Pheasant in the garden

[Dawsie]

The mother-in-law would like to see some pheasant in her garden, it’s a large enclosed area bounded on one side by a narrow strip of woodland, is it feasible to keep say 4-6 pheasant to stay without them wandering too far, thought about maybe clipping their flight feathers a bit but hopefully they could get up into the trees to roost?

There are one or two local cats but no foxes.

is it worth trying, anyone actually do it?

Cheers

 

 

 

[WalkedUp]

There are no areas of the UK truly free from foxes to my knowledge. You could clip their wings and keep them like chickens I suppose, but cannot see the attraction compared to breeding releasing and feeding them to live wild. 

[Free range Rob]

You would be better to put a feeder out and let them find it, keep it full and they will keep coming, I do this and often have 15-20 birds a day

[old'un]

if she lives in the sticks its possible she could encourage pheasants into her garden by putting some feeders out, if you have any birds in the area its surprising how quickly they will find this food source, having said out in the sticks I know one farm on the edge of a town that had about 4 or 5 pheasants wondering around the yard picking up spilled corn, they don't seem worried about the activity around the yard, but if you start to walk towards them they just slowly walk into a bit of cover but they are back out within five minutes, best is there are no pheasant shoots within 5 or more miles and I know they manage to bring off a brood or two so they are wild birds.

[GingerCat]

If there's pheasants about then a simple bird feeder will keep them in the garden. I have loads roaming through mine all year because of this. After a shoot day there's always loads more. The nearest shoot is a good 2 miles away. One morning the dog was going mad to get outside, I let him out and he ran off down the bottom where a huge flock of partridge flew up. 

[Jim Neal]

How much time and effort does she want to put in to it?  Or more to the point, how much time and effort does she expect YOU to put in to it now you're the appointed expert? 😂

Option 1:

You/she could put up a 10ft x 10ft partridge pen in the garden, stock some poults in it then release them by simply leaving the pen door open - obviously maintaining their available supply of food (pellets would be by far the better option) but remove the pen.  They might hang about, but that might be the last you ever see of them!  They'll naturally get the urge to roost in mature trees so they may well re-calibrate themselves to go and roost in the wood but come back to the garden to forage.

Option 2:

Depends if you've actually seen pheasants in the locality?  Try to tempt some in by scattering wheat in the areas adjacent to her garden if you can have a cheeky trespass, bringing the feed trail into the garden where you site a feeder.  Straw very much helps in this respect, it's like a magnet to pheasants (and barley straw is way better than wheat for durability in damp conditions).  Keep the hand scattering going until you hopefully start seeing birds coming in to the feeder.  Keep the feeder topped up and then start on your new-found hobby of air-gunning squirrels and rats all day and night 👍

[ditchman]

get some Reeves Pheasants when they are young...bring them up in an enclosure (release pen)....get them using to being fed....remove the pen..........Reeves pheasants tend not to wander....(thats my own experience).......at the same time put some golden pheasants in with the Reives....

 

just an idea

Edited August 28, 2021 by ditchman