They have been in their pen for almost 2 weeks. They are 8 weeks today. We will be hunting them in the fall.
I release at 5-8 weeks. Not sure on the exact age. If your planning on hunting them I would just reccomend letting them go around 2-3 days before you plan to hunt.
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That sounds best to me. No sense in releasing them so early because you cannot guarantee they'll be there by the time you go to hunt. Plus, I'm sure the extra good food from being kept until then will make them gorgeous birds.
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The problem is they are picking on the little hens, not cannabalistic though. I think I might get half the roosters on the first release. Sam, we are doing what you suggest. If there are extra, I am keeping this one beautiful rooster, he already has his ring around his neck, almost green head (it is like blue right now, and copper color on his chest.
Alot of the hunting preserves do release a day or two before the hunt, but if you are having feather picking problems you can probably turn them out now. If you have a good feed plot setup they should stick around.
If you keep them in you will have to watch once the males start growing their tail feathers that they don't wear them out on the sides of the pen or that the other birds step on them and break the feathers.
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The problem is they are picking on the little hens, not cannabalistic though. I think I might get half the roosters on the first release. Sam, we are doing what you suggest. If there are extra, I am keeping this one beautiful rooster, he already has his ring around his neck, almost green head (it is like blue right now, and copper color on his chest.
You should keep a hen too! So maybe you could get fertilized eggs and incubate them somehow and get little pheasant chicks.
