always wanted to raise pheasant chicks for NYS DEC but have mixed feeling as i know most released birds won't last 30 days. with predators. what's everybody opinion

I am not sure about pheasants but with quail the way you feed them after release is a huge part of big survival #rs..

A big breeder here says to mow narrow paths in tall grass and sprinkle feed in the trails. This teaches the birds to forage and eventually start picking off bugs and other natural seeds/foods while searching for the put out food. Also keeps the birds spread out which is a better guard against predators. The more spread out the eyes, the better for the whole group. Again, this was with quail but I can see how it would benefit pheasant as well.

I used to raise pheasants and let them raise their own little ones. I made a bet with a friend he said that cage birds would not raise there own . I took plastic barrels and cut them end to end , and made a door [opening] on each end like a Quonset hut. First year 12 females had 72 birds, all fence in, second years the fox would wait for baby's to go thru fence and try and get them , they sure learn fast both fox and birds

Pen raised pheasants are strictly a put and take effort Studies have shown that about 10% will live to be a year old .They have no wild instincts. They have not been reared by a hen in the wild .They have no idea what a fox or a hawk is . Plus if they are released into poor or marginal cover they are in danger nearly 24 hours a day ,If released into excellent cover and manage to survive for a week or more they still need to have a female to mate with Most pen raised birds are put out in Oct/Nov. And mating season is not until the following April /May/June . So they need to get through about 6 months of predators/hunting season /road kill and any other problems that all wild like encounter .On the other hand The majority of wild pheasant killed during hunting season are less than 1 year old And if you go the next step another large number are 2 year olds .In the wild a 3 year old pheasant is a very very old bird .I would rather hunt wild birds any time over hunting pen raised pheasants. And I think nearly everyone would agree with that concept .However if you have a bird dog and you grew up hunting birds and the only thing left to hunt is pen raised /released birds. you go with the option that still allows you to go out with the dog and have some of the best times of your hunting season . Of course wild birds are more elusive . They run ahead they sit tight they flush wild and they fly faster than most pen raised birds .I know people that raise birds and enjoy that very much also along with hunting them. I would be raising pheasants every year if I had the place to do it And when I did not have a dog during the time that the wild bird population went up in smoke in my hunting area I gave up bird hunting But later I got two dogs and the joy of having a dog finding birds and getting a few reminds me of when I was a beginning hunter .And killing a ring neck rooster was as exciting as killing a trophy 10 pt buck .The lack of good small game hunting is a huge reason states are finding it difficult to requite youngsters into hunting .

Myself and a friend are starting our pheasant pen today it will be our breeding pen next year 50x25. We are going to build a 100x100 fly pen this summer we have 30 chick's coming in April.

thanks for the input w s rd

I f you are planning to raise birds to release for hunting a large fly pen is an important part of the process .Birds without enough space to fly will not fly fast or for a long distance .And if flushed a second time they will do even worse . That makes them an easy target for a hawk or coyote ..

I worked on a pheasant farm raised 5 to6k day Olds every year we used 55 ft tractor trailer 6 parked back to back with a deck in between them each trailer held 1000 with one holding different colored birds after so long we put them out in the fly pen massive idk what it measured but had the fields all groomed an cut for them good v
Cover an feed also realsed chucker an quail be rare to see one make it through a year but it .was some of the best coyote trapping I've ever done

No experience in raising them for OP but have hundreds of wild ones at the ranch. I do know from some reading on raising them that they need to be set free very early on as a chick. I'm sure there is some great advice on that subject you can research. If you live where there is a lot of cover or where you would let them go in the wild with heavy cover. Your success/survival rate will go up dramatically.

I hope you have fun and wish you luck in raising them. They are a very interesting upland game bird and I love to have them around.

Here is a pic from the shop this winter. I don't hunt them for many years.

Our game commission used to give up to 50 fertile ringneck eggs per family free. I raised them several times and set them loose. One time I had an incubator failure and only two survived. I ended up hand feeding them and the male became quite tame but the female did not. After release the male (I named him Nicky) would follow me around the farm and had a fascination with anything that made loud noises like rototillers, tractors and such. I always had to be shushing him away for fear he would get caught up in the moving parts.

I would agree that the survival rate is very low for pen raised birds. Our game commission recommended release as soon as they were feathered out and the weather warm.

make sure when raising those chicks they have a lot of room, if you see them pecking at the butt of a chick there to close together.

WI DNR releases what seems to be all roosters and I would assume keep all the hens for more production.

maybe release the old hens at the few either sex hunting grounds

awesome pic snowy peaceful looking place you have

Used to raise pheasants here, 40 years ago. We used to put blinders on them to prevent them picking one another. If they ever drew blood, they went crazy till they killed that chick.

You need to have the right mix of habitat and nutrients to be successful also, the info I received from the MI DNR estimated 3 out of 100 released birds might see spring. We have feeding stations all around the house I was surprised how they spook so easy if we just look out the windows or pass by one.

My guess is most here now are released birds that they push our way 3X a day running hunters through the same places. See a few cripples now and then mostly roosters with a few hens mixed in, the hens might be locals.

Use to raise pheasants inNorthern NY, got the chicks free from our local cooperative extension. Like others stated you need to gauge how big your pen is in accordance to how many chicks you raise. Our pen was 60’x60’ and the co-op . Always offered us more chicks than the pen could handle. We would take over a 100, but like many said here we had to de-beak them or they would start pecking each other to death.
Luckily a local pheasant shooting preserve would let us borrow their electric de-beaker. Don’t forget to get the water treatment pills so the chicks don’t get that chicken disease.

They rarely over wintered in my area. We had to release them on unposted property or public land. We would release a few at a time and hunt them a day or 2 later. It was put and take, much like stocking fish. More of a social thing hunting them and training our dogs. But they still ate good.

The average pheasant lives about 3 or less years And hunting has almost no impact on the long term survival of the wild bird . The #1 factor missing through out the US is undisturbed nesting cover . They are a ground nesting bird . And they nest in grass and fallow fields They do not nest in trees forested areas or crop fields such as corn or soybeans .Nesting can start as early as April and runs until late June or early July .Average nest size is 8 to 12 eggs .The chicks leave the nest the day they are hatched And the hen than begins to lead them through their daily routine They have many predators and if they get wet and the temps are low they die quickly from hypothermia .Changing farming practices have been a major reason for the loss of nesting cover And small blocks of good cover can create predator traps for pheasants because the remaining birds nest in that block of cover and the predators also key on the cover because that is when the greatest amount of birds can be found . For those that hunted birds in the 1960's and 70's remember how every farm had cornfields with a large amount of grass and weeds growing in it .The barley and wheat fields that had been harvested had been left to grow into weeds Nearly all farmers of that time had livestock so they also had a hay crop .Today we have many acres of cropped fields that are barren of any useful cover for 3 to 4 months of the year And when hey are growing a crop we now have fields the are complete monoculture . In the eastern part of PA many farms 80 TO 100 acres in size are planted to one crop . When possible many times the same fields are double cropped . The habitat does not exist for the life cycle of the pheasant to hatch and raise wild birds I t is not a bad thing for the farmer trying to pay his bills and make a living And it is not wrong that he has had to produce more while being impacted by ever increasing urban areas taking more and more land for houses /shopping centers and industry

So I see some people saying to release as soon as feathered out. Some saying to wait.

I, too, was thinkning about starting this endeavor. Any data on how many feathered out chicks would live until hunting season is released in late summer in good cover with food plots (clover and millet) with fruit trees dropping all fall?

I'd love to do it without having to build a flight pen.

Here the plant truck comes out before the hunters get there so they don’t meet up kind of looks like dog boxes on the back and the hunters can believe they are hunting wild birds I suspect many know what’s up anyways. Often you see birds standing around that have been released just standing there while you drive by it’s kind of a giveaway.

Ive raised thousands. Also worked for dnr and we released(chickens)twice a week for hunters. Thousands. To begin with you need the wilder strains. I like chinese bluebacks,much wilder. Give them a flight pen with minimal contact and brush along with self feeders and waterers to minimize human activity. (then pray)