Gary--
Hope they start laying! Have they laid at all yet? So funny, I have the flock on one side laying fine, the flock on the other side totally stopped. Hopefully Your GF will give them more than a week, mine took a couple to get going again after I put the timer/light on them. Maybe 10 days? seemed like that much time maybe?
Cynthia, yes, I have been wondering about the pheasant thing--we have them all over in our field, several were in my garden all summer. most mornings if I look out by my garden there are 2-3 out in the back of my yard. Very flighty, don't let me get near them...ringneck pheasants. I have seen several males and just a couple of females, but their crowing can be heard all over out here so I am not worried about the noise so much as predators, if they are semi-domesticated I do not want to spend a bunch of money buying eggs and hatching them and having them get killed....not sure how it would work out. The disease part I had not thought of..but with all the wild birds out here, I have not had sick chickens just the one last winter with the weird sneeze that went away, so not sure about that part....I keep mine in the run pretty much all the time now, free ranging with 63 chickens does not work, the flower beds get ruined and mulch gets kicked all over the grass, so they would not be too exposed to the pheasants if they were just let to be like wild pheasants, only with some food and water available for them in the very back, maybe a small open shelter they could go in (don't know if they would even do that?) I am thinking they would probably take their eggs elsewhere and lay them in the field.
Brian--that is great news about the rooster friendly neighborhood!
Not sure how that works, and I wonder, if we have to get permission to let them roam? I am thinking if they are native to this area. But, then there is the concern of illness coming from our flock? Maybe?
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