Pheasants: breeding and keeping at home for beginners

Pheasant is a bird of extraordinary beauty, which is kept mainly as an ornamental object in parks and household plots. But with the right approach, breeding and keeping pheasants at home becomes a profitable business. Dietary pheasant meat is in demand in the restaurant business, and eggs can also be profitably sold. The main condition for the profitability of breeding is competent care and high-quality feeding of birds.

Pros and cons of breeding

Despite a significant number of disadvantages, growing pheasants is profitable. A significant source of income is meat, considered a delicacy, served in the best restaurants.

Pros and consobtaining dietary meat with excellent taste, sold at a high price;low competitiveness of the business (due to the many shortcomings and difficulties of breeding, there are few people who want to go into the pheasant business).pheasants are pugnacious, it is problematic to organize comfortable accommodation for them;males and females mature late for breeding;birds require a lot of space for normal life;the eggshell is thin, which makes it difficult to transport and sell products;pheasants are prone to infectious diseases, due to which the livestock is significantly reduced;starting a business requires significant cash injections;birds are bred in small numbers, since there are few sources of sales, and at the initial stage of the business they still need to be found.

Which breed to choose?

There are many breeds suitable for meat and egg breeding, for decorative keeping. Successful farmers who have acquired reliable sources of sales contain tens of thousands of individuals.

But for a businessman who started breeding pheasants from scratch, it is better to start with a few pairs, and as the business develops, increase the livestock.

Most sought after breeds:

1. Diamond pheasants have a luxurious appearance, but are problematic in keeping. They require a warm and comfortable house, they cannot stand drafts and cold snap. The diet must be regularly enriched with vitamin complexes. An adult weighs no more than 1 kg, gives about 30 eggs a year.
2. Silver pheasants are optimal for beginners, highly productive, not capricious in keeping, quickly adapting to climatic conditions, frost-resistant, intensively gaining carcass weight, therefore, do not require significant costs for feed.An adult pheasant weighs 2.5 kg and lays up to 50 eggs per season. The only drawback is the sensitivity of birds to drafts.
3. Golden - ornamental pheasants, quite picky about keeping and climatic conditions, need a warm enclosure. The bird is small, weighs up to 1 kg, produces no more than 25 eggs per year.
4. Brown - decorative pheasants, and males and females are equally beautiful, the latter are only smaller in size, do not wear spurs on their limbs. The upper part of the body is rich brown with a metallic sheen, the chest and belly are light brown, the head is silver-black, the tail is light gray with a wide brown stripe along the edge. The feathers on the back of the head form a pretty tuft.
5. Copper - decorative pheasants, distinguished by plumage of rich copper color. Each feather has a brown edge, due to which the color is variegated. The skin around the eyes is not covered with feathers, looks like red glasses.
6. Green (or Hungarian) - decorative meat pheasants obtained by crossing European and Japanese birds. They are distinguished by luxurious, iridescent plumage with a predominance of green tint. The content of the pheasant is not capricious, weighs up to 3 kg.
7. Steppe pheasants are a hunting subspecies. Suitable for breeding for meat, unpretentious, adapt to climatic conditions, rarely affected by infectious diseases.

Important aspects of buying poultry

Buying eggs for breeding is undesirable. Due to the fragility of the shell and sensitivity to temperature fluctuations, there is a high risk of not bringing them to their destination intact and viable. Therefore, it is better to buy young animals of 4 weeks of age. Previously, it is not worth buying for breeding, since younger individuals cannot be distinguished by sex.

Available for breeding and adult birds up to 2.5 years of age. In this case, it is better to make a purchase in the fall. Then during the winter the pheasants will get used to the new habitat, and breeding will begin in the spring.

When buying pheasants, you should pay attention to signs of their he alth:

• moderate fatness, developed muscle mass without excess body fat;
• mobility, good coordination;
• shine and color saturation of plumage;
• no nasal discharge;
• dryness and cleanliness of feathers around the rear opening.

It is advisable to buy birds for breeding from different sellers in order to avoid inbreeding, which results in chicks with weak immunity and infertility.

Features of keeping pheasants in detail for beginners

Pheasant breeding is a simple process. The main thing is a competent approach, comfortable arrangement of the enclosure and high-quality feeding. Pheasants of any breed are settled in heterosexual pairs: a male and 3-5 females. You can not settle together several males: this will inevitably lead to conflicts.

Summer

During the warm period, it is supposed to keep pheasants in an open area, in an aviary, protected from precipitation and direct sun by a canopy. Feeders and drinkers must be firmly fixed. When the birds enter the mating season, it is necessary to build closed nests in the house from branches, straw, grasses. The internal contents of the female will equip themselves, apply foliage, blades of grass.

Females have low intelligence, birds often forget about the nest, lay eggs in different places. Therefore, the house should not be cluttered up to make it easier to find eggs. In addition to arranging the aviary, it is necessary to allocate a walking area. Free range is important for pheasants, improves he alth, increases egg production and muscle growth. It is advisable to choose a place near a natural reservoir or make an artificial pond.

In winter

Pheasants are considered to be adapted to adverse climatic conditions, but all the same, the poultry house located on the plot must be insulated before the winter cold.Insulation is placed on the floor and walls so that pets are protected from winds and snows from all sides. If the breed is capricious, then it is better to move the pets to a closed heated room for the winter.

Artificial lighting is being carried out in the poultry house. It also performs a heating function, but its main purpose is different: with a lack of light in pheasants, the body weakens, and egg production decreases. Light day should last at least 16 hours.

Bird care rules

Pheasants, distinguished by their freedom-loving character, are kept by families. Therefore, the house must be spacious. With a family content, at least 2 m per individual should fall on ² If the birds are kept in a common aviary, then the norm per individual is 5 m^{2 Pheasants tend to take off , flutter in the aviary, so its optimal height is 2.5 m.}

You need to design the enclosure so that it resembles a natural habitat. A lot of sunlight should get inside.For flooring, a sand-ash mixture is used, in which the birds bathe. As a decor, snags, dry bushes and low trees are placed on which pets can sit.

To prevent conflicts in the general content, males put special opaque plastic glasses on their beaks.

Caring for pheasants is not difficult, the main thing is to ensure cleanliness in the house and balanced feeding. It is necessary to regularly clean the room from litter and dirt, wash the feeders, disinfect the walls and equipment. Otherwise, pets are highly likely to contract a parasitic or infectious disease.

Pheasants are extremely shy and stressed. Therefore, a quiet and secluded place is chosen for the construction of a poultry house. You can’t wave your arms or speak loudly near birds.

Feeding pheasants

In large farms that practice breeding for meat, they use mainly mixed fodder. In small farms, the diet of pheasants is based on wet mash, consisting of:

• barley and corn grain - 45%;
• oats - 30%;
• millet - 10%;
• beans - 10%;
• green fodder - 5%.

Daily feed rate per individual - 80 g. During the mating season, the rate is increased by 10 g. It is recommended to periodically drip fish oil into a wet mash, mix in ascorbic acid powder, and in the winter months and glucose. To saturate the bird's body with proteins, pets are given a small amount of raw minced meat or maggots specially bred for this purpose.

Pheasants willingly eat Colorado potato beetles, so pets can be released into the potato field. Young animals are not given legumes. For feeding, compound feed intended for turkey poults is suitable. Little chicks are fed with crushed boiled eggs and herbs.

Pour cold water into the drinker. During the winter months, snow collected from a clean area can be given to pheasants as a source of moisture.

How long does it grow before slaughter?

You need to start a pheasant breeding business with a goal. The most profitable breeding is for the sake of delicacy meat, which is in demand by restaurant owners and gourmets.

Optimal for meat breeding large silver pheasant. Representatives of the steppe hunting breed also gain a good mass. The maximum weight for slaughter is 2.5 kg - the bird is gaining by the age of 4-5 months.

Reproduction

Pheasants mate in early spring. The owner himself breaks the pets into families. Typically, a male will court 3-5 females, although monogamy in pair formation is sometimes observed.It is undesirable to increase the number of females in the family, this will reduce productivity: the number of eggs laid will decrease, many will be infertile.

Females mature for breeding at 8 months of age, males at 1 year old. Females begin to rush 2-3 weeks after mating. There are few eggs in the first clutch, the number increases with each subsequent clutch. Pheasants rush until the first weeks of summer. Egg weight - 30 g. It is advisable to pick up eggs in the morning, before giving food, otherwise the pets can pierce the thin shell with their beaks.

Pheasants have an undeveloped maternal instinct, due to poor memory, they often forget where the nest is. Therefore, for breeding use incubators. Some poultry farmers lay pheasant eggs in the nest of brood turkeys. A two-stage breeding method is possible: the turkey incubates the pheasant eggs for 2 weeks, then they are transferred to the incubator.

Incubation is carried out according to certain rules. Its average duration is 25 days.Before laying in the device, eggs should lie down for 6 hours at room conditions. They are placed carefully in an incubator heated to 37.7 ° C. A week after laying, it is necessary to illuminate the inside with an ovoscope to make sure that the embryos are developing.

Environmental parameters at different stages of development of pheasant eggs in the incubator are shown in the table:

Temperature, °CHumidity, %Flips per dayVentilation 1-7 8-15 16-20 21-25

Day from bookmark
37.7-37.9	60	4	-
37.7-37.9	60	6	-
37.8	60	6	once a day for 15 minutes
37.5	75	-	-

Business goals and benefits

Whatever the purpose of pheasant breeding, the profitability with a competent approach is obvious, since the products are expensive. However, for the success of the enterprise, it is necessary to select the optimal breed, find reliable sales outlets.

For meat and eggs

Adult meat breed weighs up to 2.5 kg. And 1 kg of gourmet meat costs from 1000 rubles. Eggs that have not been bred are sold as table eggs. For a dozen, you can get 350 rubles. In order for the income to be significant and versatile, it is necessary to keep both rushing females and young animals for slaughter.

Pheasant meat is bought mainly by restaurants. The poultry farmer must understand that a reputable buyer will not contact a private seller. Therefore, in order to successfully sell products, you will have to register a farm, grow birds in compliance with sanitary and veterinary standards.

Hunting

You can sell live birds to owners of hunting grounds. There are a lot of we althy hunters who want to shoot game, which has long been a symbol of noble hunting.One live individual can be sold for 1500-3000 rubles, although it should be borne in mind that many hunting farms independently breed future trophies.

Decoration

The plumage of pheasants is luxurious. It is bought by designers to create outfits and theaters to sew actor's costumes. Decorative pheasants look great on well-groomed lawns, among garden and park compositions.

Product sales

Before the start of breeding, you need to find buyers, agree on sales, so that later you don’t have to think about where to put the products:

• pheasant eggs are dietary, hypoallergenic, they are sold to restaurants or a specific family where a child or adult suffers from food allergies;
• meat is bought only by restaurants that prepare delicious meat dishes for the festivities, it is not sold in stores;
• living ornamental birds are bought by hunting grounds, zoos, botanical gardens, mansion owners, taxidermists.

What are the costs?

Don't hope that pheasant farming will immediately become profitable. At first, you will have to spend. We will have to open a farm, register it, equip it in compliance with sanitary standards.

If, for example, a livestock of hundreds of individuals is planned, then it is necessary to build 300 m² of diverse enclosures (family, common, for young animals). Separate rooms are reserved for keeping chicks (at least 15 m2^{2) and for incubators. Next, you need to buy inventory, equipment, breeding birds. The minimum money to start a business is $5,000. With successful breeding, you can expect a payback for the business in 2 years.}

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