The Mature Game Bird Season is A Continuous Cycle
We begin shipping mature game bird at the end of July and finish up in early April, but the process for making sure you get a delivery begins much sooner! If you want to make sure you get the number of pheasants (all breeds), French partridges or Hungarian partridges you [...]
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What is the Largest Pheasant Breed Offered at MacFarlane Pheasants?
The Extra-Large Ringneck Pheasant is the largest pheasant breed we offer on our farm. This breed is primarily Mongolian blood and is a real challenge for bird dogs to get into flight! These big birds tend to be ground runners. When they do get off the ground they are slower flyers. [...]
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Popular Game Birds in 2016-2017
The Chinese Ringneck is our best seller at MacFarlane Pheasants. We expect to sell over 450,000 of these birds in 2016-2017. They are the most popular breed in the United States. Since they were brought here from China in 1881, they have continued to flourish and can be found in [...]
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The Afghan Pheasant is a Special Bird!
The Afghan-Whitewing Pheasant differs from other pheasants on our farm: The eyes of an Afghan Pheasant are distinctly yellow with a black pupil (most pheasants have dark eyes). The coverlids (feathers that cover the shoulders) of the Afghan Pheasant are white. The body color of the Afghan Pheasant is rust [...]
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French Partridges Continue to Thrive!
e have been raising French Partridges, also known as Red-legged Partridges, for several years now. We import the eggs directly from L’envol de Retz in France and we are the only commercial producer in the United States. These beautiful birds weigh between 19 and 25 ounces and are 13-15 inches [...]
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Successful Introduction of Pheasants to a New Property
There are two different strategies for introducing pheasants to a new property. Regardless of the strategy used, it is important that you prepare your property in advance as a good habitat for pheasants. Grasslands with low to medium grasses, wetlands, croplands, brush, shrubs and idle fields would be a good [...]
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6 Feed and Water Procedures to Keep MacFarlane Pheasants Healthy
Feed and water are the life source for our game birds. Our system for making sure our pheasants and other game birds stay healthy, by receiving proper hydration and nutrition, has 6 main procedures: We check feed and water systems daily, and each time we enter a room or pen [...]
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Steps to Raising Hungarian Partridges—It’s Worth the Challenge!
The Hungarian partridge is also known as a gray partridge, an English partridge, or simply called a "Hun". The Hun is a small bird with a short neck and tail and tends to be a little skittish, but quite beautiful. The juvenile Huns are pale brown with some darker streaks. [...]
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4 Steps to Keeping Pheasants Healthy in Winter
Have you ever wondered what happens to the birds at MacFarlane Pheasants during the cold Wisconsin winters? We take the following steps to make sure our birds stay healthy and happy during the winter months. It is a golden rule to never let our birds run out of feed. They expend plenty [...]
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Feed and Water Systems-Critical Concerns
Maintaining your feed and water systems is critical to keeping your game birds healthy. Be prepared to spend time checking feed and water systems in all barns at least three times every day of the week. If there are problems with either of the systems that are not recognized in [...]
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Game Birds Stay Healthy With Daily Monitoring
Monitoring of feed consumption is an essential component of making sure our birds stay healthy. One of the first signs of a sick bird is that they stop eating and drinking. This is why we are vigilant about checking our feed and water systems and our birds morning, noon, and [...]
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Choosing the Right Type of Game Bird
At MacFarlane Pheasants, we want to supply the best game bird possible. Although our ringnecks will always be our “go to” bird, over the years we’ve recognized that hunters – here and in Europe – look for different birds for different hunting experiences. If you’re wondering what kind of birds [...]
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Secrets to Raising French Partridges
French Partridges are a little smaller than a pigeon, fast and exciting to hunt, and delicious to eat. They can also be finicky to raise. MacFarlane Pheasants brings in French Partridge eggs from France and hatches them in our hatchery. This past year alone we had three hatches with 12,000 chicks [...]
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Peeping Our Pheasants
Peepers, also known as blinders, are small devices that are put on our pheasants' beaks to block their forward vision and prevent them from having a direct line of sight to other birds. The pheasants can still see well enough to eat and drink. The peepers are very helpful in [...]
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Vermin Pest Control
Making sure pheasants and the other gamebirds have a ready supply of food unfortunately means vermin try and take advantage of that food supply. At MacFarlane Pheasant Farm we take the issue of pest control very seriously. Rats and mice carry diseases and we make liberal use of bait boxes [...]
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How Much Do Pheasants Cost?
It seems like a simple question, but the answer is that at MacFarlane Pheasants, there isn't a fixed price for adult pheasants. There are a few factors that go into calculating how much a bird will cost. Your location's distance from our farm, the number of birds you order, and if [...]
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Every Bird Counts: Catching Escaped Pheasants On The Farm
MacFarlane Pheasants may be the largest pheasant farm in the United States, but we’re far from just an industrial bird factory. Our founders are hunters themselves, and that individual experience with the sport informs all our decisions with every bird we raise. That care extends into all aspects of our [...]
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The Afghan-Whitewing Pheasant
The Afghan-Whitewing is a breed of pheasant that we first discovered in Washington State. A farmer had a flock of these pheasants, and we were able to purchase a small number of eggs from him. We then hatched them here on the farm in the early 90’s. With this being [...]
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Catching Mature Pheasants
We have grown our reputation primarily on the sale of live pheasants and partridges to hunt clubs around the nation for release. We have systems in place for every phase of a pheasant’s life, and work diligently to provide our customers with the highest quality birds. Once the birds are [...]
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Turkeys vs Pheasants
Here in Wisconsin, we have entered into the spring turkey-hunting season. Hunters can register for weeks ranging anywhere from the beginning of April thru the end of May. This got us to thinking, how do turkeys and pheasants compare? First, let us discuss the similarities. Both are classified in the [...]
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