first try in a long time
We raised 250 this year, haven't raised Pheasants in a long time but this year with how crazy the spring weather was we thought we would give it a shot. At 9 weeks 220 survived in the pen. We started releasing 5 a day at the 9 week mark due to size limitations in our pen. We didn't do anything fancy on our release since around the barn yard we have natural water sources 4 foot tall canary grass, a good tree belt along with some crops and a good pasture that isn't over grazed. We also had pretty good numbers of mature pheasants in the 640 acres around the barn yard. Not sure how many have made it but we see good numbers on the road, and racing across the barn yard in the morning and night. I hope the raised birds would mix in with the wild birds and increase their chance of survival. Time will tell. We still have about 40 birds in the pen that are doing great. Fingers crossed so far. I guess our thinking was if 10% make it that would be 20 or more birds next year, or 10 setting hens which would help.
So I figure it cost us about 1000 dollars and about an hour every day to raise these birds. Time will tell if it was worth it, but to me, yeah a couple of good days hunting with the family and their kids, plus the smile I get seeing more birds around, is worth the cost.
SDViking