Brian Klein and his crew have already moved out 25,000+ pheasants to flight pens. Brian took the attached pic of one of our first hatch pheasants. Moving out pheasants starting in April is relatively unheard of in the pheasant industry – but to maximize the use of our barns, to be efficient, and to have mature pheasants available for sale in August – we need to start birds in March and therefore move pheasants to pens in April.
We’ve developed a strategy of using huts (one per 100 pheasants) on top of straw in all pens of early move out birds. If the birds make it three days without rain after move-out, then the birds learn to use the huts for shelter. We’ve just endured several days of 50 degree rainy weather, and have not had losses in our pheasants in the pens.
Soon, our cover will start be of use to us (up til now the cover has been too short to provide any shelter for the birds) and also the temperatures (we hope) will be warmed, meaning less stress on the birds.
