Pheasant hens breeding in the wild ??

Tikka391

Hi all,

What is the story with bought in hens breeding?
We buy our pheasant cocks we always buy some hens, poults at about 8 weeks, but I have heard they won't breed or have their own clutches. I was just wondering in buying more hens to improve the number of wild clutches being on the ground so improving the number of wild birds being around.

Eddie B

I think releasing full grown hens is a waste of time. There are a few factors that come into play.

Firstly , there is the fact that these birds were probably hatched in an incubator, so miss out on being raised naturally. They seem to lack that instinct that is so important for raising chicks.

Secondly, there is the stress from trying to find enough food in the wild. This stress can play a big part in producing eggs, and raising chicks.

Thirdly, is stress from predation. The more predators about, the more pressure on birds to raise successful brood.

Wild birds just seem to cope better raising chicks when under pressure from predation, bad weather etc. Many say that putting eggs under broody bantams, and letting them raise them, produce much better birds, that will survive , and breed much better in the wild, so maybe that is something you could think about.

Tikka391

Eddie B wrote: »

I think releasing full grown hens is a waste of time. There are a few factors that come into play.

Firstly , there is the fact that these birds were probably hatched in an incubator, so miss out on being raised naturally. They seem to lack that instinct that is so important for raising chicks.

Secondly, there is the stress from trying to find enough food in the wild. This stress can play a big part in producing eggs, and raising chicks.

Thirdly, is stress from predation. The more predators about, the more pressure on birds to raise successful brood.

Wild birds just seem to cope better raising chicks when under pressure from predation, bad weather etc. Many say that putting eggs under broody bantams, and letting them raise them, produce much better birds, that will survive , and breed much better in the wild, so maybe that is something you could think about.

We don't release full grown birds, we get all out birds as poults.
We don't get that many hens, a few for each pen. So I was just wondering about getting extra for each pen to maybe improve the chances of wild breeding over time.

Eddie B

Tikka391 wrote: »

We don't release full grown birds, we get all out birds as poults.
We don't get that many hens, a few for each pen. So I was just wondering about getting extra for each pen to maybe improve the chances of wild breeding over time.

A ok sorry, misread your first post. Better chance maybe with polts, but they too are probably incubator hatched, so may not make the best mothers. I've never used bantams, so have no experience on how much a difference it makes. Boora partridge project is worth looking at, and see how they do things. Their having great breeding success with their birds. Hard work yes, but that's what you've got to do to make it worth while.

Tikka391

Eddie B wrote: »

A ok sorry, misread your first post. Better chance maybe with polts, but they too are probably incubator hatched, so may not make the best mothers. I've never used bantams, so have no experience on how much a difference it makes. Boora partridge project is worth looking at, and see how they do things. Their having great breeding success with their birds. Hard work yes, but that's what you've got to do to make it worth while.

Thanks Eddie