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Most people assume all pheasants are the same,
but actually there are several different
subspecies and bloodlines within a subspecies.
So how does one maintain the traits and
qualities of a flock with all this variety? That is
what we will explore a little here.
The best thing to do is maintain your breeder
flock in separate pens at a separate facility if
your situation allows. These facilities must be
extremely secure – if you can put your fist
through a hole, a pheasant can fit through this
hole too. Securing your facility will insure you
can keep your bloodlines and subspecies
separated and that you control the breeding
process.
When selecting your breeders, determine what
number you’ll need, and then add another three
percent to allow for mortality. Choose your
breeders by looking for color, conformation,
weight, tail length and overall health. Birds
lacking in any of these traits or showing any
kind of physical defect should be rejected. The
birds you select then need the primary feathers
clipped on one wing and have a new peeper in
place to control aggressive behaviors. Your
breeder flock needs to have 24-28 square feet
per bird and be fed a 20 percent protein diet; this
is not the time to skimp on quality. Pre-
production health plays a vital role in quality
egg production.
It’s best to keep males and females in their own
pens until you’re ready to start the breeding
process. By following the above policies, you
can insure a uniform, healthy and quality
breeder flock which provides quality healthy
chicks.
Steps to Ensure a Quality Breeding Flock
•
Brian Check -
Large hatcheries have realized for a long time
that carbon dioxide (CO2) levels in the
incubator have important effects on freshly set
eggs. The standard belief is that bird embryos
just beginning to develop need a higher CO2
level to get a better start. What the exact reason
and mechanism behind this is not clearly
understood. Theories include possible positive
changes in pH or increased metabolic efficiency
due to higher CO2.
Whatever the scientific reason, it is an accepted
fact. So much so that when hatcheries make a
set of new eggs into a single stage incubator, the
ventilation is closed up completely. This allows
the CO2 to build up in the machine as it is
given off by the developing embryo.
With pheasants we have used the first three
days as the period with no ventilation. Some
chicken hatcheries have experimented with 14-
day periods with success in certain egg types.
Don’t forget to open up the ventilation after this
period as the need for higher oxygen levels
increases toward the end of incubation.
With a multi-stage incubator, ventilation can be
closed up when making the very first set of
eggs only. Once there are developing embryos
in the machine, they will increase the CO2 level
sufficiently to aid the next sets of fresh eggs.
Here at our hatchery we recently learned that
higher CO2 levels may benefit eggs prior to
incubation. We conducted a test to determine
that boxing and tightly sealing eggs prior to
shipping to customers had no detrimental
effects on hatchability. To our surprise, the
group of eggs stored in tightly sealed boxes
hatched better than the control group, 93
percent hatch of fertile in boxed eggs, vs. 87
percent hatch of fertile in unboxed eggs.
We intend to conduct this test a few more times
to see if we get the same results. If so, maybe
there will be a way of using CO2 during storage
periods to better improve hatchability. That
could be in the future.
CO 2 ’s Effect on the Incubation Process
•
Ben Lawton -
6 800.345.8348 • www.pheasant.com
Aerial view of MacFarlane’s Breeder Farm
Hatchery Manager Ben Lawton traying eggs to be put in an incubator