Pheasant.com Blog

We started raising Red-Legged Partridges in 2009. Our owner Bill MacFarlane had a customer request for these partridges and that started the ball rolling. Since the Red-Legged Partridge has been raised at game farms in France and Italy for centuries, we began exploring how to import eggs. We started importing eggs from France and became the only commercial producer of Red-Legged Partridges in the United States. Read More »

While I don’t remember my first hunt, I’ve heard my grandparents tell the story a thousand times.One September morning, my grandpa took me to the back 40 acres to shoot a dove or two when I was six. As we walked up to the pond on the backside of his property, a morning dove was sitting in a tree. I took aim, pulled the trigger, and excitedly went to see if I could find it! Little did I know I had missed entirely, and my grandpa tried telling me, but I was convinced I had just harvested my first bird. And sure enough, I found a dead bird near the tree! I proudly walked back to my grandparent's house with bird in hand to show my grandma I had shot dinner. As the story goes, I showed the bird to Granny, and her eyes got huge because I was holding a bird that had been dead for at least a week or longer. Read More »

Raising breeder hens to produce the chicks and eggs that are an enormous part of our business is a process we have refined over many years. In the past, we raised most of our breeders outside, but currently we keep only 5% in outdoor pens. The rest of our breeders are kept inside year-round for various reasons. Read More »

Filament is the company that designed our Pheasant For Dinner Website, and they were recently recognized with a merit award for the design by the National Agri-Marketing Business Association (NAMA). Filament belongs toThe National Agri-Marketing Business Association (NAMA), the nation’s largest professional association for professionals in marketing and agribusiness. Filament, who designed our website, is a full-service strategic marketing agency for businesses within the agricultural industry. They focus on strategy, advertising, creative design, production, branding, and reputation management. It was fun talking to Breinne Hendrickson, Marketing Manager at Filament, about the steps it took to design the Pheasant For Dinner Website for MacFarlane Pheasants. Here are just a few of the ideas for redesigning the website that Breinne shared. Read More »

Sarah Baker has spent the last ten years working at MacFarlane Pheasants. She started out raising Hungarian and French Red-Legged Partridges and later moved to the Dressed Pheasant Department. Before Sarah’s recent promotion, her title was Mature Sales Coordinator. Sarah will continue to be the Mature Sales Coordinator, but since her promotion to Head Sales Manager, she will now oversee account managers handling day-old chicks and eggs, pet food, and dressed pheasants. MacFarlane Pheasants is delighted to announce this and wishes Sarah all the best as she expands her role. Sarah Pope, Vice President of Operations at MacFarlane Pheasants, shared Sarah Baker’s promotion like this: "Sarah has been with the company ten years and has experience in both production and operations. Her dedication to MacFarlane Pheasants, problem-solving skills, and outstanding customer service are just a few reasons she was promoted to Head Sales Manager. Sarah is a valuable asset to the company, and I am proud to have her on our team." Read More »

We are in the process of making plans to expand our hatchery because the demand for day-old pheasant chicks is very high. Months before we place the eggs in the brooders, we find that MacFarlane Pheasants’ orders have surpassed the eggs we are hatching! So, we are discussing what our hatchery would need to look like so we can increase production and modernize our facility at the same time. Our staff in Mo can raise more breeding hens, allowing us to fill the expanded hatchery with more eggs. We also intend to continue growing our dressed business, so we need space to hatch more white chicks. We hope to complete the expansion during the winter and spring of 2024. Read More »

We implemented biosecurity practices 35 years ago at MacFarlane Pheasants, and each year we refine our procedures to protect our game birds from disease. Our biosecurity team meets monthly to review protocols and to respond to the latest biosecurity concerns in bird populations. Avian Flu ( a serious bird virus) has affected many pheasant farms across the United States, even though it is common practice for all game bird farms to have stringent biosecurity practices. Read More »

Bill MacFarlane MacFarlane Pheasants Inc., Owner MacFarlane Pheasants has some exciting news about our business. We sold the 175 acres that currently contain about 20% of our flight pens. We also have barns, offices, and a maintenance shop on this site that will eventually be at a new location. We bought a new piece of land and are currently in the process of building new flight pens on that property. Read More »