Manchurian Pheasants
 

Was reading up on Manchurian pheasants, and after seeing that they roosted in trees, made me think that they would be much better off being released than their game farmed for generations Ringneck counterparts. At our farm in center county we get 20 Ringnecks a year and we keep them penned up till they’re about 5 weeks old and then we open the door and let them acclimate to the outside conditions. Works great. Last year we had a raccoon wreak havoc and kill all but 7 and 2 roosters + 2 hens survived the winter (not that we had much of one). Both of them pulled off broods, and I chased an adult hen with her 6 half grown chicks yesterday. We are working on habitat projects out the valley from our farm and if anyone would want to either help out if you’re in the area, or anything else would be a big help. I have a gofundme set up because I’m sure many of you know, native grass seed is not cheap. Also, a big discovery for me.., plant bird food. Super cheap and comes up just like expensive seed. Make sure you get stuff with low amounts of cracked corn, as that is junk anyway. Anyways.., Thanks.

its been proven time and time again, that most ALL pen raised birds DON"T LAST in the wild
if talking about PA here, the state game dept, would have been a TON better off , after so many yrs of WASTED spending on pen raised bird(millions and millions of dollars)
the $$ they dropped, they could have Bough ta LOT of land and BUILT p[rime habitat for them to BUY REAL WILD pheasants trapped in states that have healthy populations of wild birds
something, PROVEN to work, by Pheasants Forever, that started releasing them in PA
and its was SO nice of the PA game commission to take credit for the work of pheasants forever in them doing so!, proving that adding wild birds WORKS and pen raised one's Doesn't!
Just another example IMO, of where the PA Game Commission dropped the ball and was SUPER slow to realizing this!
from a TOP 10 pheasant state to almost ZERO wild pheasants, and they CLAIM its NOT there FAULT!
wonder who's it was? as MY understanding was the Pa game commission was in charge of PROTECTING the wildlife of the state??
funny how that BLAME doesn;'t fall on them, but pass the buck blame everyone else!

this is a PET peeve of mine, as I spent a Lot of time and $$ driving west to hunt wild PHEASANTS, these pen raised one's my dogs used to catch live all the time , wasn't hunting was like catch and release hunting them for me and my buddies!
me and my friends all quit hunting pheasants in PA< what a shame, pa was once such a GREAT state for wildlife!

and got to love now numbers are so low they charge for a pheasant permit? I, guess the GAME Co is broke after wasting so much on pen raised birds they now want to charge you for them !, guess some one has to pay for the one's cats eat and get hit by cars! HAHA!

oh I totally agree with you in terms of the game comm wasting money and how that money should have been out towards habitat work. But hell im a senior in high school and don’t have access to wild birds to trap, so I’m trying to make due the best I can. We have put countless acres on many different farms around us into high quality habitat and it seems like it has worked thus far. I know the chances of full repopulation with pen raised birds is slim to none, but it’s the best I can manage at this point. Maybe this winter I will be able to get out and trap some. A man can dream right.

I tried almost everything I could think of to improve the Pheasant hunting on my lease. I raised and released for a decade. My goal was to multiply the breeders, not so much raise and release to shoot.
The only real success I had was habitat and predator reduction. Fox was our biggest problem, for both Pheasant and Ducks.
One thing you might try is Blackberry thickets, which worked out for me. I also planted some thorny hedges. And let some nearby plots go to weed. A multi-year project.
I tried some Guinea fowl thinking they might have a better chance because they roosted in trees. I found out Guinea fowl are really poor parents, they'd lay randomly all over the place and/or ignore their nest. They slowly vanished over a two year period.
Another thing you might try is watching wild Pheasants. There may be multiple hens in an area and I have no idea why, but they will lay in a communal nest but not sit on it. They eventually lay and sit on their own individual nest and the clutches hatch. I'd raid the communal nest and put the eggs in an incubator, some hatched. Maybe my Hens were just a little nuts or maybe it is a common behavior? I was lucky I had a friend with a couple of large rotary incubators. True wild bird chicks are a lot wilder than semi-domesticated birds, they really need their peace and quiet. If anybody got closer than 30-40 yards or so to my pen their escape instinct would kick in really strong and they'd injure themselves on the pen wire.
The semi-domesticated birds I released would do some really stupid stuff like just stand there in an open field waiting for a Hawk to swoop in, while the wild stock was a lot jumpier and survival savvy, but had a lower survival rate in the pen.

PA already tried that with the Sichuan pheasant. They purchased wild birds and eggs from the country of origin, China. The thought was since the pheasant habitat for cover was shot because of clean farming and that these birds roosted in trees we could bring back wild pheasants. The experiment failed. Unless someone can find a wild pheasant that eats dirt and nests on macadam, most states will never again have a viable population of wild pheasants. I say that sadly because I love wing shooting more than deer hunting and I grew up in some of the best wild pheasant country in PA.

For the OP, you might try soliciting funds from some of the hunting companies. You'd need a business plan to show them how the money would be spent. It would also be a good idea to approach some of the local farmers in your area to lend support as in land for the experiment.

Remember, you would have to close the land to hunting so the birds did not get chased off. Pheasants forever in partnership with the PGC has already done this throughout the state and for the most part it has been a failure thousands of acres were closed to hunting and they have dropped many of the projects out of the program. All you will wind up doing is ticking off your fellow hunters and you will not achieve the results you want. It is a colossal waste of time, energy and money, it has been done, didn't work and that was with professional wildlife biologists doing it.

If you are interested in experimenting you might try Golden Pheasant. I had some on my lease. I have no idea where they came from, likely escapees from somebody's aviary. They roosted up in the trees and bushes, they seemed more wiley than many Ringnecks. I've heard hybrid Golden and Ringneck makes a large bird that is really wild. Likely the traits that make them domesticatable disappear in the hybrid. I might have tried more Goldens if I continued my program.

Better check with the Game agency in your state before you go releasing exotic game birds, it is illegal in many states. In my state the law is specific to what may be released, any other species in unlawful to turn loose.

I always wondering WHY the PA game commission never just BUILD good pheasant habitat
I mean there are tons of PRIME pheasant states out there that have farmers that sue same farming practices there as they do in PA!
so I know its possible to have them , after all PA,,Game commission also OWNS the most land on the east coast of ANY state, so,. there IS tons of LAND to work with, or again money wasted on raising pen pheasants could have been spent to BUY better habitat land!
All I ever heard was pass the buck excuses!(when I used to go to meetings ans ask!)

as it sure seems like after spending many millions of dollars on pen raised birds, that money again could have MADE pheasant habitat! where they would have been able to maintain a healthy population!

I mean so many wardens and folks in the game commission already stated for yrs and yrs, that pen raised birds were Not a viable thing to be doing!
yet continued doing so for decades???
makes me wonder??
it was just wasted money , and NOW they want to SELL you a Pheasant permit if you want to kill the few thru throw out's or those that have made it from pheasants forever stockings and work?