How to Raise Pheasant Chicks? A Detailed Guide to Breeding Techniques and Precautions

Pheasant, also called mountain pheasant, is a relatively rare type of poultry, a valuable wild game bird that combines meat use, ornamental value and medicinal use in one. It may be relatively uncommon in everyday life, and indeed very few people currently raise pheasants artificially. Due to the promulgation of the national Spark Program, many people are still full of interest in raising pheasants. So let us learn about its breeding methods together.

How to raise pheasant chicks

1. Replenish drinking water in time

During long-distance transport, pheasant chicks may become dehydrated because of insufficient water sources, or because at the early brooding stage the chicks do not know how to drink and cannot find water; in severe cases this can cause the pheasants to die.

2. Reduce temperature stress

During transport, pheasant chicks may become too cold or too hot due to factors such as season, density and ventilation. Sometimes during brooding there can also be malfunction of temperature-control equipment, leading to cold stress or heat stress and thus causing death.

3. Prevent starvation

If pheasant chicks start feeding too late, cannot find the starting feed, or are fed at irregular times, they will experience starvation, which affects their growth and can even cause death.

4. Control disease

The diseases that pheasants are most likely to be infected with during brooding mainly include: pullorum disease, infectious bursal disease, pneumonia, paratyphoid and so on. Severe cases will cause death, so disease must be well controlled and medication given appropriately.

5. Manage carefully

In order to reduce pheasant chick deaths, temperature, humidity and density must be well controlled, and a quiet environment must be maintained.

Pheasant breeding techniques and precautions

I. Breeding techniques

1. Reasonable feeding: Farmers who use raw grain to feed pheasants may appropriately increase the proportion of energy feed such as corn and sorghum (recommended formula: corn 40%, wheat 15%, roasted peas 20%, rapeseed cake 15%, bran 5%, rice bran 4%, bone meal 1%, plus 2.5 kg of salt and an appropriate amount of trace elements per ton of feed).

2. Control density: In the early fattening stage (5-11 weeks of age), 10-12 pheasants can be raised per square meter. After that, they can be divided into groups by sex, strength and size, gradually reducing the density to 6-8 birds per square meter. At the same time, enough feed troughs should be provided so they can eat evenly and grow uniformly.

3. Set up perches and prevent pecking vice: Perches should be placed inside and outside the fattening pheasant house for the pheasants to fly, climb, perch and rest. This not only makes full use of the breeding space, but also helps reduce pecking vice among pheasants. If injured pheasants are found being pecked, apply gentian violet or camphor ointment to the wound and raise them in isolation.

4. Prevent startling and flying: Keep the site as quiet as possible and decline visitors, so as to reduce the influence of external factors. To prevent injury or death from collision caused by startling and flying, the primary flight feathers on one side of the pheasant can be clipped.

5. Do a good job of epidemic prevention: The pheasant house should be cleaned every day and disinfected once a week with disinfectants such as Baidusha. Pheasants at 8-9 weeks of age should be vaccinated against Newcastle disease with strain II vaccine via drinking water, and prevent the occurrence of fowl cholera or coccidiosis.

II. Precautions

1. Mountain pheasants within two weeks of hatching need supplemental animal protein. This is a characteristic formed under the natural ecological environment and should be noted when artificially preparing feed.

2. Closely monitor temperature changes and adjust the temperature inside the house in good time. Appropriately increase lighting to raise the birds' feed intake. Feed three times a day, at fixed times and in fixed amounts.

Design methods for a pheasant farm

1. Environment

Mountain pheasants like quiet and are sensitive to noise in the environment. The site should be far from noisy factories, residential areas, highways and railway trunk lines.

2. Terrain

The terrain should be high and dry, with convenient drainage, facing away from water and toward the sun, and with no pollution sources.

3. Water source

The water source must meet two conditions: sufficient water quantity and clean water quality.

4. Transportation

The site should be close to consumption areas and feed sources, with convenient transportation, so as to reduce transport costs.

5. Soil quality

Sandy soil or loam with good water permeability and air permeability is relatively suitable, to satisfy the mountain pheasant's habit of dust bathing.

What advantages does raising pheasants have

1. Quick return on investment: Pheasant breeding does not require building large factory buildings or purchasing mechanical equipment. Spare rooms such as old houses, warehouses and pig houses can be used for raising them. Doors and windows can be fitted with nylon netting for enclosure. Less capital is tied up and turnover is fast.

2. Strong disease resistance: Pheasants have very strong vitality and do not demand much from the environment. They can withstand high temperatures of 46°C and severe cold of -32°C, have particularly strong disease resistance, low risk, are easier to raise than domestic chickens, and their breeding techniques are similar to those for domestic chickens.

3. Wide sources of feed: Pheasants eat five grains and miscellaneous cereals, and especially like tender leaves, tender grass, melon and fruit peels, and green vegetables. They have the advantages of small appetite, wide feeding habits, fast growth, easy raising and low cost. An adult chicken needs only one liang of daily ration, and after hatching it can reach 3 jin in 100 days.

4. Large market potential: Demand for pheasants is growing day by day and supply falls short of demand. Foreign trade departments in Guangdong, Fujian, Hunan, Jiangxi, Hebei and other places have already purchased large quantities for export. The export price of a pair of pheasants is as high as 20 US dollars, and they are also in great demand on the domestic market.

Quite a few people have achieved good economic benefits by raising pheasants, because from the above it can be seen that raising pheasants is indeed very advantageous. However, since pheasants also belong to nationally protected animals, artificial breeding must be carried out through legal channels.