Manchurian Cross Pheasants, Exclusively MacFarlane’s

It is with pride that we have followed the success of our Manchurian Cross pheasants across the United States, Canada and in Europe. We hatched approximately three hundred thousand (300,000) Manchurian Cross pheasant chicks during this 2004 season. The reason we use the word “cross” is that it refers to the fact that the fifty/fifty Manchurian Cross pheasant chicks we sell are fifty percent pure Manchurian Ringneck and fifty percent Chinese Ringneck pheasants.

It has now been fifteen years since MacFarlane Pheasants successfully imported a shipment of pure Manchurian pheasants direct from China. We own the only pure flock outside of Mainland China. In addition, over the years we at MacFarlane’s have maintained this original pure Manchurian bloodline. We are the only farm outside Mainland China to have this pure bloodline because we are the only farm that has ever imported Manchurian pheasants from China. Additionally, we have never sold our pure Manchurian pheasants to anyone except for supervised direct release into the wild.

We will now be referring to our Manchurian pheasants as “Exclusively MacFarlane’s – Imported Manchurian Pheasants”.

Why do we assert that our flock of Manchurians is in fact imported from the wild? There are two reasons. In 1990, when we first bred the flock imported in 1989, our pure Manchurian hens laid an average of twenty-two eggs each. Today our pure Manchurian flock continues to lay twenty-two eggs per hen per year. Nearly all game-farm pheasant hens produce sixty plus eggs per hen each season. We assert that our pure Manchurian pheasants lay very few eggs because they are wild pheasants. If someone captured pheasants from the wild in the U.S. and bred them in a pen, (collecting any eggs laid on a daily basis) those captured hens would lay the equivalent of about two clutches of eggs – or about twenty-two eggs per hen. In addition, the true wild, pure Manchurian pheasants do not respond to lighting techniques employed to manipulate egg-laying cycles. However, the fifty/fifty Manchurian cross pheasants do respond to light manipulation. Be assured, if anyone professes to successfully lighting Manchurians, all they have are Manchurian cross pheasants, not the real, truly wild, imported pure Manchurian pheasants.

The fifty/fifty Manchurian Cross chicks we sell are the best and purest Manchurian pheasants available in the marketplace. Since we own the only pure flock of Manchurians in the Western Hemisphere, we know that the fifty percent pure Manchurian Cross pheasants we sell are purer than any other Manchurian pheasants available in the pheasant market.

Do not be fooled by other Manchurians on the market that have white feathering on the head and the broad white neckband. The primary reason customers want to purchase Manchurian pheasants is for the bird’s wildness. Wildness is a genetic trait, and it is difficult to select breeder stock with wildness as a genetic trait. In other words, our competitors who take our Manchurian Cross pheasants and breed them are selecting their breeder birds based solely on the white feathering on the head, and the neckband – they are not selecting based on wildness. Only by purchasing fifty/fifty Manchurian Cross pheasants from MacFarlane can you be assured of obtaining the wildest pheasant genetics available in the pheasant marketplace.

Why are we only selling Manchurian cross pheasants? At twenty-two eggs per hen, the cost to produce pure Manchurian chicks in volume would be uneconomical and the chicks would be expensive. We made the decision to breed pure Manchurian cock pheasants with our own game-farm hens. Using this method, we get the sixty-plus eggs per hen (from our game-farm hens), the wildness from our pure Manchurian cocks, and can supply the marketplace with reasonably priced fifty/fifty Manchurian Cross pheasant chicks.

Utilizing “Exclusively MacFarlane’s— Imported Manchurian Pheasants” to produce our fifty/fifty Manchurian Cross pheasant chicks we supply superior pheasant chicks to be reared for release. The wildness of MacFarlane’s Manchurian pheasant is a very heritable trait. The wildness of our fifty/fifty Manchurian Cross pheasants is difficult to distinguish from the wildness of any pure Manchurian Pheasants.

If you have questions about our “Exclusively MacFarlane’s – Imported Manchurian Pheasants” or, our fifty/fifty Manchurian Cross pheasants – please do not hesitate to call or email us. We would be glad to provide anyone with the details of the importations and the details of the past fifteen years here rearing Manchurians.