How to Raise Golden Pheasants? Practical Breeding Experience Shared
Although the golden pheasant has the word “pheasant” in its name, it does not belong to the pheasant family; it is very different from the ordinary chickens we usually see. The golden pheasant is actually a species of bird, with extremely beautiful feathers and a very precious breed, but its nutrition is extremely rich, so people began to study and domesticate the golden pheasant.
What Is the Golden Pheasant
The golden pheasant, also known as the golden pheasant, belongs to the class Aves, order Galliformes, family Phasianidae, genus Chrysolophus. It is the most beautiful and pretty species of bird among the pheasants, and is also a precious breed unique to our country. The golden pheasant has long been regarded by people as a rare mountain delicacy, with high ornamental and edible value. After years of research and domestication, the golden pheasant has achieved artificial breeding and reproduction, becoming a unique ornamental rare bird of our country that is famous throughout the world, and also a rare mountain delicacy and game, widely loved by people.
Breeding and Rearing of Golden Pheasants
The body weight of the golden pheasant is generally around 750 grams, and the female matures sexually at one year of age. As spring warms and flowers bloom, the golden pheasant begins laying eggs in early April each year. Laying gradually stops by July. Generally each bird lays around 20 eggs. Through artificial breeding and multiple generations of reproduction, the highest has reached 43 eggs. The male-to-female ratio is 1:2~4. Generally the male bird matures sexually one month earlier than the female, and they call to each other when forming paired activities. The male in heat constantly follows the female, jumping and bouncing while performing strange courtship displays, with obvious mate selection. The golden pheasant has the ability to build nests and lay eggs independently, and to brood and raise chicks. During artificial breeding, the eggs laid that day are collected to reduce the female's brooding behavior upon seeing eggs.
Golden pheasant seedlings can be incubated by the female golden pheasant herself or by domestic hens with strong brooding behavior. Generally, those with strong physique, health, strong brooding behavior and gentle temperament are selected. However, for artificially raised golden pheasants, artificial incubation should be adopted to increase the egg-laying rate; the incubation period is 22 days, and hatching early or late will affect the quality of the chicks. Therefore, incubation conditions such as temperature and humidity must be controlled, with strict hygiene and operation management. The incubation temperature for golden pheasants should be controlled at 38~38.50C, with humidity of 65~750C, hatching in 24 days. The average body weight of newly hatched golden pheasant chicks is 20 grams. The temperature for 1~3 day old chicks should be kept at 380C, 350C for 4~7 days old, 330C for 8~12 days old, then decreased by one degree per day, and by 20~25 days old they can be raised without heating. The heat source for the warming shed can be infrared lamps or electric heating tubes, ensuring uniform and stable temperature in the shed; light intensity should be appropriate, as too strong light easily causes pecking.
The feeding of golden pheasant chicks should follow the method of drinking water first and then starting to eat. The brooding room should be clean and dry, covered with dry wood shavings. The edges of the feed trough and water trough should be low and the trough surface narrow, both safe and hygienic. The drinker is made from a wide-mouth canned bottle inverted, gradually transitioning to a small bell-type drinker, and the feeding utensils are cleaned and disinfected daily. Chicks within 3 weeks of age are supplied with boiled cold water to kill bacteria and microbial pathogens in the water. For 1~3 day old chicks, 5% glucose and penicillin (2000 units per bird) are added to the drinking water. For starting the chicks on feed, a complete-priced chick feed with a protein content of 22~24 can be selected, supplemented with vitamins A and C, with feed supplied continuously for them to eat freely. If the feed protein is insufficient, foot deformities are easily caused; if yellow mealworms are fed in appropriate amounts, it is beneficial to their growth. At 7~10 days of age, beak trimming can be done once, and another supplementary trimming is done after transferring to the growing period. The density of golden pheasant chicks should not be too high; sparser density is beneficial for body weight development and feather growth, generally 50~70 birds per sq m is suitable. And as the age in days increases, the brooding room should be gradually enlarged to reduce density.
Feeding and Management of Golden Pheasants
The shed for raising golden pheasants should be chosen in a place with flat terrain, facing the sun and sheltered from the wind, with good drainage, dry and quiet. Generally, a combination of an inner house plus an outer exercise yard is adopted, which is beneficial to their growth and reproduction, and the feather color is also more brilliant. Perches are set up in the exercise yard and inner house to suit their perching, and the ground in the shed is laid with sandy soil. During the breeding period, egg boxes must be set up, and the egg boxes hidden with coverings so that the golden pheasants are not startled when laying eggs; feed buckets and drinkers also need to be placed. The density for breeding chickens is 2 birds per sq m, and the density for commercial chickens is 8 birds per sq m.
Young golden pheasants that have been off heat for some time can be transferred to the shed for raising. During the growing period, the raising density should be rapidly reduced, which is beneficial for the complete growth of feathers and tail feathers. This is because the feather color of two-month-old golden pheasants is similar to that of adult pheasants, with individuals slightly smaller. After three months of age, young birds can be raised with males and females separated. The keeper should have more contact and care to cultivate affection and create a quiet and stable environment. And keep the inside and outside of the shed clean and hygienic. At this time, complete-priced medium chicken feed can be used.
For golden pheasants kept for breeding purposes, robust males with brilliant feathers should be selected as breeding chickens. For females, individuals with normal development, plump and graceful posture, and bright and spirited eyes are selected as breeding chickens. The male-to-female ratio is 1:2~4, and immunization treatment with the Newcastle disease + infectious bronchitis + egg drop syndrome triple live vaccine is carried out. The male chickens begin to be in heat in mid-March, and the wattles and eye corners gradually change from dark red to bright red, and like peacocks they court the females with light and graceful dancing, displaying their golden-yellow neck feathers, showing off their dazzling, radiant plumage. However, the timing of mixing males and females must be appropriate; too early and the females are easily startled by the males' rude chasing, causing them to be unwilling to mate and reducing the fertilization rate. From the early laying period, light is gradually increased by half an hour per week to 16 hours, breeding chicken feed can be used, and appropriate additions of multi-vitamins for layers, VE, choline chloride, etc.
Keepers should not disturb them intentionally or unintentionally, reduce the number of entries and exits, and also ensure the dietary protein level of golden pheasants during the laying period, pay attention to supplementing green feed, increase some berries as much as possible, a small amount of seed feed, and supply more oily and animal feed. During the breeding period, when forming mating groups, the raising density must be adjusted to avoid fighting among males over mating, which reduces the fertilization rate and reduces feather damage. Every evening, the keeper should check the laying situation and collect the eggs in time.
Disease Prevention of Golden Pheasants
Golden pheasant chicks are given oxytetracycline, furazolidone and glucose aqueous solution as appropriate after 3 days to prevent and treat intestinal infectious diseases. At 7~10 days of age, while trimming the beak, Newcastle disease strain II is administered via nose drops; within 15 days of age, penicillin and streptomycin at 2000 units per bird each, two-thousandths oxytetracycline and norfloxacin mixed into the feed in alternating use are used to prevent pullorum disease and coccidiosis. Breeding chickens should also be regularly dewormed, using drugs such as piperazine, levamisole, furazolidone and metronidazole.
The breeding of golden pheasants is different from our ordinary chickens; they need to be domesticated, so the keeper needs sufficient experience to raise golden pheasants well. The golden pheasant not only has a gorgeous appearance but also a nutritionally rich interior, so it has both ornamental value and high nutritional value.