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Pheasant.com Blog

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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 »

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The gamebird industry is changing in significant ways due to the many risks that are involved in raising birds. The economy, weather and  the Avian Influenza outbreaks that have happened throughout the world In the past five years have impacted the gamebird industry in many ways. Gamebird producers have witnessed a change in both supply and demand for birds.  Bird producers who have thought about expanding their businesses have decided not to, or at least to think about that decision as the risk is greater. In previous years, people who are ordering hunting birds have been able to contact producers at the end of the season and buy them for $6 each, expecting producers to have overproduced. Now producers are taking orders in advance and only planning on raising the number of birds for which they have orders. Read More »

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We started raising Red-Legged Partridges in 2009. Our owner Bill MacFarlane had a customer request for these partridges and that started the ball rolling. Since the Red-Legged Partridge has been raised at game farms in France and Italy for centuries, we began exploring how to import eggs. We started importing eggs from France and became the only commercial producer of Red-Legged Partridges in the United States. Read More »

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Raising breeder hens to produce the chicks and eggs that are an enormous part of our business is a process we have refined over many years. In the past, we raised most of our breeders outside, but currently we keep only 5% in outdoor pens. The rest of our breeders are kept inside year-round for various reasons. Read More »

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We are in the process of making plans to expand our hatchery because the demand for day-old pheasant chicks is very high. Months before we place the eggs in the brooders, we find that MacFarlane Pheasants’ orders have surpassed the eggs we are hatching! So, we are discussing what our hatchery would need to look like so we can increase production and modernize our facility at the same time. Our staff in Mo can raise more breeding hens, allowing us to fill the expanded hatchery with more eggs. We also intend to continue growing our dressed business, so we need space to hatch more white chicks. We hope to complete the expansion during the winter and spring of 2024. Read More »


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We implemented biosecurity practices 35 years ago at MacFarlane Pheasants, and each year we refine our procedures to protect our game birds from disease. Our biosecurity team meets monthly to review protocols and to respond to the latest biosecurity concerns in bird populations. Avian Flu ( a serious bird virus) has affected many pheasant farms across the United States, even though it is common practice for all game bird farms to have stringent biosecurity practices. Read More »


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MacFarlane Pheasants Inc. raises nearly two million chicks each year. We produce a wide range of chicks, including Hungarian Partridges, Red Leg Partridges, Kansas Ringneck, Manchurian Redneck Cross, Melanistic Mutants, Chinese Rednecks, the Extra Large Ringneck, and our White Meat Pheasants. Many of our chicks stay on the farm and are raised to maturity by the brooder department, but many other day-old chicks are shipped to our customers. Our hatchery employees pride themselves on providing high quality chicks through meticulous care of our eggs and facility. There are consistent guidelines in place for cleanliness and efficacy at the hatchery. The policies guarantee that healthy chicks are shipped to customers on time and in good health. We sanitize the entire hatchery weekly. Culture plates from each hatcher are incubated to check for bacteria. Since we do not vaccinate our chicks, it is of utmost importance that the chicks are not exposed to bacteria or diseases before they start their lives! Read More »


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The plan for shipping our mature pheasants from MacFarlane Pheasants begins with our customers confirming their yearly bird numbers in the spring! Our mature sales' staff begins working diligently to give our customers an idea of the delivery schedule that matches the time they want to have their birds delivered. As the shipping date nears, the delivery is confirmed. If there is more than one customer in the same area, and there is room on our truck, we may make more than one delivery to an area of the country. Once we have scheduled an entire truck for delivery, we begin processing the crate numbers needed for the shipment. We provide the crate numbers to the “catch crews.” The crate numbers describe what types of crates are needed for each kind of bird and how many birds will be in each crate. Read More »

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