{"id":2470,"date":"2008-06-24T18:49:42","date_gmt":"2008-06-24T18:49:42","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/pheasant1.wpenginepowered.com\/?p=2470"},"modified":"2025-08-28T09:38:51","modified_gmt":"2025-08-28T14:38:51","slug":"manchurian-release-program","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.pheasant.com\/about-us\/blog\/manchurian-release-program","title":{"rendered":"A Comparison of Hatch Data Between Two Different Genetic Types of Pheasants"},"content":{"rendered":"
By Ron Willmore
\nNatural Resources Site Manager<\/h5>\n

INTRODUCTION<\/h3>\n

The Illinois Department of Natural Resources (IDNR) owns and operates the James C. Helfrich Wildlife Propagation Center (WPC) in central Illinois near Lincoln Illinois.\u00a0\u00a0The facility, which is the only pheasant hatchery operated by the State of Illinois, was constructed in the late 1980\u2019s, became operational in 1990, and was officially dedicated in April 1991.<\/p>\n

The Helfrich WPC and two additional facilities produce pheasants for hunting and breeder replacement.\u00a0\u00a0Pheasants are transferred as day-old chicks from the Helfrich WPC to the Des Plaines and Mt. Vernon WPCs.\u00a0\u00a0These WPCs are located in northeastern Illinois near Joliet, Illinois and in central southern Illinois near Mt. Vernon, Illinois respectively.\u00a0\u00a0Pheasant chicks are brooded only at the Des Plaines and Mt. Vernon WPCs.\u00a0\u00a0Each WPC has flight \/ holding pens with planted and natural cover.\u00a0\u00a0Flight \/ holding pens are acre sized and contain approximately 1500 pheasants each.<\/p>\n

In 2005, a new genetic strain of Mancurian pheasants was introduced into the Helfrich facility.\u00a0\u00a0This genetic strain was brought to the United States from China by MacFarlane Pheasants, Janesville, Wisconsin.\u00a0\u00a0Pure Manchurian (M) strain pheasant chicks were made available to the IDNR by contractual arrangement with MacFarlane Pheasants.\u00a0\u00a0Prior to that, a genetic strain called New York (NY) pheasants, which originated from the New York Department of Environmental Conservation, had been used at the hatchery to mix with Illinois strain Game Farm (GF) pheasants.<\/p>\n

Illinois strain GF pheasants have a mixed heritage.\u00a0\u00a0Pheasants from Illinois\u2019 captive-bred flock were periodically out-crossed through the mid to late 1970\u2019s to captive-bred pheasants from several private Midwestern producers.\u00a0\u00a0These pheasants were also out-crossed in the late 1970\u2019s and again in the mid-1990\u2019s to naturally occurring Illinois pheasants caught on public areas with pheasant populations but with no hunting.<\/p>\n

The three propagation centers produce approximately 61,000 pheasants for the IDNR\u2019s Controlled Pheasant Hunting Program.\u00a0\u00a0The hunting program is conducted on fifteen public hunting areas geographically distributed throughout the state.\u00a0\u00a0The objective of the propagation centers is to produce very high quality captive-reared pheasants that are indistinguishable from naturally occurring (wild) pheasants.\u00a0\u00a0The out-cross of GF pheasants to M pheasants was designed to enable IDNR captive-reared pheasant production to achieve this objective.<\/p>\n

The purpose of this discussion is to compare two years of hatch data from the NY birds with two years of data from the M birds.<\/p>\n

METHODS AND MATERIALS<\/h3>\n

The James C. Helfrich Wildlife Propagation Center consists of the following:<\/p>\n

\u00b7\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Office<\/p>\n

\u00b7\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Egg Processing Room<\/p>\n

\u00b7\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Cold Storage Room (typically set at 57-59 degrees F, and 75-80% humidity)<\/p>\n

\u00b7\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Incubator Room (incubator settings at 99.2 degrees F, and 84 wet bulb)<\/p>\n

\u00b7\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Hatch Room (hatcher setting at 98 degrees F, and 84 wet bulb)<\/p>\n

\u00b7\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a09 Breeder Rooms (approx. 2000 sq. ft. ea.)<\/p>\n

\u00b7\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a02 Rooster Rooms (approx. 1000 sq. ft. ea.)<\/p>\n

Lighting is totally controlled in the breeder rooms.\u00a0\u00a0The rooms also have automatic feed and water systems.\u00a0\u00a0The optimum number of hens (H) is 800 per breeder room, with one rooster (R) per 17 hens for mating.\u00a0\u00a0We have three breeder rooms with pure GF birds, and one room with pure M birds to maintain the pure genetic strains.\u00a0\u00a0All breeder room hens which produce offspring for the Controlled Pheasant Hunting Program are pure GF hens GFH).\u00a0\u00a0The actual hunting bird is a pure MR crossed with a pure GFH.\u00a0\u00a0At the beginning of hatch season, we increase the light from 8 hrs. per day to 14 hrs. per day.\u00a0\u00a0The pure MR requires two months of increased light prior to mating, while the pure GFH only requires two weeks of increased light prior to mating.<\/p>\n

Two mixed rooms, three pure GF rooms and one pure M room are started first.\u00a0\u00a0One month later, lights are increased in the three remaining rooms.\u00a0\u00a0Egg production is timed to coincide with our hatch schedule (early May through early July), resulting in 80-100 thousand chicks.<\/p>\n

The discussion for this presentation focuses on the difference between breeder activities using pure MR compared to pure NYR.\u00a0\u00a0The pure NYR was a combination of several genetic strains, which included approximately 1\/8 Manchurian.<\/p>\n

RESULTS AND DISCUSSION<\/h3>\n

For the purpose of this discussion we will compare breeder and hatch results from two years of breeding with pure MR verses two years of breeding with pure NYR.\u00a0\u00a0The main parameters of interest are as follows:<\/p>\n