What is involved in keeping pheasants?

[eae]

My husband is very interested in getting a couple of pheasants to join our eclectic bunch of birds. Preferrably Reeves, but he'd be happy with anything.

Is it realistic to treat them a bit like new chickens, i.e. pen them up for a couple of weeks, then just let them loose and hope they hang around? Or do they need more substatial housing, pens etc? Would an adult male be aggressive to our existing chickens/guinea fowl? There is a pair of Reeves available, both male, one juvenile and one mature. We're not looking to breed, so don't feel the need for a female. Or would it be better to start with eggs so they can grow up on the property with the rest of the flock?

Our guinea fowl roost on a fence and just hang around. They've moved and lived at 3 houses with us and haven't left yet, so I assume they don't mind the service around here

** By "hang around", I don't necessarily mean sleep in the chicken coop and sit on the deck, just perhaps stay within a couple of hundred meters of our house.

[Marina]

One pheasant male may hang around - they cross breed with chickens but the eggs usually don't hatch. Wolga set some eggs last spring from a pheasant male who came to visit his girls if I remember correctly. There are a few photos of chicken x pheasant birds on the Internet.

Two males will fight, often to the death, so if you let them free range one will be 'expelled'.

We have raised pheasants many times and released them. They hung around for a few weeks and then disappeared to never be seen again. To keep them they need a generous aviary with one male per aviary. If you have a female penned up the male will hang around but if both are allowed to free range they may go somewhere else - or they may stay - or they may visit at times. The only way you'll find out is to try it out.

Pheasants will be unlikely to disturb the peace at your place.

[eae]

That's good info, thanks Marina. Very useful to know about 2 males being a no go. I think we'll try and get hold of some eggs next season and give it a whirl. At least then we're not out a lot of money spent on adult birds. All we're looking for is to pretty much have a glimpse occasionally. We lived in a houe 5 years ago where there was a small group of Reeves pheasants who lived across our property and one on either side. He had super long tail feathers and it was such a treat to see him, even if it was just once a month or so. Both his girls were eating on the driveway one time when I was leaving the house, and he stood in the middle of the drive and had a stare down with the car. There was just no way he was moving while his girls were eating. I think I sat for about 5 minutes enjoying watching them before they decided to move on

[wolga]

Keeping pheasants is quite interesting. Their chicks need a higher protein diet than normal chicks to thrive.
Ring neck pheasants never get tame. Even if you hatch them under a broody hen. Golden pheasants are not
as wild and flighty as ring necks. We used to have some and they pretty much stayed around the house because
they got fed every day.

[Kracka]

I visited some beautiful gardens where all they kept was male pheasants - all different varieties - they didn't seem to bother each other, the guy that ran it, said as long as there were no girls, there wouldn't be any fighting
but maybe that works better when its only males of different varieties?
although thinking back, he may have had his gardens divided/fenced into different areas, so maybe only have 1 or two in each enclosure was how he was doing it??
Only having the males meant every bird was stunning to look at!