What Does Day Length Have To Do With Pheasant Mating?

Pheasant mating is triggered by the longer spring days. The roosters’ pituitary glands become active at this time and the hormones produced cause the roosters to have the physiological desire to mate. At MacFarlane Pheasant Farms we have a select group of breeders, so of course we don’t want the pheasants we are growing for mature sales, to breed.

This year our first hatch was February 22nd. Typically, the first hatch is around March 7th.  Since we hatched earlier, as the days got longer, our males were triggered to want to mate. Imagine the scene when we noticed that the roosters in a flock of 20,000 pheasants were strutting around trying to claim territories! They strutted and crowed and had little tolerance for each other because their hormones were raging.

We had to move quickly to separate the 20,000 hens and roosters and eliminate the mating dances! We followed two basic procedures:

• Separated the roosters from the hens to make sure breeding did not take place.
• Added larger peepers to the roosters in order keep them calm and redirected.

All is well right now and we will have our beautiful mature pheasants ready for late summer/ early fall shipment! Now is the time to plan your orders and let us know your needs. We will help in any way we can to assist you. Please call our office at 608-757-7881 for advice on placing an order. You can also access an order form on our website.