Many years ago, the inhabitants of the villages near the Phasis River in ancient Greece began to domesticate very beautiful birds, whose meat has a great taste.
It is believed that pheasants got their name from the name of the river Fasis, near which they were first bred at home.
Pheasants are the largest representatives of the Chicken Detachment.
These birds are best known for their modern passion for people - the pheasant hunt.
But there are also breeds whose birds can be bred in households. If you decide to settle this bird in your own yard, then this article will be for you a wealth of information about the best breeds of pheasants.
Common Pheasant
These birds are very similar in appearance to the hens, but their tail is much longer.
Bird reaches in weight 0.7 - 1.7 kg. Plumage of very bright colors - on one bird you can see feathers of both orange, and violet, and dark green, and golden colors. But the tail of most common pheasants is the same - yellow-brown with a copper-purple hue.
Pheasants have fewer pheasants by weight, feathers are poorer in them. The body length of the male is 85 cm with a tail. Females are smaller.
In the wild, pheasants live near the water on the ground, where there is a lot of vegetation.
Most often, these birds can be found where reeds grow, and nearby are fields with rice, cotton, corn or melons.
These birds are very cautious, their easy to frighten. They run very quickly, even in dense thickets.
Pheasants rarely climb trees, most of the time they live on the ground.
Their diet consists of weed seeds, insects. Therefore, pheasants bring great benefits to agriculture.
The content of all species of pheasants is the same.
Aviary for them should be large and covered, because these birds are afraid of drafts, but they are not afraid of low temperatures.
Land in the aviary should be covered with material, such as sand, straw or sawdust. You can release pheasants for a walk outside the enclosure, the birds will not go far. Keep them in pairs.
The nesting period begins in the last days of February - the first days of March. The duration of this period is four months.
Females nest on the ground, build a nest of twigs and stems of plants. In one laying can be from 7 to 18 eggs of brown-olive color with a green pearly shade.
Pheasants of this breed are very good mothers, they will hatch eggs until the last, leaving only to eat.
If the eggs are taken immediately after laying, the female will postpone more. Thus, for the entire nesting period you can get about 50 eggs.
Eared pheasant
Eared pheasants are one of the most massive birds of this species.
There are 3 subspecies of this breed - pheasant blue, brown and white. The body of these birds is oblong, legs are short, but powerful, with spurs.
Pheasants of blue and brown near the ears have long white feathers, which rise upwards. Hence the name of the breed, since these feathers form a kind of "ears".
The feathers on the head are colored brilliant black, and the circles around the eyes and cheeks have a bright red tint. Feathers of both male and female have approximately the same color of plumage.
Eared pheasants in the wild can be found in the mountains in East Asia, but birds of different subspecies do not intersect. Pheasants of this breed form large flocks throughout the time, except for the breeding season. But even in this, the female and the male try to stick together.
Food these pheasants are extracted from the ground with their paws and beak, and their diet consists of green plants and insects.
Brown pheasant is so named because of the color of its plumage - it is brown in color. In the back area, feathers have a faint blue-green tint, and in the tail area feathers can be cast in gray shades. The beak is yellow with a reddish tip.
Males have small spurs on their feet. The legs themselves are red. Males in length can grow up to 100 cm, while the tail takes more than half of this length (54 cm). Females of this subspecies are smaller than males.
The blue pheasant has a blue plumage and a small ash-gray glare. The head is painted black, and the chin and the neck are white. The feathers on the wings are dark brown, but on the steering feathers there may be spots of various colors. The beak is dark brown, legs - red shades.
Males in length reach 96 cm, of which 53 cm goes to the tail. The female is smaller than the male.
The white pheasant is almost entirely painted white, but the top of the head is black and the area around the eyes is red. The ends of the wings are brown, and on the tail red and brown hues blend.
Keep eared pheasants need the same way as usual.
Eared pheasants have a poorly developed maternal instinct, therefore, for hatching pheasant, eggs should be placed in an incubator, or under a turkey or chicken.
In the incubation method of introducing young eared pheasants, the humidity in the incubator should be made lower than for the output of young pheasants of the common breed.
Hunting pheasant
This bird is a hybrid. Was bred by crossing several subspecies of the pheasant.
Those hunting pheasants that live in Europe were obtained by crossing Chinese and Transcaucasian subspecies.
Hunting pheasant reaches 85 cm in length, and gains 1.7 - 2 kg in weight. Males have a very bright appearance.Their tail is long and pointed at the end.
The legs are very strong, with spurs. In terms of color, the hunting pheasant hardly differs from the ordinary one, but not so long ago birds, whose plumage is completely black, were bred. The females are of a sandy-brown color, and in size they are smaller than the males.
In the conditions of domestic breeding, hunting pheasants live semi-monogamous, that is, there are 3 to 4 females per male. Sometimes males fight for a female.
Keep these birds in the aviarywith "families" to minimize the likelihood of conflicts between birds. The diet of pheasants should be mostly vegetable.
If you let the birds out for a walk outside the open-air cage, they themselves will find food in the form of insects. Greens are better to hang on the side grill of the aviary.
The meat of hunting pheasants has a special value because of its excellent taste and dietary qualities.
In taste, game is expressed in the middle degree. Cholesterol in meat Pheasant hunting is enough low.
The egg production of this breed of pheasants is quite high. During the laying period, which lasts about 3 months, one pheasant can carry up to 60 eggs, and 85% of them will be fertilized.
Pheasant breed is better in incubators.
It is also interesting to read about the incubation of quail eggs.
Diamond pheasant
Diamond pheasant was bred in the first half of the 19th century. Lady Amherst's pheasant and diamond pheasant are the same bird.
This breed pheasants very beautiful. The back, goiter and neck of the males are dark green, the tuft has a bright red tint, a white hood with black horizontal stripes, the tail is black, the wings are green, and the abdomen is white.
In the female, the tail is shorter than in the male, the color of the plumage is also less bright, but the stripes and spots are more clearly visible.
Near the eyes of females of diamond pheasant there are gray-blue circles. The male grows to a length of 150 cm with a tail length of 100 cm.
The female has a length of 67 cm, and their tail is short - 35 cm.
The weight of an adult pheasant ranges between 900 and 1300 g. Females are smaller, but not by much. The egg-laying begins already at the age of six months; if we take a pheasant for the season, it can produce up to 30 eggs.
These pheasants are very peaceful, calm, go to the hands of a person. Feel very comfortable in a closed enclosure.
Almost everything is eaten - starting with cereals (chalked grain and millet), ending with root crops and greens.
In home-keeping conditions, experts recommend feeding fish oil and phosphorus to diamond pheasants so that the bird absorbs food better and gains weight faster.
Golden pheasant
Birds of this breed are very beautiful, so they are popular with livestock specialists not only as a source of meat, but also used for decorative purposes. A golden pheasant was bred in the highlands of China. The male weighs no more than 1.4 kg, and the females weigh no more than 1.2 kg.
The males on their heads have a tuft of golden-colored feathers, on which there is an orange rim and a black border. The back and nadhvoste - golden, and the abdomen - rich red. The tail is very long, black. Females have no tuft, their feathers are gray-brown.
During the season, the average egg production is 40 - 45 eggs per adult female, young pheasants produce no more than 20 eggs. If eggs are taken from time to time, the egg production rate increases by 35%.
The meat of golden pheasants is dietary, it has a great taste, therefore it is widely used for gastronomic purposes.
Golden pheasants are not afraid of cold with temperatures down to -35 ̊C, that is, they will feel comfortable in the winter, living in a room that is not heated.
To keep them tedious as well as laying hens. The diet consists of leaves, greens and fine grains.
Due to low immunity, golden pheasants are exposed to various diseases.
Therefore, periodically these birds need to give antibiotics broad spectrum.
Romanian pheasant
Romanian pheasant is a subspecies of the pheasant. Sometimes these birds are also called Emerald or Green.
Romanian pheasant is a cross between Japanese wild pheasants and the European breeds of this bird. These birds got their name because of the characteristic emerald shade of feathers. But they are not purely emerald - on the feathers you can see the ebb of yellow, blue and other shades.
Romanian Pheasants bred purposefully for meat, as these birds in weight can reach 2.4 - 2.8 kg. On industrial poultry farms, these birds are slaughtered at the moment when they reach the age of 6 weeks, that is, their weight exceeds the mark of 900-1000.
Egg production during the nesting period is approximately equal to 18 - 60 eggs, it all depends on the age of the pheasant.
The meat of Romanian pheasants is very much appreciated due to its taste and dietary qualities.
In the matter of its content, this breed of pheasants does not differ from ordinary pheasants.
Silver pheasant
The silver pheasant is one of the most well-known representatives of the wide-tailed pheasants. These birds are semi-wild, since they practically do not go on their hands.
These birds are bred not only for decorative purposes, but also for obtaining meat with low fat content.
The male grows to a length of up to 80 cm without a tail, and with a tail up to 120 cm. The live weight of a pheasant can reach up to 4 kg. Females are much smaller than males, in length and in mass they are almost 2 times less than males.
The males have a very distinctive color - his crest is black, his chin and neck are black. The rest of the body is either gray or white, with black stripes. The central tail feathers are white.
On the head there is a red "mask". Females do not correspond to the name. Their main color is olive-brown. There are strips on the stomach, and each pheasant is different. The beak of the birds of this breed is gray, and the legs are red.
Egg production silver pheasant very good - For the season you can get up to 40 eggs. These birds have excellent immunity against various diseases.
They are also not afraid of low temperatures and wind, since their plumage is very thick.
Special care for these pheasants is not required. Feed for the bottom will serve as feed for chickens and geese. Also, they do not need a reservoir near the aviary.
It is rather difficult to deduce and maintain pheasants if you do not know the basic subtleties of this question.
But if you carefully examine this issue, then no difficulty will arise, and after a while you will look at the little pheasant and be touched. Good luck.
