Pheasant.com Blog

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 »

A brooder crew’s work is never done! Last week, we described the maintenance that must be completed before the beginning of chick season. This week you will learn about all of the steps we take after maintenance is complete, but before our chicks are placed in the barns. Read More »

The brooder crew is always busy at MacFarlane Pheasants, Inc. Crew members are responsible for the youngest chicks on our farm so their work is intensive and important. We have two shifts per day. Read More »

Our job posting for a brooder crew worker lists the basic skills needed to work anywhere on our farm. A crew member needs to be: responsible, dependable, motivated, have organizational skills, common sense, acute attention to detail, have a valid driver’s license, and be able to lift 50 pounds or more. Read More »

Record keeping is essential to making business decisions at MacFarlane Pheasants. In the brooder barns we record key information on a daily basis. There is a mortality sheet in each workroom. The workroom is a special room for sanitation right before the chick barn. Information recorded at the top of the mortality sheet includes the barn number, the number of chicks placed into the room and the hatch date. Read More »

The story of egg production at MacFarlane Pheasants is truly phenomenal! I have separated the procedures into two methods to explain what we do to make sure we get the thousands of eggs we need to produce the chicks and mature pheasants that are the life blood of MacFarlane Pheasants. Read More »

The below 0 degree temperatures and wind chill days, this week, have been busy times in the brooder barns. We pay special attention to our birds when it is so cold, but the real work begins BEFORE the first hard frost. When we start to have cooler nights, we go around the farm turning on baseboard heaters to heat the boot room areas to make sure they are operating properly, before the big freezes! Read More »

The brooder crew in August have only a distant memory of grasses, trees, and shrubs turning green with the longer days and feeling the excitement of the first hatches. The final Ringneck hatches occur the week of August 15th. It is still hot and humid in August but we realize that it is time to shift gears and think about preparations for fall and winter. Read More »

Yep, you heard it right! We have 21 brooder rooms in our Brooder Department. We spend quite a bit of time keeping our rooms in perfect condition. The cleaning and sanitizing process takes place 3, 4, or even 5 days a week and each area can take several hours to clean, sanitize, and dry out. Depending on the size of the room, the drying process can be anywhere from 4-8 hours. Luckily, the brooder crew has a 2nd shift so we can be washing in both the day and evening hours. Let me detail the process for you: Read More »

It is extremely important to maintain a clean, dry environment for our birds to live in while they are in our barns. Usually the housekeeping is done during our regular barn chores. However, sometimes the cleaning takes a little longer, so we add an extra crew member to speed up the process. That might mean adding a time in our schedule for barn housekeeping after lunch and before afternoon barn checks. Once a barn is flagged for housekeeping, we make it a priority to get it done right away. Read More »