Six Major Benefits of Raising Pheasants in Cages, a Must-Read for Farmers

The promotion of the American seven-color pheasant has been relatively fast, mainly using two methods: free-range on the ground and pen rearing. Later, some people changed pen rearing to cage rearing. The cage is 3 m long, 0.7 m wide, and 1.5 m high, divided into three tiers and four compartments, with 8-9 birds per compartment, and one set of cages can raise about 100 birds. Practice has proved that cage rearing is more profitable than free-range and pen rearing. Summarizing experience, cage rearing has six major benefits.

1. Less land occupation. For free-range rearing, generally 4-5 birds can be raised per sq m. If raising 100 birds, about 30 sq m of land is needed; switching to cage rearing requires only one set of cages, occupying less than 3 sq m.

2. Saves investment. To build a chicken house that can free-range 100 birds, calculated at the lowest construction cost of 100 yuan per sq m, requires an investment of 3000 yuan, while making one set of steel-bar wire-mesh cages requires only 400 yuan. If bamboo or wood is used to make the cages, the cost is even lower.

3. One item serves many uses. A chicken house built according to free-range requirements can only raise pheasants and is not convenient for raising other livestock and poultry; while cages can be used to raise pigeons, rabbits, and so on. What is more convenient is that they can be changed and moved at will.

4. Convenient management. Cages occupy a small area and are easy to clean; the cage-rearing group is small, so food grabbing is less likely to occur; this provides convenience for disease prevention and control and can also reduce the labor intensity of management personnel. Under the same labor, free-range rearing can manage 1000 birds, while cage rearing can manage 2000 birds. More than doubled.

5. Prevents and controls feather pecking. Pheasants have a wild and vicious habit. If management is improper, they peck each other's feathers, making the feathers difficult to grow in evenly and affecting the selling price; cage rearing can avoid this. The method is: when the light is strong during the day, use burlap sacks or woven bags to cover doors and windows to reduce indoor brightness, and at night and during feeding, open the covers for ventilation. In a darker environment, feather pecking can be avoided, so that when the birds are fed to meet market specifications, their feathers can remain full and beautiful, and the selling price is higher.

6. Saves feed. The cage-rearing range is small, limiting the activity of pheasants, which can increase feed utilization by 10%, and daily weight gain can reach 3-4 grams. Under the same feeding conditions, less feed is consumed, weight gain is faster, the raising time is shortened, marketing is earlier, and economic benefits are significantly improved.