Pheasants with Chickens - Another Angle

[Humhill]

Ok, I know everyone says not to keep pheasants with chickens; the chickens can pass disease to the pheasants. Someone is giving me some pheasants they've raised with chickens their entire life. Is it safe to assume, if they haven't gotten ill from chickens yet, they're not gonna? I know they'll need to be quarantined. What about in a pen adjoining the chickens?

 

[chickenzoo]

the problem is, they have done fine with Those chickens, but may not with other chickens. their is no neon sign above a chickens head that tells us they are carrying this or that ......so it is a gamble. I rather error on the side of caution than to lose the birds, but that is just my opinion. they could be fine and you never have a problem or they could die within days, weeks months...... we just don't know.

 

[kartking22]

I agree with chickenzoo. Segregation is best if you can. NPIP test your chickens if you can. You said that these birds were given to you. That's a good thing. If they die you're not out anything. This is entirely up to you. This is my advice as well.

 

[95yj]

It's just a bad idea to mix these 2, i had never heard of all the fun diseases gamebirds can catch from poultry so i used to keep chickens with the pheasants occasionaly, even after i learned better i didn't stop. Then the pheasants caught worms from the chickens who caught them at a show, that scared me a little and i was glad it wasn't anything more serious, so now the pheasants have their own aviary. You can't test for every single transmittable disease, i wouldn't do it.

 

[Humhill]

Thanks guys! Do you think there's anything special I need to do to them when I get them?

 

[ijon1]

Don't do it. I lost both my pheasants from mixing them. They might appear fine at first, but after a while it will kill them.

 

[Mahonri]

We put pheasants with our chickens when I was a kid. The pheasants always died... and sometimes so did some of the chickens.