Raising Pheasants

Spring projects are in the air.
The Old Farmer's children were all active in 4-H.

One spring project, in conjunction with the game department, 

was raising pheasant chicks to replenish the fields for fall hunters. 

Hunting was and still is a big part of farm/country life.

 

There was an old building 

on the farm,

 about 10x10 feet square.
It had been a smokehouse back 

in the days they would

preserve meat for the family. 

Smoke would be channeled
into the building from 

an outside source 

and infuse the fresh ham 

and bacon with smoky flavor 

and preserve them. 

 The inside of this building was remembered as being quite black and sooty.
The Old Farmer and wife tried several uses for it over the years.
It was thought it would be a good playhouse for the Old Farmer's children.
This did not work to well as they (the children) came out sooty :  ) 

At one time rabbits were kept in it. 

When the pheasant project came along The Old Farmer moved

the building away from the yard, built a fenced area behind, and 

the interior was whitewashed. 

The big day finally arrived and a box with 30-50 baby chicks arrived, days old.
At that age they were kept in a small enclosed circle with a heat lamp above. 

As they grew the area was enlarged until they were old enough to go outside. 

As they neared 6 weeks of age plans were made to release them into the wild. 

This involved catching them, putting them into a portable chicken coop, 

and driving out into a field to release. This was usually supervised by a game warden.
One year it was thought we could release them at the pen area which backed up

to an old orchard that was quite overgrown. Unfortunately they stayed close

"to home" and many met unfortunate ends at the hands of local cats and dogs. 

This release method was not repeated.