Pheasant.com Blog

Our hatchery at MacFarlane Pheasants is where we incubate eggs and hatch our pheasant chicks. The most important part of incubating eggs is to provide heat, humidity, and ventilation. If you can provide those basic needs and follow some basic steps, 25 days later you will have some beautiful peeping chicks. Read More »

We have been using the PLS-2400 MR4 PTC Light Dimmers from Precision Lighting out of Arkansas since 2015. Before we got these dimmers in our barns, we used residential dimmers and dimmed our lights manually, for the most part. Our newer system does the job with greater ease and effectiveness. Read More »

Beetles and bugs in the barns are not just yucky. They cause sanitary concerns, as well as affect the health of our birds. The Darkling Beetle, is a vector for salmonella, e-coli, Newcastle disease and other diseases and viruses. Flies are a big pain and are controlled with permethrin spray and traps. Read More »

“I have repaired just about everything on the farm at least once,” says Jay Illbeck about his work on our farm. He is the assistant maintenance manager at MacFarlane Pheasants and has been with us for six years. He has also delivered birds and helped with new construction projects, over the years. Jay is a self trained man who attributes his maintenance skills to being around other skilled people and extensive reading. He told me he loves the variety of his job.  Read More »

The story of egg production at MacFarlane Pheasants is truly phenomenal! I have separated the procedures into two methods to explain what we do to make sure we get the thousands of eggs we need to produce the chicks and mature pheasants that are the life blood of MacFarlane Pheasants. Read More »

Shayne has worked for MacFarlane Pheasants for 11 years. He was originally hired as an assistant manager in the flight pen operation, but he quickly moved into the management position and stayed for eight years. After that he worked in the hatchery for a season before becoming the manager of the food products building. He told us that he learned his management skills in college, but that his experience and on the job training provided most of the skills he needs to do his job.  Read More »

We let you know in February 2017 that construction had started on a new building on MacFarlane Pheasants. We are excited to report that our new hen barn construction has been completed. The electricians are working to complete their role in this project and cages that are a part of the facility have arrived in port from Germany. The benefit to this expansion is that by November of this year our dressed bird production will be significantly expanded. Read More »

Wing Banding is one of the many jobs done by our research crew. We wing band our pedigree birds to keep track of who their parents/grandparents are, weights, egg production and even the exact location of the bird. Identifying our pedigree birds is done so that we have a continuous cycle of producing the best pheasants. Read More »