Pheasant.com Blog

We are very busy this time of year at MacFarlane Pheasants. Two of the big jobs we do in spring and summer are mowing and keeping the farm picked up. We do both of these jobs for aesthetics and some very important health and safety reasons. Keeping the farm picked up is, in fact, a year round chore, but much easier in the spring and summer when we don’t have to fight the weather. Pride in our farm is always a focus, but the health and safety of our game birds is a priority. Read More »

The Hen Barn has a manure gutter clean out shoot. I know that doesn’t sound all that exciting but if you have problems with your gutters, it can be an exciting mess that no-one enjoys cleaning up! The manure gutter chain runs through the barn to the outside where the manure is dropped into the manure spreader. When it works well, it is a good system for removing waste from the barn. Read More »

MacFarlane Pheasants, Inc. hatches over two million birds each year in our hatchery. That means we collect over three million eggs in order to get that many hatches! Obviously, we have our system down to a science. We use the Natureform I-14 machines to incubate our eggs. These machines must be calibrated to 99 degrees. In order to calibrate the machines to the required 99 degrees we use a mercury thermometer. Read More »

We do fun farm tours at MacFarlane Pheasants, Inc. because many people who hear about our pheasant farm are interested in seeing how wild birds are raised. We enjoy helping our guests learn about our pheasants and other game birds that live and grow on our farm. In days past, we allowed our guests to walk about, but increased biosecurity precautions have eliminated that part of a farm visit. Read More »

During the month of April,I wrote an article about practices for incubating and hatching eggs in our hatchery that was an overview of our practices at MacFarlane Pheasants. We hatch over two million chicks per year so our staff is quite knowledgeable about incubating eggs and hatching baby chicks! After that article was written, we published The Complete Guide to Incubation.  Our employees spent many hours preparing this document and I think you will be pleased with the results. The booklet is a free download and gives you detailed information about how to incubate wild bird eggs for a successful hatch. Read More »

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 »