Pheasant.com Blog

A few weeks ago, we updated you about the 76 new flight pens we built on a new property we purchased. We are happy to say that our pens are currently full of our birds for the upcoming mature pheasant season. Hatchery Plans Ronnie Viljoen, our Hatchery Manager, reported that we have been planning for months to expand and modernize our hatchery with new technology because the demand for day-old chicks is very high. We have identified our new incubators. They are the Jamesway Platinum 3 Incubators. These incubators use intelligent software, conserve energy, increase efficiency in hatch rates, and are less labor intensive! We will be the first in the pheasant industry to use these incubators, and with the extra hatching space we are planning, we expect to raise 100’s of thousands more chicks. Our Chick and Egg Sales Manager, Tassia Gonzalez, shared more powerful news for our customers. We will open the chick ordering system sometime in October this year, a month earlier than usual! We expect to have all breeds available and do not expect to need a waiting list because of our new and improved hatchery! Read More »

Did you know our pheasant chicks are shipped the same day they hatch? We started our chick shipments on March 14, 2023, and continued through August 15, 2023. This season, we shipped 1,809,632 chicks! It was an outstanding chick season for us at MacFarlane Pheasants, and we expect 2024 to be even busier. Our shipping success is one of the reasons why our customers keep returning to order chicks each year. Our pheasants are shipped by priority USPS mail in well-vented boxes, with fine wood wool and a grow gel that gives the chicks nutrients during shipping. Chicks do very well using this shipping method. Chicks can survive for three days without food and water because they get their nutrients from absorbing their yolk sacs. Customers also receive an extra 5% off their chick order to ensure that a complete order is received. Our chicks were shipped to all fifty states and Canada this year, which is typical. Chicks arrived at the post office selected by our customers within three days. We send a tracking number to the customers on the night the chicks are shipped so customers can prepare for new chicks. We provide rearing tips that customers can access on our website. We want everyone who purchases chicks from MacFarlane Pheasants to be prepared and satisfied, so don’t hesitate to email us with any questions. Read More »

Troy Cisewski, our Production Manager, oversees the three MacFarlane Pheasants’ farms in Missouri. They are all located within a 30-minute driving distance of each other. The primary purpose for having the Missouri farms is biosecurity. Multiple egg sources protect us if a disease occurs and other farms would need to be quarantined. Another safety measure we employ at the Missouri sites is to have designated employees at each location to eliminate cross-traffic contamination. The Missouri sites also free pen space in Janesville for our famous flight birds. Read More »

Pheasant delivery times that are extremely accurate are a real advantage to our business and our customers. In 2017, MacFarlane Pheasants, Inc. began using GPS in our delivery trucks. The GPS system plugs directly into our trucks and allows our staff to track the trucks over the internet, in real time. This gives our office staff a means of knowing where our trucks are at all times. Read More »

Chef Joe, is the title students in the Blackhawk Technical College Culinary Program (BTC) have given to the instructor who prepares them to be line cooks, prep cooks, and executive chefs. Chef Joe Wollinger has been a culinary arts instructor at Blackhawk Tech for 30 years and during those years, in addition to teaching culinary arts skills, he has offered students experiences that are unique to his specific skills and interests. In addition to teaching culinary arts, Chef Joe owns and operates an organic farm and has a special interest in teaching students to prepare organic foods. Many of the foods used in the program come from Chef Joe’s farm. MacFarlane Pheasants, like other farms in the area, also donate fresh foods to the culinary program. Read More »

MacFarlane Pheasants Inc. produces approximately 1.8 million chicks each year. Nearly 500,000 of those chicks are raised to maturity and bought by clubs, governmental agencies and individuals. They are enjoyed for sport and their tasty meat! The rest of the chicks are sold as chicks or started birds. What some of you may not know is that we raise and sell three different types of partridges, also. Let’s take a look at all of these beautiful birds. It’s a good idea to look at all of your choices before deciding on which birds meet your needs. Enjoy the journey! Read More »