Please Help! - Can chickens and pheasants breed?

[ChicksInSB]

Hello to all. We are in CA and have 3 chickens (1 Bard Rock, 1 Golden Laced Polish, 1 Old English Game Bantam). Recently 3 male pheasants have started "hanging around". At first they were just been coming over into our backyard, but now we are finding them in the coop and fenced area that our girls are in.

CAN THEY BREED???? We don't want them to. Just because we put our girls in bikinis and high heels doesn't mean we want babies.

 

[Mahonri]

Believe it or not, we had a game hen once that was bred by a rooster pheasant. Those chicks looked WEIRD!

They didn't last long either. The hen free ranged and wasn't the best of mothers. She ended up with one and it died. I wished we had caught them and put them in a brooder. It was the only time I'd ever seen it happen. If your hens go broody. SAVE THE CHICKS!

 

[silkiechicken]

Yep, I believe they can.

http://feathersite.com/Poultry/NDG/Pheas/RingN/BRKRingNHybrids.html

 

[hinkjc]

Yes, they can...but I believe I heard the offspring are mules and cannot reproduce.

Jody

 

[jessupfamily]

There's a children's movie (documentary) called "Our Feathered Friends". On that movie they have trouble with the pheasants trying to breed with their hens also! But their roos faught them off and ran them away! I thought it was rare, but I guess not!

 

[Kev]

I'm not sure why breeding is a concern? If you didn't want babies in the first place, it's easy- just keep taking the eggs..?

Chicken-pheasant hybrids are possible with some species. Ringnecks is one and the offspring are mules.

Pheasants also "hang out" for free n' easy food(just like wildbirds do around wildbird feeders).. not necessarily to specifically breed the hens although that can happen.. would not be surprised if they were just hanging around for the food though. If all the chickens are hens, they may even try to invite the pheasants to breed them- the urge to mate can get strong in an egg laying hen. Either way it doesn't make much difference as long as the eggs are collected.