Hi Im 14 and me and two of my friends have decided to start to breed pheasants up and kill them to sell to local pubs for meat.
We have already got contacts to get hold off Pheasant young and eggs. Also partridge young and eggs.
We have also got a guy to come and sluaghter the pheasants.
But the thing is:
what is a suitable pheasant pen?
at the moment we were kinda of thinking at the end of my garden i have a chicken hut and we was going to use that as there place to sleep/lay eggs is that suitable?
we was going to fence the hut and land of with chicken wire with stonger wire each side also is it a good idea for us to roof the area with wire?
also we thought we could dig a 3-4 foot trench around the pen and place coragated iron then fill in so fox`s cant dig in, is this nessacary?
We are going to "aquire" a pheasant feeder from a local shooting ground so we are ok food wise.
One last thing what else can mix with pheasant? can partridge? can Chickens? can rabbit?
Thanks for all your replys
much apreciated
Joe
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Not sure about the US laws or your local laws pertaining to this.. but be sure to check with the FDA and any food services organizations responsible for legal matters. From everything I have read there are a lot of health issues when rearing meat for commercial consumption and that many checks and quality control practices must be in place. To what level I have NO idea.. but it's something to think about. Permits etc may be required?
As for your idea re: the trench? I have a colleague who does the trench thing almost exactly as you described. So if you have foxes in your area - it's a good idea. His is about 2 ft wide and 3 ft deep and the metal he uses is corrugated sheet roofing material. I'm not sure if it's zinc plated or stainless or what - but it's not iron - so it won't rust. This extends about a foot above the ground and about 2 ft into the concrete. He then simply drills wee holes into the sheet metal and uses wire to lash the fencing material to that.
I don't know what you need to sell as food,but here in Nebr. you need a wild game permit to raise them.Here no breeders can sell to people that don't have a wild game permit.As far as the pen goes you got to make it preditor proof,that includes hawks and such so yes you do need a wire roof of soom kind.Also they will fight and peck at each other.We raised 75 and had to put blinders on them to prevent that.Jusk check out some pheasant raising sites on the web they will tell you what you want to know. Mark
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INTEREST TO GAME BIRD RAISERS:
Western Game Bird Association
Game Bird News & Views -- Publication for the game bird raiser
Gamebird Question & Answer Board
Raise A Wild Flight Bird -- Booklet on tips for raising birds for release
Rocky Mountain Hatchery -- Equipment Suppliers Links
Game Bird Related Articles -- Hatching articles, disease control, etc.
The Gamebird Reading Room