Flight Pens
The ground cover either doesn’t grow or gets burned up by the heat and lack of rain. This week we had significant rainfall in Janesville, WI, which was very helpful!
Pens with poor cover need to be irrigated daily, increasing the cost of electricity, fuel, and machinery use.
Pheasants in poor cover flight pens must be placed at half density to reduce fighting and picking (no place to hide from aggressive birds).
Excessive heat decreases birds’ appetites resulting in slower growth and possible tail loss.
Algae grow on plassons (waterers in pens), so plassons need to cleaned regularly.
Roosters will fight and become aggressive to other roosters and hens in pens, leading to damaged tails and possible death.
Droughts and excessive heat will attract predators looking for food and a water source.
Pushing birds in extreme heat will cause birds to get overheated, stressed, and possibly die. We minimize this movement to the morning hours when it is cooler for this reason.
During shipments, once pheasants are placed in crates, we have a driver drive the birds around to keep airflow to the birds until they are ready to leave for delivery.
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