Pheasant newb

[Chickenmaven]

The kid and I will be doing a batch of pheasants for 4-H. We were told not to put them into our chicken coop. Why is this? If they were in a seperate cage with no access to the chickens' food, poo, etc. wouldn't that be good enough?
Just looking for an explanation. Our leader only said "Don't."

 

[98 gt]

Should be fine...

 

[Teach97]

they can be more aggressive

 

[Chickenmaven]

It was implied that the pheasants might pick something up from the chickens - illness wise. I dunno. I would have a hard time getting DH to let any more critters in the house or garage. I could brood pheasants in a cage within my large coop. We have electric in there.

 

[Chickerdoodle13]

In my experience, chickens and pheasants just don't get along very well. The chickens will pick on the pheasants and vie versa. Also, the feed and space requirements are different for each. Pheasants need a higher protein gamebird feed, while chickens should have a 16% (I believe) layer pellet/crumbles.

Also, pheasants kept for pleasure (that means kept full time with no intent of release) need a very large pen. I've always been told the MINIMUM space for a pair of pheasants is 100 sq ft. That's about a ten by ten size pen containing only pheasants.

Of course, different people have gotten away with doing different things. I tried it once and it did not work for me (In my case, the pheasant I took was a rescue, and I had no where else to put him), but I don't think I would chance it again unless I had a proper set up. Sometimes its better to be cautious than end up with a broken heart when an animal is injured!

Also, i wouldn't recommend keeping pheasants in a cage. When they are younger, that is fine, but once they are older they really need a lot of space to move aorund and fly.

 

[Teach97]

Wouldn't expect any diseases issues...good point about the space requirements though...they do need their room

 

[Chickenmaven]

I appreciate all the comments. Do you think that they are okay if caged until 16 weeks? We are broodering them for release.

 

[Tony K T]

Absolutley not.Pheasants will pick up diseases from chickens.They need to be in their own enclosure away from chickend and turkeys.
In N.H.,Tony.