does anybody raise/breed gamebirds ?

[tri5ron]

Just wondering if anyone here has any expeience with raising gamebirds ?
Pheasants, Quail, Chukar, Cornish, Gueinea, others ?

After many years of wanting to re-create one of my fondest childhood memories, I am finally going to make it happen.

When I was a kid, my best friend who lived across the street, had a large aviary, where we raised fancy chickens, quail, a few pheasant, and some others.
We shared some our best times there with his wonderful Dad teaching us. I felt very close to his Dad, and thought of him as a very special man, whom I truly loved and respected.
He was like a second Dad to me.

fast forward to now, ...some 40+ years later, ...and we have recently lost this highly respected man.
He touched the lives of anyone he ever met, and will be missed by all who ever knew him.
I will miss him for the rest of my life, but will always carry with me the lessons he taught me.



My buddy has been in town and staying at my home for the past few days.
We got to talking about stuff we did as kids, and the good times that we always had.
Well, one thing led to another, and we decided it would be WAaay to cool, to re-create that aviary , in honor of his Dad, and share some of those same lifelong memories and experiences with my own kids.

It's funny how somethings may seem so insignificant to some, yet be such a vital and important component of another's life,...
and have such profound and positive influence's on how we think, grow, and develop into the type of people that we become.


So for the past few days, We have been hard at it, and it's coming along nicely.
here's a few pics...

http://i111.photobucket.com/albums/n148/tri5ron/IMG_0875.jpg

http://i111.photobucket.com/albums/n148/tri5ron/IMG_0879.jpg

http://i111.photobucket.com/albums/n148/tri5ron/IMG_0886.jpg

http://i111.photobucket.com/albums/n148/tri5ron/IMG_0897.jpg

http://i111.photobucket.com/albums/n148/tri5ron/IMG_0906.jpg

http://i111.photobucket.com/albums/n148/tri5ron/IMG_0908.jpg

Thanks Mr. Metzger, for all that you taught me.
Alot of who I am to this day, is a direct result of how you treated me, and made me feel worthwhile.
(yeah, a few of those butt-whoopin's I recieved, were well deserved too, and I'll never forget them either).

I hope you are still proud of me, as I am Very Proud to have had you be a guiding light in my early years.

I'll soon be lifting a cold brew to you , over a plate of pickled quail eggs, and roast pheasant,... just like in the old days.

I've still got my clay pigeon thrower, The one I made in High School Metal Shop Class, copied from the one you got for Christmas in '77, and I still have Your favorite Remington 1100, and 870 pump.
I'll always love you, and never forget you.
Ron

[Pappy]

Good for you!

I raised many Pheasants over the years, had a male and female that were basically pets and would fly back to the yard year after year.

My neighbor raises racing pigions and others (few quial etc) and we have been talking about getting brooding and rearing pens built here but using the netting system. Intent would be to raise 3-4 thousand quail at a time for release and resale.

[rundrave]

I have some experience, but its something you need to do as a hobby instead of making $$$

It doesnt take much for some sort of predator or varmit to get in somehow and kill all of your birds. And when I say all I mean all of them. I came back to the bird loft one day to find some sort of mink or something and killed every single bird in there.

I do more of the pigeon trapping and homing pigeons to train my bird dogs. I like the homers for the reuse and they are pretty cheap compared to other birds. If I trap pigeons there is usually no cost involved. Homers I can buy for pretty cheap.

I have plenty of pheasants that are wild to shoot here so no need to train with them lol.

The only time I deal with quail and chukar are for hunt tests etc. They are too hard to keep alive in the changes of weather we have, and they need to be off the ground etc so they require a ton of work.

[400exrider69]

I started raising pheasants a few years ago and sold some. The main thing like you have is a very tight pen. Plus you live in the city so you don't have to worry about hawks yotes and coons as much. Your main problem is DOGS. I live in the middle of no where and I've had 30-40 chickens kill by dogs not to mention what i've had killed by hawks owl's and yotes. You win some you loose some with livestock i've learned that many times

[tri5ron]

Originally posted by Pappy
Good for you!

I raised many Pheasants over the years, had a male and female that were basically pets and would fly back to the yard year after year.

My neighbor raises racing pigions and others (few quial etc) and we have been talking about getting brooding and rearing pens built here but using the netting system. Intent would be to raise 3-4 thousand quail at a time for release and resale.

Thanks Pappy,... (and everyone else too),

Mr. Metzger was a man that was second to none.

Knowing the things that you are into, I can say with confidence, you would have enjoyed and cherished spending time with him as much as I did.

We also had some racing Pigeons, and some Tumblers, which I intend to include in the flock.

I will definately have a pair Ringneck's, and a pair of Goldens.
(which will probably be pets too).

Quail will be mixture of common Pharoh's, and Bobwhites, but I hope to also have some California Valley's, Gambels, Mountain's, and am very interested in some of the Georgia Giant Bobwhites.
The Giants are supposed to grow to 16-18 oz.'s each !!!
that's HUGE for a Quail !!!

Chickens will be a mixture of laying hens, (6 to 8 hens), that I haven't decided on types yet, but will certainly include a Rhode Island Red or two.

My kids are very excited, and can't wait to be picking eggs from the coop, but for some reason my wife is frowning on the idea of an Emu..... LOL!
humph,.....WOMEN !!!

We made some more progress today on the Aviary, got all the last of the mesh on, and will be building the door in the morning.
after that, comes the Chicken/Pigeon coop inside, and then the Quail cages, and isolation cages for sick or injured birds.

I'll post some more pics of the progress later, if anyone is interested.

[400exrider69]

for white eggs pearl white leg horns are the best. For brown eggs buff orphington's are great brown egg layers but won't sit eggs. If you want to get a bird that will sit eggs my best luck is with older barred rock hens, they've hatched ducks and chickens both many times.

[tri5ron]

As far as chicken eggs goes, I prefer the large/extra large brown eggs. so what are the best choices of birds for those?

My buddy who is helping me do this project, (Richard Metzger II, aka... "Two" ), was telling me about some chickens that his neighbor has, but cannot remember what they are called.
Two says that they lay eggs that look like Easter Eggs, and that the kids would get a kick out of that.
Does anybody know what kind of chicken it is, that he is reffering to ?

also, in doing some research on Quail, I have seen a variation of Bobwhites that I was previously unaware of. I mentioned them in my last post,... The Georgia Giant's. They seem to be also known as Speckeled Mexicans.
Is anyone familiar with these?...
have any experience with them?...
tips, or do's/dont's?

btw-
Yeah I know I should take these questions over to a bird Breeders forums,....
And I probably will.
But alot of the members here are avid hunters, and have much larger properties, and farm experience than I am able to do where I live, so what the heck,...
I figured I'd toss up the questions here.

(Seems better than, "which stickers or grips give the most horsepower"?) LOL !

[rodeo#11]

we have raised chickens for years now my grandpa has owned a chicken far since his late 20's. He orders everything from http://www.mcmurrayhatchery.com/index.html their real good to do business with and he has never really complained about them at all.. http://www.mcmurrayhatchery.com/rainbow_layers.html i think that is the chickens your talking about.. their called rainbow layers.. we use to have a few.

[Tommy Warren]

I thried to breed a turkey but it moved around too much:devil:

[3400ben]

When I was younger we would raise about 2000 pheasants a year.


I had to chase tommy warren out of are turkey barn one time to!:devil:

[3400ben]

Your pen looks nice. I hope you don't have weisels or mink in your area they could slip though that fence. They can put a hurting on a pen full of birds in a night.

[tri5ron]

Originally posted by 3400ben
Your pen looks nice. I hope you don't have weisels or mink in your area they could slip though that fence. They can put a hurting on a pen full of birds in a night.
Thanks for the compliment.

We don't have any weasels or mink here, but we do have a few things that I am a bit concerned with.
The only local predators here that might fit through the larger sized wire mesh, would be large fruit rats.
We also have domestic house cats, opposums, and occaisionally a racoon.
I don't think any of the local hawks will be any problem, due to them being too large to get through the wire mesh. They are large Redtails, rarely an owl, and smaller Coopers, and Sharp Shinned hawks.
We don't really have any snakes nearby.