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Transitioning Pheasants

On May 7, 2015 in General by spope

Spring is truly a time of transition. The snow melts here, everything starts to green up – its rainy one day, clear the next, hot and humid and then chilly. The temperature variations make it particularly challenging to transition the gamebirds from barns to outside pens.

We don’t want to move birds outside if there is rain in the forecast because birds not exposed to water don’t have their oil glands fully activated. We want them outside to preen in the sun and the wind so they move the oil to their feathers and activate their natural waterproofing. We try to move the birds when the nights are warm and there is no rain in the forecast.

To start the transition we begin dropping the temperature in the barn on a daily basis to start matching it up to the outside temperatures. We can drop by two degrees a day – but we watch the birds closely to make sure it’s not dropping too fast. If the birds start looking like they are going to pile to keep warm, we hold the temperatures and then continue to drop. Ringnecks can go out around seven weeks, the smaller birds, like the partridges, about eight weeks.

When birds are ready to go outside, the "process crew" catches the birds, crates them and moves them outside. The acclimated birds stay out – no matter what the temperatures or weather – until they are caught and shipped to customer.

Once the birds are moved out, the room is cleaned, disinfected, the barn is set up and the next group of birds moves in. The chicks start on the “A” side of the room and move to the cleaned and disinfected “B” side when that group moves outside. It’s a scheduling dance we play and our teams plan down to the wire – chicks in the “A” room until 21 days; into the “B” room until about seven or eight weeks of age.

We have set dates for the hatches to move to the “A” rooms, so sometimes even if the weather is working against us, we’ve got to move the birds out of the “B” rooms. Hatch, move, clean, move, transition, move, and clean – start over.

This has been a difficult spring because it’s been cold and wet. Wet is bad, but cold seems to be more stressful in general. Sun and a light wind go a long way to helping them adjust as does generations of breeding hardy birds.

Transitioning Birds



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