The laying season is from mid-March to the end of May.  In order to harden the birds so that they are accustomed to being outdoors, we generally do not sell them until early October.  Also for some species it is difficult to sex them much before this date.  So while we take orders at any point, actual payment and pick-up is generally arranged for October and November.  In rare cases we carry birds through to the Spring and these would be available in February and March.

The focus is on pheasants but we do carry birds in the same family.  We raise Indian Blue Peafowl (Peacocks) as well as Red Jungle Fowl and Barred Rock.

Generally we do not, however, if you are interested in this, contact us and we can likely arrange to start hatching early enough that they will be ready to lay by June.  Barred Rock are excellent layers and provided a good diet they will lay eggs every 1 - 1.5 days.

It depends on the species and whether it is during breeding season or not.  Some species are quite aggressive (e.g. Reeves) and it is not recommended to keep the with other birds.  Also even very meek birds (e.g. Red Golden) can become combative during breeding season.  We keep mixed breeds of pheasants together as they are raised to minimize aggressive tendencies but as a general rule they should be kept by themselves.  The exception to this are Peafowl that will mix with most birds.

This will vary somewhat depending on the species.  Some pheasants such as Red Golden and Lady Amheryst, as well as Peafowl benefit by having grass available to graze on.  Normally we feed chicken laying crumble year-round.  In the Winter months, this is mixed with about 25 - 30% wheat to provide extra calories.  Pheasant are very fond of shelled peanuts and in the Winter the extra calories are helpful and less frequently in the Summer months, simply as a treat.

It varies with the variety.  Some like Blue Eared will seldom go broody while others like Red Golden make great mothers.  Others like Hume Barred Tail pheasants, show very poor hatching in an incubator but have no problem with mother.  As a result our chicks are usually a combination of incubated and natural hatching.  However, with natural hatching the chicks are removed from the mother and are reared in a controlled environment.

Depending on your pen arrangement and the number of birds, deworming should be part of your regimen.  Ideally it should be done twice a year.  Once in February and a second time after laying/hatching is completed, around August.  Some people do it once a year after the ground freezes in the Fall, since parasites come from the ground and once it is frozen, infection is nil.  You should not deworm during the laying period, since it can throw the laying cycle off and may stress the bird.

In the past it was simple to buy medicated feed to over the counter medicine but the Federal government has removed that freedom from Canadians.  The two most common dewormers are Ivomec and Safe-guard.  These are both well tolerated by pheasants and can be obtained from the USA with no difficulty.  Safe-guard (fenbendazole) is normally added to food and provided to the birds this way.  A 100 mL bottle will make an enormous about of medicated food but blending a liquid into dry food and making sure it is well distributed can be tricky.  Safe-guard only treats internal parasites, such as worms, whereas Ivomec (ivermectin) kills both internal and external parasites.  Ivomec must be dosed directly to the pheasant, with care being taken to ensure that it goes down the throat and not into the windpipe.

We do not ship pheasants, although it may be possible to deliver or meet to deliver the birds, depending on your location and if we are going to be in that area.

We do not supply boxes for transporting the pheasants and you will need to bring your own.  It is best if the box is solid, so they are in darkness while being moved, since this is the least stressful.  A wire dog cage, or similar, is not suitable for moving pheasants.  If they cannot be released in daylight, it is best to leave them in the box until the morning, so that they can see their new environment and avoid the risk of blindly flying around.

We do not sell eggs.  Since incubation and innate fertility make it difficult to predict the hatch rate it is impossible to set a fair price.  Also the skill involved incubating eggs will vary from person to person and furthermore, pheasant eggs are more demanding than hatching chickens or other domestic fowl.  Selling near adult, hardened birds makes for better results and that is what we do.