chickens and phesants

[The Hopefuls]

hi everyone, happy new year!
i was just wondering if any of you guys keep chickens with other birds?
im looking into golden phesants but just wondered if they can be kept free range together and locked up together at night time?

thanks brooke

[snapdragon]

I've seen chickens and ducks together, and chickens and Guinea fowl,
but Golden Pheasant I've only seen with Peacocks at a park-garden where I guess they had more security (and possibly better earplugs)

[Alexandra]

Dear Brooke,
I've never kept Golden Pheasants, but I can't think of a reason why you couldn't keep them together. We have lots of 'wild' pheasants near us (reared for shooting I think), and they are forever in the field beside the chickens, so far without any side effects. Can't think of any major diseases that are specific to Golden Pheasants.
Hope all goes well.

[shane]

hi,
a friend of mine tried to keep pheasants and hens together in the same pen, the pheasants killed the hens each time, maybe free range will work better, but if they are locked up together at night you might have the same problems. but maybe he was just unlucky!

[The Hopefuls]

thankyou all for your replies,
i shall take them all on board, maybe make a seperate pen for the pheasants if they dont work out

[Mare Owner]

The "common" pheasants here in the US, take a different feed than chickens. I just received a catalog from a place we have ordered butchered pheasants from, and is says to not feed pheasants chicken feed, quoted from the catalog:

"Do not feed chicken feed to your chicks, it could seriously impair their health or kill them. Only use game bird starter feed. It must be granule or ground type feed and have a protein level no lower than 28%"

I am not educated at all in feeding fowl, we have chickens here, and they do fine, but I've never raised pheasants. And as someone else said, it may be different in a free range situation.