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As near as anyone can determine I started
working for MacFarlane Pheasant Farm during
the summer of 1959. Bill MacFarlane's uncle,
Jim Adamson was the foreman and the crew
consisted of about twenty five part time
employees.
As I look back, I
am struck by how
labor intensive it
was to raise the
birds. Each day we
fed and watered
the chicks in the
brooder barn and
brooder houses.
This was all done
by hand. It would
take the whole
crew over two
hours to care for the young birds. We would
then work with a group of older birds.
A typical hatch would be caught at three
weeks. The flight feathers of one wing would
be clipped and the beaks trimmed. They would
then be moved from the brooder barn to
brooder houses where they would be let out in
attached pens in the morning and driven back
in the houses in the late afternoon.
At about six weeks the birds would be clipped,
beak trimmed, and moved to an open range
pen where they would stay for three weeks.
They would then be caught and stubbed.
Stubbing is removing the clipped feathers so
new ones will grow back.
Three weeks later they were caught again and
brailed. A brail is a Y shaped leather strap that
was put on the wing that didn't get clipped.
This prevented the birds from flying.
The farm had one set of covered pens. As
needed, the brailed birds would have their
brails removed and be put in the covered for
about two weeks before they were shipped.
If there were just one hatch of birds to care for,
this process would be just fine. Multiply the
steps by twenty to twenty five hatches and it is
easy to see that there were always birds that
needed attention.
In the late sixties major changes started.
Covered pens replaced the open range pens
and large brooder barns replaced the brooder
houses. The birds were taken directly from the
brooder barns to the covered pens. This
eliminated clipping, stubbing, and brailing.
Today the birds have little direct human
contact until they are caught for delivery.
In 1959 there were less than five acres of
covered pens. Today there are over 100 acres
of covered pens with a new pen under
construction. In 1959 the hatchery hatched
around 50,000 chicks. This year we will hatch
1.5 million chicks. In 1959 we raised 25,000
mature birds. This year we will raise over
300,000 mature birds plus 100,000 more for
meat.
As a result of constantly analyzing how we do
things, we continue to fine tune procedures.
We at MacFarlane Pheasants Inc. strive to
produce the best birds as efficiently as
possible.
There has been a growing list of projects on the
farm and the need for someone to plan, budget,
and oversee the projects was needed. The new
position of Project Manager has been created
which I have filled. The main summer project is
to replace 16.5 acres of top netting that was
damaged in the 2009 blizzard. It requires cutting
down and removing the old netting, replacing
numerous broken posts and stretching the new
netting. In April our farm was able to close on
the purchase of an adjacent 60 acre farm and
farmhouse, we call this our River Road farm. I
am overseeing the remodeling of the interior of
the River Road house, along with a new roof,
exterior painting etc. On the River Road land I
am coordinating the construction of a new 5.5
acre pen. On top of that we are concreting A
rooms in the two 50' X 300' brooder barns that
were built in 2005, and I am making sure that
job gets done right. Also it's my job to negotiate
the purchase of a composting machine this fall,
and then get it set up and operating.
New Position - Project Manager
•
Ryan George -
6
800.345.8348 ¥
www.pheasant.com
Left to Right: Jean Figueroa, Alonzo Wilson, Felipe Casique, Mark Hardyman and Ryan George -
Project Manager.
Looking Back A Half Century
•
Dave Lennox -
Dave Lennox
Shipping Clerk
“In 1959 the hatchery hatched
around 50,000 chicks. This year we
will hatch 1.5 million chicks. In
1959 we raised 25,000 mature
birds. This year we will raise over
300,000 mature birds plus 100,000
more for meat.”
Dave Lennox