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Back in May we experienced an unprecedented
event in my tenure here, a break-in to our flight
pens. Something was getting into our pens and
randomly killing young pheasants. The first
two nights an average of 200 birds were killed.
We scratched our heads trying to figure out
what to do and what was killing the birds.
Over the next few nights our dead total rose to
almost 1,000. We needed help!
I was put in contact with an experienced
trapper by the name of Jeff. We searched the
area for clues, and Jeff immediately said it was
a fox. I had my doubts that a fox could climb
our pen fences or posts, walk down the top of a
division fence, chew a hole in the netting, get
into the pen, kill birds and then get back out.
But that is exactly what happened. The first
night Jeff set a trap, he caught a red fox. Just
when we thought we had the culprit, fox #2 got
into a pen with the same M.O. That fox was
stalked by myself and a few other MacFarlane
employees at 2:45 a.m. while in the pen on a
random killing spree. Had I not seen it happen,
I wouldn’t have believed it.
Predators continued to wreak havoc throughout
the summer. We had raccoons get into our
The red-legged partridge is a game bird in the
partridge family sometimes known as French
Partridge or simply as Redleg Partridges. Bred
for centuries on gamebird farms in France and
Italy, the Redleg has not been bred on a
commercial scale in the United States (in
comparison to the many commercial producers
of Chukar Partridge in our country).
For three years now, we at MacFarlanes have
been importing pure Redleg eggs directly from
L’envol de Retz, a large successful game bird
propagator located in France. We have been
very impressed with the fertility and
hatchability of the eggs we have purchased.
Winter 2010
IN THIS ISSUE
Benefits of Contracting Feed . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2
2010 Pen Reconstruction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2
My Father the Pioneer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
Kubota Meets our Need . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
MacFarlane’s Ringneck Pheasant . . . . . . . . . 4
Facebook in Pheasant Production . . . . . . . . . 5
Ins and Outs of Mature Season . . . . . . . . . . . 5
MacFarlane’s New Addition . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5
Steps to Ensure a Quality Breeding Flock . . . 6
CO 2 ’s Effect on the Incubation Process. . . . . 6
Not Just the Familiar Old Pheasant Pie . . . . . 7
Fall is Pheasant Season . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7
MacFarlane + Pheasants + Puzzle . . . . . . . . 8
Thieves in the Night
•
Brian Klein -
A New Bird in the Flock -
The Redleg Partridge
•
Troy Cisewski -
flight pens and kill young pheasants and adult
partridge. Those were caught in quick order.
We also have “catch boxes” around the flight
pens to catch strays that get out. They work
really well, but predators have figured out how
to get into them and get a free meal. Why so
many critters this year? I have to believe with
the damaging winter storm we had last
MESSENGER
800.345.8348 • www.pheasant.com
1
December, we attracted every predator in the
county because of the amount of stray birds
running around.
If you raise birds, I suggest you learn to trap or
know a good trapper. I now have Jeff’s number
in my cell in case we have any more thieves in
the night!
Pen Manager Brian Klein with a thief
Continued on page 7