We have been very busy taking care of 400 eggs and many new little chicks. We also are the proud owners of a male Wood Duck, with 4 new females on the way from MN. We have constructed a 32'x32' pen with a 8'x8' pond that is self draining for easy cleaning.
We have done well with Chukars this year along with Pheasants. We have decided to hold our birds to a adult size in our fly-away pens to sell in late summer, and Fall.
We also bought Blue Ear and Green Mutant Pheasants.
We are working hard to get our new cages built. Good thing because our new incubating golden pheasants start in today.
Boy are we having growing pains! We are getting more eggs pheasants of incubation than expected this year. We have over 250 eggs in incubation and growing. Since we are new, we are using the over the counter foam incubators. They work great as long as they are watched over. Since we have 5 people in our family, the eggs get turned 5 to 6 times a day and we spray mist water into the incubators to keep the humidity up. Once a egg hatches, we let them dry for a few hours first, and move them to a box with a heat lamp with fresh food and water for about 24 to 48 hours, then move them to our brooding house to grow and get feathers. As they get older, we reduce the heat a little at a time to prepare them to live outdoors.
Ring neck Babies are here! We are hatching in incubators ring neck pheasants, and man do we feel like we real parents. Below are a few pictures.
We will Have Pheasant chick available in a few weeks.
Our new 96'x36' - fly-away cage is almost framed. Now the hard part starts. We have to drop the pen into the ground, then install the 1" poultry wire. We are using 2" poultry wire for the roof to help keep Owls out. Heavy netting will work too. Before we put the birds in, we will dig a trench around the outside of the cage and lay strips of poultry wire about 6" to 10" deep and cover it over to keep cridders from digging under the cage.
This pen is design in modules so we can create smaller cages when ever we want. It is built only 4x4,s and 1x6x16 and assembled using screws so we can move modules around. We decided to create 2 16x8 pens and one 16x16 pen on the end. We will be housing Red Goldens, Wood ducks and some chickens. The larger area will hold young Ring Necks and Chukars for resale.
New 96' x 32 foot split fly away cage under construction
Construction of a new 32' x 96' Fly away cage is in work now. This split cage is designed to hold aging Pheasants and Chukar to the Fall season to sell. We are hoping to hold 200 to 400 birds in it this summer. Our Ring necks are starting to lay eggs, for which we are putting into incubators each day.
Also, Its great to hear from all you new gamebird folks. Please feel free to send us email about any questions you may have. If we do not have the answer, we will find someone who can. We are very excited to receive babies this year. We will be hatching what we can, and be buying Chukar and Pheasant chicks this year to increase our numbers.
Have a great spring!
