Raising Baby Pheasants

[BackyardDove]

I'm back again with more questions. Yay! My first batch of silkies(and first batch of chicks ever) was a complete success. All the fertile eggs hatched and on Sunday they will be 4 weeks old. I didn't lose a single one that hatched. I'm very happy about that success, but now I'm facing a new issue. I also have a pair of Red Golden Pheasants that I breed. The female never went broody, so I put her eggs underneath an Austrolorp hen that had gone broody instead. That was my first batch of Red Goldens and it was a complete failure. I placed 10 eggs underneath her, and 8 turned out to be fertile. I watched them grow and all the fertile ones appeared healthy. They even began piping on time! However, out of 8, only two actually hatched. A couple pipped, but never made it out. The other eggs did indeed hatch, but died before they could get out of the egg. I found this really strange since I've bred other birds and I have never come across chicks who successfully broke the egg and looked healthy, but died before they actually got out of the remaining part of the egg. One of the two survivors died about a week later, but that was my fault. I didn't know pheasant chicks were smaller than Silkie chicks, and so the baby pheasant was able to squeeze out of the fence and was promptly killed by my dog. The last pheasant lasted over 2 weeks, but somehow injured himself. He scrapped off all the feathers from his belly, causing some minors wounds in the process, and his leg was badly injured. My theory is he caught his leg up in something and hurt himself trying to get free. This isn't what killed him though, he lived a couple days after that and was improving greatly when he accidentally fell into his waterer and drowned.

With this absolute complete failure with my first batch, I've learned a lot. I'm redesigning my chick pen so that no more pheasant chicks can escape and I'm ensuring there is nothing that a chick can get it's leg trapped in. I'm still not sure what the baby pheasant did or got caught in, though. However, this redesigning and my efforts to keep these chicks safe will be useless if my pheasant chicks don't make it past the hatching stage. Am I able to fix the issue that caused the chicks to not hatch, or were they just victims of circumstance? There are several different factors that could explain why only two chicks out of 8 made it out of their egg, so I'll go ahead and list the circumstances.

1. This was the first time the Austrolorp had sat on viable eggs. She went broody the year before, but I had no eggs to give her. 2. The 10 eggs I placed underneath her were also the first 10 eggs my female pheasant had ever laid. 3. This was the first time the male and female pheasants had ever bred. 4. It had been raining a lot before and after the eggs started hatching. There was lots of flooding and lots and lots of rain during this time. I did my best to ensure the nest stayed dry, but some water did get in. Not nearly enough to drown in, though.

I have another batch, and likely my last batch for a while, due on the 14th. There are only 5 fertile eggs this time, but I'd really like this batch to be at least a little bit successful.

 

[nchls school]

I'm back again with more questions. Yay! My first batch of silkies(and first batch of chicks ever) was a complete success. All the fertile eggs hatched and on Sunday they will be 4 weeks old. I didn't lose a single one that hatched. I'm very happy about that success, but now I'm facing a new issue. I also have a pair of Red Golden Pheasants that I breed. The female never went broody, so I put her eggs underneath an Austrolorp hen that had gone broody instead. That was my first batch of Red Goldens and it was a complete failure. I placed 10 eggs underneath her, and 8 turned out to be fertile. I watched them grow and all the fertile ones appeared healthy. They even began piping on time! However, out of 8, only two actually hatched. A couple pipped, but never made it out. The other eggs did indeed hatch, but died before they could get out of the egg. I found this really strange since I've bred other birds and I have never come across chicks who successfully broke the egg and looked healthy, but died before they actually got out of the remaining part of the egg. One of the two survivors died about a week later, but that was my fault. I didn't know pheasant chicks were smaller than Silkie chicks, and so the baby pheasant was able to squeeze out of the fence and was promptly killed by my dog. The last pheasant lasted over 2 weeks, but somehow injured himself. He scrapped off all the feathers from his belly, causing some minors wounds in the process, and his leg was badly injured. My theory is he caught his leg up in something and hurt himself trying to get free. This isn't what killed him though, he lived a couple days after that and was improving greatly when he accidentally fell into his waterer and drowned.

With this absolute complete failure with my first batch, I've learned a lot. I'm redesigning my chick pen so that no more pheasant chicks can escape and I'm ensuring there is nothing that a chick can get it's leg trapped in. I'm still not sure what the baby pheasant did or got caught in, though. However, this redesigning and my efforts to keep these chicks safe will be useless if my pheasant chicks don't make it past the hatching stage. Am I able to fix the issue that caused the chicks to not hatch, or were they just victims of circumstance? There are several different factors that could explain why only two chicks out of 8 made it out of their egg, so I'll go ahead and list the circumstances.

1. This was the first time the Austrolorp had sat on viable eggs. She went broody the year before, but I had no eggs to give her. 2. The 10 eggs I placed underneath her were also the first 10 eggs my female pheasant had ever laid. 3. This was the first time the male and female pheasants had ever bred. 4. It had been raining a lot before and after the eggs started hatching. There was lots of flooding and lots and lots of rain during this time. I did my best to ensure the nest stayed dry, but some water did get in. Not nearly enough to drown in, though.

I have another batch, and likely my last batch for a while, due on the 14th. There are only 5 fertile eggs this time, but I'd really like this batch to be at least a little bit successful.

I believe 1 and 4 are factors; number 4 being the most likely. Is this last batch under the same hen or another or an incubator? Hopefully everything will go well. Good luck. Diet is an important factor, too, that affects fertility.

 

[BackyardDove]

I believe 1 and 4 are factors; number 4 being the most likely. Is this last batch under the same hen or another or an incubator? Hopefully everything will go well. Good luck. Diet is an important factor, too, that affects fertility.

This next batch is underneath my other Austrolorp. She's a first time mom too. Unfortunately, she picked a bad area to go broody and I couldn't convince her to sit anywhere else. She's covered some, but not very well. Even more unfortunately, there's a 50% chance of rain the days that the chicks are due to hatch. I don't really know what I can do to protect her, I've already tried what I have available, but I can try to cover her again. As for the diet, does that effect the chances of a successful hatch? The eggs so far have been pretty fertile, I just have issues with getting the eggs to successfully hatch.

 

[nchls school]

This next batch is underneath my other Austrolorp. She's a first time mom too. Unfortunately, she picked a bad area to go broody and I couldn't convince her to sit anywhere else. She's covered some, but not very well. Even more unfortunately, there's a 50% chance of rain the days that the chicks are due to hatch. I don't really know what I can do to protect her, I've already tried what I have available, but I can try to cover her again. As for the diet, does that effect the chances of a successful hatch? The eggs so far have been pretty fertile, I just have issues with getting the eggs to successfully hatch.

The rain won't matter so much if you can keep the nest dry. When I had ring neck pheasants, diet was a huge factor in the chicks being strong enough to hatch. I had many chicks die in the shell while hatching and those that did hatch had physical problems like weak and twisted legs and toes. Most or all died soon after hatching. Once I learned that diet was the problem and corrected their diet the eggs hatched well without any physical problems. If your not already, you might want to switch to a game bird diet. Chicken feed does not work well with pheasants.

 

[nchls school]

You might want to invest in some silkies. They are excellent broodies even with small eggs and chicks. I am sure they would work well in brooding pheasant eggs and they go broody often; very often!

 

[BackyardDove]

The rain won't matter so much if you can keep the nest dry. When I had ring neck pheasants, diet was a huge factor in the chicks being strong enough to hatch. I had many chicks die in the shell while hatching and those that did hatch had physical problems like weak and twisted legs and toes. Most or all died soon after hatching. Once I learned that diet was the problem and corrected their diet the eggs hatched well without any physical problems. If your not already, you might want to switch to a game bird diet. Chicken feed does not work well with pheasants.

I think their diet is the issue. Though, I think the game bird diet is the cause of the issue. Before they started laying I switched them over to the only game bird feed available in the stores around here since people were recommending they eat game bird instead of chick feed. However, I recently checked and it only has 17% protein. Red Golden Pheasants need around 26% to lay healthy eggs. The stores around here only sell up to 24% and it's incredibly expensive, so I have them on a game bird and 20% chick feed diet. Tomorrow I'll be picking up 28% feed from another feed store that isn't very close. The breeder I got my pair from says feeding Red Golden's chick feed is the best, so I guess the best feed depends on the breed of pheasant.
Oh and yes, I have three Silkie hens. Like I mentioned in my first post, they recently hatched a batch of their own babies. I wanted them to hatch their own before I let them raise pheasants, just so they'd get a feel for motherhood. I didn't know my Austrolorps were going to go broody again this year, and instead of fighting them out of their broodiness I just put pheasant eggs under them. Unfortunately my third Silkie hen shows no signs of wanting to be a mom. She the exact age as the other two Silkie hens, but chose to not go broody when they did and still hasn't. But she's still young, so I'm not too worried about her not going broody.

Thank you for your help!

 

[nchls school]

I think their diet is the issue. Though, I think the game bird diet is the cause of the issue. Before they started laying I switched them over to the only game bird feed available in the stores around here since people were recommending they eat game bird instead of chick feed. However, I recently checked and it only has 17% protein. Red Golden Pheasants need around 26% to lay healthy eggs. The stores around here only sell up to 24% and it's incredibly expensive, so I have them on a game bird and 20% chick feed diet. Tomorrow I'll be picking up 28% feed from another feed store that isn't very close. The breeder I got my pair from says feeding Red Golden's chick feed is the best, so I guess the best feed depends on the breed of pheasant.

Oh and yes, I have three Silkie hens. Like I mentioned in my first post, they recently hatched a batch of their own babies. I wanted them to hatch their own before I let them raise pheasants, just so they'd get a feel for motherhood. I didn't know my Austrolorps were going to go broody again this year, and instead of fighting them out of their broodiness I just put pheasant eggs under them. Unfortunately my third Silkie hen shows no signs of wanting to be a mom. She the exact age as the other two Silkie hens, but chose to not go broody when they did and still hasn't. But she's still young, so I'm not too worried about her not going broody.

Thank you for your help!

Yes, feeds are expensive. Consider doing a little research and you might be able to find suitable substitutes that cost far less. Most people buy feed that is made for a specific group or specie of bird. With patience, luck, the right resources, you will be able to feed your bird better at less cost.