Over the years I\u2019ve heard lots of stories and rationalizations why pheasants pick.\u00a0\u00a0 I am going to just lay out all the things I\u2019ve heard and then give you my own theories.\u00a0 Pheasants cannibalize each other because they aren\u2019t used to be penned up and captive.\u00a0 Pheasants can be the orneriest creatures \u2013 and in captivity, the strong tend to pick on the weak.\u00a0 Pheasant cocks are much more aggressive than hens, but hens can and will pick on each other.<\/p>\n
The most obvious sign of picking is that pheasants have broken or missing feathers.\u00a0 When tails are just growing and are soft, pheasants often pick on the tail, taking a bite out of the young tail (which shows up as a chip or chunk of missing feather one the bird is grown).\u00a0 Sometimes the tail is just completely pulled out, it\u2019s missing.\u00a0 Pheasants also pick on the wings of other pheasants (especially on the shoulders of topmost point of the wing).\u00a0 And pheasants pick the feathers out of the saddle\u00a0 or back feathers \u2013 eventually if its back enough the back picking will progress from a dime or nickel sized bare spot near the base of the tail to a much larger section of feathers on the back or saddle being entirely missing (and therefore the affected bird is bareback).<\/p>\n
The most obvious reasons for picking are related to density (the number of birds in a given area) and the protein level and amino acid level of the feed, also the amount of feeder space allocated to the birds.\u00a0 Other factors that can affect picking are the breed of genetics of the pheasant you are raising, the amount of vegetative cover in the pen, the ability of birds to get away from other birds (roosts or heavy cover), weather (hot is bad), stresses on the birds, and list can go on.<\/p>\n
I\u2019ve heard people express that their solution to picking is to put out salt blocks in the pens, to make sure the feed has meat and bone meal in the feed, mist the birds.\u00a0\u00a0 Most of these types of solutions are offered by people who are just rationalizing, trying to fit more birds into a pen that is too small.<\/p>\n
What we have found here at our farm is that we need to provide our birds with\u00a0adequate space, a balanced researched feed formulation, adequate feeder space and cover<\/strong>.\u00a0 If birds have had a traumatic event (such as a ventilation failure in a barn), then those birds will need extra space and better feed than \u201cnormal\u201d birds.\u00a0 We also know from firsthand experience that some breeds of pheasants are more aggressive than others \u2013 and that some breeds of pheasants can be raised at higher densities than other breeds.<\/p>\n Here are some of our criteria.\u00a0 Early in the season (early May as an example) when we have 6 week old pheasants going into pens \u2013 our cover is just inches tall and therefore we must give our birds exorbitant space \u2013 both to keep the birds from picking, but also to allow the cover to continue to grow with the birds in the pens.\u00a0 So our birds early on get 45 sq ft per bird for cocks and 35 sq ft per bird for hens.\u00a0\u00a0 Once our cover is up to knee high (or higher) we then combine our birds (the birds that were at 45 or 35\u00a0sq ft\/bird) to 24 sq ft per cock and 18 sq ft per hen (we sex our birds when they go into the pens).\u00a0 Through the middle of the season we continue at those sq ft\/bird \u2013 sometime going to 16 sq ft for hens and 22 sq ft for cox.<\/p>\n Feeder space is just as important as pen space.\u00a0 We allocate .7\u201d of feeder space and .1\u201d of waterer space per bird.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 I think one could get away with .6\u201d of feeder space, but we have found .7\u201d is better.<\/p>\n When we move out birds to the pens we put them on 20% grower.\u00a0 We switch the birds from 20% to 19% once the birds are 12 weeks old and it\u2019s not over 80 degrees daily average temperature.\u00a0 So our early hatch birds often are on 20% til they are 20 weeks old, where is our August hatch birds go onto 19% right at 12 weeks.<\/p>\n To be clear, all of the feeds we purchase are formulated not just for protein level of course, but for amino acids, and all the other nutrients pheasants need.\u00a0 We do include meat and bone meal in our feeds for our ringneck pheasants, but we are using all vegetable based feed for our meat birds with no issues that we are aware of.\u00a0 So meat and bone meal does not need to be absolutely included \u2013 it\u2019s not compulsory.\u00a0 There has been a not of hub bub about salt, and frankly I think it\u2019s best to just follow one\u2019s feed manufacturer\u2019s advice.\u00a0 No, we don\u2019t put salt blocks in our pens!!!<\/p>\n Something I nearly forgot to mention was peepers.\u00a0 We raise quite a few ringnecks without peepers and we must give those birds 60 sq ft even with excellent cover.\u00a0 There are a number of different peepers on the market \u2013 we prefer using\u00a0peepers with pins\u00a0as we don\u2019t have many fall off and we can re-use the peepers.\u00a0\u00a0 Clip-on peepers are fine, and you can ship quickly with them (as it\u2019s faster to remove them).\u00a0 But you can\u2019t re-use clip-ons and some of the clip-ons fall off.\u00a0 Some farms use hoods, but we feel that hoods quite significantly reduce the ability of pheasants to navigate and fly and run right at the time the hood is removed.\u00a0 With hoods, the birds take a few days after the hoods are removed to orient themselves \u2013 and that won\u2019t work with many of our customers.<\/p>\n There is a wide variation in the aggressiveness of pheasants between the different commercial game farms.\u00a0\u00a0 Some farm\u2019s birds don\u2019t pick, but yet the birds are just too docile.\u00a0 For a strictly put and take market they may work \u2013 but we sell lot\u2019s of birds to customers who want wild acting birds.\u00a0\u00a0 There are other birds on the market that are much more cannibalistic, yet I don\u2019t believe the birds fly any better or act any wilder.\u00a0 I feel our birds are not as aggressive as many other commercials farm\u2019s strains yet our birds act as wild as any of our competitors.\u00a0 Our Manchurian pheasants are definitely less aggressive towards each other and wilder out in the field than any other pheasants available.<\/p>\nHow does breeding (or genetics) affect picking?<\/h3>\n