Pheasant farmers raise pheasant eggs and birds.
Pheasant farmers operate farms where pheasants (normally wild game birds) are raised. Pheasant farmers often sell pheasant eggs, chicks, full grown birds and fresh and smoked pheasant meat. The business of pheasant farmers, therefore, consists of capturing and raising eggs and birds, and subsequently selling the pheasants (or their eggs or meat).
Incubating Eggs
A major responsibility of pheasant farmers is incubating pheasant eggs. Although a pheasant farmer may sell a portion of his eggs to other people, he will also retain a number of eggs to incubate so that he can have more pheasants. Incubating eggs successfully requires a farmer to have a clean incubator where both temperature and humidity are well regulated. It is also important to turn the eggs on a regular basis. This incubation process mirrors that of a mother pheasant, which turns her eggs and keeps them warm. With proper incubation, healthy pheasant chicks will be born after an incubation period of 21 to 25 days. After chicks have hatched, the farmer must clean the incubators well.
Breeding Hens
Another aspect of a pheasant farmer's job is breeding pheasant hens. The hens are the females and thus produce the eggs -- a total of about 50 to 60 eggs per season. It is important to keep the hens healthy by feeding them well and caring for them properly. The farmer usually feeds hens a pelleted feed that has a good protein content, as well as good calcium content so that her eggs will have strong shells. In order to have fertilized eggs that will produce chicks, the hens must mate with a rooster. A farmer will usually have one rooster per 10 to 16 hens to ensure that the eggs will be fertilized.
Caring for Birds
A pheasant farmer is also responsible to care for the birds by providing them with food and pens, as well as a safe outdoor environment. When birds are six to eight weeks old, they are usually moved outside; during this period of time, the farmer is careful to protect them from wind, rain and very high or low temperatures, so that they can adjust to the weather outdoors after being moved out of a very controlled environment. In the pens, farmers may plant sorghum, corn or lambs-quarter plants for ground cover.
Selling and Shipping
Pheasant farmers sell, and often ship, the birds they have raised (either via the U.S. Postal Service or via climate-controlled delivery trucks). They may sell the chicks and also the mature birds who have reached an age of about five months. In order to ship the birds, they must first capture them. Catching the birds is an difficult process that usually involves several people. When being captured, the pheasants tend to become very frightened, and they will run into a corner together and often get broken feathers or even suffocate. Therefore, farmers must stand in the corners of the pen to keep the birds from piling up and hurting each other in the capture process. Pheasant farmers make the bulk of their yearly income by selling the pheasants they have raised, as it is important to capture and send them in good condition.
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