Pheasant chicks dropping like flies!

[BirdBrain]

Barb I don't know if this is right or not, but perhaps you can pay him for the ones that are still alive and then I would cancel the orders that you have in to him...Just seems too risky and money doesn't grow on trees.

 

[Barb Schuetz]

Ok, I spoke with a local pheasant farmer and she said that I was doing everything right but to just watch closely now that I added another bulb so that they don't get too warm. She also believes they did get chilled somewhere along the line whether it be before I got them or afterwards. So maybe it is my fault. I've been keeping an eye on them and I've lost 2 more the same way. She also asked if Chet gave me a certificate from the national blah blah blah and he didn't. She then told me to ask him if they are certified disease free. I didn't do very much research before picking these babies up and maybe that's a fator, but I feel I have to say that I've raised over 30 chicken chicks so far and I have only lost one. That one, poor little Cluckomoto, our golden phoenix roo, was so much smaller than the other chicks he was with that were growing much faster, got trampled. I tried to nurse him back, almost succeeded and then failed. Losing 1 out of 36 fancies, 7 corish x and 10 goslings? Maybe these 14 pheasants are making up for the ones I should've lost by now. Who knows. I'll keep you guys posted. Oh! I have them in a 45 gal storage bin, I don't have a thermometer but have been judging by their behavior just like with my other chicks(this is where a little more research would've come in handy I guess but a lot of ppl still say you can use the chicks' behavior as a themometer). I have 120 watts on them now and the room they are in is very warm, draft free and quiet. After speaking with the pheasant farmer, I switched back to the gamebird feed because she explained that the meds in med. chick starter would take 24 hours to take affect anyway so that was probably not making the difference. Now that I say that, I wonder about the gamebird starter......

 

[Barb Schuetz]

Ok, I've been talking with a local pheasant farmer and I've also medicated their water. She doesn't think they're sick adn I'm doing everything right. They could've been chilled that first night, the weak ones could have died off- whatever the reason, I don't want them anymore. They are a negative felling to me now and there was a fallout with the guy I got them from so I just want to find a new home for them and try to get back some of what I've lost. They are for sale.

 

[missusduray]

Oh Barb,
I am so sorry to hear that you had to have an experience like this. Hopefully you recover some of the cost. I still find it hard to like my husbands pheasants after all we went thru with them. I feel for you.
Kristyne

 

[Black Feather]

Hi Barb,

I'd have to agree with the chilled diagnosis.

I raised pheasants from eggs that I hatched for the first time this year and had no trouble at all raising them. I hatched 15 and 15 survived. I sent a bunch to a friends place and he could not get them to survive, with the main difference between our two places being the type of brooder that was used. My brooders have a lid on them that I crack open to allow air exchange. His brooders were open top brooders so any time there was a draft the birds would get a chill and as a result they dropped like flies. I'd say if they were lucky maybe 40% survived.

My best suggestion would be to do a lot of research and visit people who are successful with whatever bird you plan to raise and learn from them. This has been a God send for me over the years and helped prevent me from making a lot of mistakes.

Good luck with the birds you have left!

Cheers,
Urban Coyote