYard Chickens. I hope the breeder of these pheasant X chickens will continue to post photos of his hybrids as they grow.

 

[thegoatpacker]

I have been toying with the idea of a Shamo-Red Golden cross. Can you imagine a Shamo cock with the plumage & coloration of a Red Golden?

 

[chooks4life]

Starting to think either the thread starter's abandoned the thread, or the chicks have died...:/

 

[RedBaron]

Sorry, I haven't abandoned you. Since my last posting I lost another hybrid to a snake. I had to redo the entire pen in 1/2 inch square wire to keep the snakes out. I have two left ... an older one that is a little over two months and a younger one. I tried putting them together, but the older tried to kill the younger. So the youngest is in with a peachick, and they are the best of buds.

 

[RedBaron]

I have been toying with the idea of a Shamo-Red Golden cross. Can you imagine a Shamo cock with the plumage & coloration of a Red Golden?

Yeah, that would be wild looking!

 

[jammyjammy2112]

Sorry, I haven't abandoned you. Since my last posting I lost another hybrid to a snake. I had to redo the entire pen in 1/2 inch square wire to keep the snakes out. I have two left ... an older one that is a little over two months and a younger one. I tried putting them together, but the older tried to kill the younger. So the youngest is in with a peachick, and they are the best of buds.

they are nice birds now very little tail feathers doh but strong wings by the looks of it

 

[my sunwolf]

Love the beard and muffs that came through in the breeding too. What interesting colors on that baby. Looks like a female so far, too

Glad she found a friend.

 

[spectrumranch]

RedBaron- Awesome pics! If you are on facebook check out my group USA Breeders of Gamebirds and Wild Waterfowl https://www.facebook.com/groups/232425253570328/

Would love for you to post some pictures there. I have a chicken x ringneck pheasant that I raised this summer also.