Ornamental Pheasants 101

   Yay!!! Artemis the mama red golden pheasant successfully brooded and hatched her clutch and let me tell you, the cuteness level of this homestead just went up about a hundred points! All eight babies are doing just fine, already running around the pen after their mother. Artemis doesn't care for it but the chicks don't mind being held at all and will actually look you in the eyes with a beautifully innocent curiosity. I thought this might be a good time to share my knowledge on these beautiful birds.

   Golden pheasants hail from the mountains of central China. Red goldens are a color mutation of the golden pheasant that also comes in peach, cinnamon, splash, and Amherst varieties. All varieties can interbreed and will produce surprise colorations.

    They are extremely cold hardy and need nothing more than some straw and a windbreak during our harsh northern Wisconsin winters. They eat very little and prefer a high protein diet. Ours are on game bird feed but are excellent bug foragers. They have also developed a deep abiding love for watermelon. Their water needs are exceeded by just a dog dish of water that needs to be refilled more from evaporation than from them actually drinking.

   The females are a lovely leafy brown pattern very much like the local partridge while the males have earned the title of "tie dyed chickens" from my family. They require lots of shade in the summer as high heat is not their favorite and too much exposure to direct sunlight will dull the colors of the males. Runs must be covered! These are not free range birds, they have no problem taking off into the wild blue yonder.

    . They are wary birds and don't make friends with humans easily. The brightly colored males are HIGHLY territorial and will not tolerate multiple males. We tried. Didn't go well. We had three males. Now we have Apollo. Males will fight to the death or exile of their opponents. They seem to be able to cohabitate with other non-pheasant species. Ours have lived with turkeys and ducks and currently enjoy a peaceful cooperative existence with coturnix quail. However, we recently acquired some ring neck pheasant chicks and that seemed to ignite some kind of ancestral blood feud! Apollo immediately tried to ninja kick the baby ring necks to death so I isolated him and now the four feisty little chicks are constantly challenging him through the fence.

    As we are looking to get more involved with ring necks and melanistic ring necks, we will be saying farewell to our red golden pheasants but Apollo and Artemis are not going far so we will be able to get chicks again if we desire.

Cuteness beyond measure! 

We were told repeatedly that there was no way red goldens would hatch out and care for chicks. I have a peck mark on my hand that proves this mama is no ordinary pheasant mother! She is 100% ready to fight for her babies! 

 The incubation period for red golden pheasant eggs is 21 days. All except one of our eggs hatched. 

 A caution if you are buying in chicks: they easily fit through chicken wire and peep rather softly so are difficult to find if they get out. 

 This was not a good idea. They had a huge run and multiple females but it was fight night every night at dusk. BAD IDEA.

The quails and pheasants mostly ignore each other except this guy. This is Penguin, one of my quail roos. He torments Apollo and despite the size difference (about 1/6th the size of a pheasant) Apollo always backs down from this tiny tyrant. All fear the mighty Penguin!