It seems like pheasants and chickens are similar since they all belong to a family of ground-living and heavy birds named the Phasianidae. So is there any hope to bond them?
Can pheasants and chickens live together?
Of course, you can have the room of raising pheasants and chickens together, however with plenty of plans and taking some precautions to make it successful.
Here are some contrasts that you should take a look at to see whether or not it is a good plan to let pheasants and chickens live together.
Some things about pheasants
Firstly, pheasants are birds that are considerably similar to wild quails, chickens, and partridges. They have more than 35 species and come from Asia.
Apart from Asia, pheasants appear in North America and Europe widely for the time meeting.
Secondly, male pheasants and female pheasants do not have the same appearances, it is called the sexual dimorphism phenomenon.
Males are much larger than females and have the bright fur decorated with brown, purple, golden, white and green features. Their heads are red and adorned with small wallets. Their necks’ color is green and decorated with white collar.
Meanwhile, female pheasants have the brown plumage.
Thirdly, pheasants’ legs are strong and long, they also have sharp claws.
Fourth, pheasants will attempt to escape. Since pheasants are wild birds, they have a strong desire to free in the wild. That is the reason why they will run out of their houses if it is possible.
Fifth, pheasants are omnivores as chickens. They consume mostly grains, seeds, berries and look for insects, snails, earthworms to eat in the summer.
Sixth, pheasants’ lives are short. Young pheasants usually die before they turn to about 2 months old.
There are still some birds living about 3 years, however, it is seldom and just accounts for only 2-3%. (Source)
Allowing them to be free in a wild environment is a chance to lengthen pheasants’ longlife.
Finally, pheasants’ eggs have smaller sizes than chickens’ eggs. In comparison with chickens’ eggs, pheasant’s eggs have more yolk ratio and also taste richer.
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Some issues before raising pheasants and chickens together
Pheasants are closely relative to wild animals
Pheasants are extremely aggressive and have strong possessiveness. When they have a sense of chickens’ threat such as stealing their food or territory, they are likely to attack or even kill chickens.
Pheasants can peck chickens to death in some cases. So, you should watch them carefully and separate them right away to make sure bad things do not happen and your chickens can be safe.
Pheasants are noisy
Pheasants roosters’ noises can be ranked with guinea hens that are considered having one of the loudest calls. It means that pheasants are able to startle chickens and stop chickens’ laying temporatory from time to time.
Flu
Since both pheasants and chickens love digging into the soil to look for some food, they are able to consume contaminated droppings of each other accidently.
Once they are infected, pheasants and chickens can become sources of the disease and spread out easily.
Additionally, chickens are quite immune to a few diseases, they do not show many symptoms when being sick. Therefore, when you recognize the signs, it is likely to be too late.
Dietary food
Pheasants and chickens’ diets are quite similar. For pheasants, their food needs higher protein content so you should choose their food precisely to enhance their development.
Mating
Pheasant roosters tend to cross-breed hens. Though it is not detrimental for both of them, that process as well as produced eggs do not make sense because they are always sterile.
Most importantly, pheasants can be too aggressive when mating with hens. These things are the reasons why we would be better to divide them apart.
Some advice before bonding pheasants with chickens
Fencing
Fencing pheasants with chickens
Since pheasants and chickens overwatch their territories, you need to divide their own spaces with a fence.
This not only can help to prevent them from getting into fights but also is a good idea for them to make friends with each other for the beginning without any serious problem.
Providing pheasants with plenty of space
Lacking enough space is one of the reasons that make pheasants eat chickens. Pheasants will feel stress and become cannibalistic when being in a narrow place and that leads to their bad behaviour.
Serving food
As we mentioned above, pheasants are able to attack and kill chickens if chickens have a look at their food. So it is necessary to feed pheasants and chickens far away from each other to avoid that situation.
Space control
One of the pheasants’ features is that they want to be free in the wild. Furthermore, they fly quite further and run very quickly.
Therefore, you need to allow them not to look for food in far areas which are out of your sight.
In addition, you also should have some protective methods to prevent pheasants from escaping out of their rooms.
Conclusion
So, it is possible to let pheasants and chickens live together, however it is not a piece of cake. It requires a lot of precaution and you should have full preparation to help them live in harmony.
If you follow the necessary solutions listed above, it will be highly feasible to tackle this task.