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Raising
Pheasants
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Pheasant Hunting
The Friends of Hullett raise 1700 ring-necked pheasants every year and attract hundreds of visitors and hunters annually. As the birds arrive they are fitted with specs. These devices sit front of their eyes and discourage them from fighting and pecking at each other. As a result, when the birds released in the fall they have longer tails and are nice and healthy. The specs still allow the birds to feed and drink and do not affect their peripheral vision, which they rely most upon. They are checked, fed and watered on a regular basis. But even this takes time. When the birds are going through a growth spurt they can easily eat 200 kg of food a day.
Selected birds are fitted with a leg band. Participants of the Pheasant Challenge redeem the band and their $10 ticket to receive a corresponding prize. The prizes range in value from $20 to $150. Inevitably prizes are left over at the end of the season for which a draw is held. All monies generated by the challenge are put back into purchasing birds and supplies the following year. The agricultural fields, fallow fields, Native grasslands, upland woodlots and hedgerows provide a habitat for pheasants.
The females conceal itself easily than males because they are brown in color. Whereas the male have a distinctive brown plummage, long pointed tail, fleshy red eyes patch around the eye.
Agricultural fields play an important role in providing cover and food. A diverse mixture of crops provides an important feed source through most of the year. Spring feed is available from the winter wheat and hay fields. Summer feed is available from wheat, hay and bean fields. Fall feed is available from corn, hay and winter wheat fields.
The fallow fields are the food source for the Pheasants. In Hullett, the fallow field are the old field grasslands, shrublands, and successional forest. The old field grasslands at Hullett provide nesting, feeding and protective cover for waterfowl, game birds, small mammals and songbirds. The shrublands are dominated by non-tree species and are distinguished from early successional forest by the absence of species that will exceed 5 metres upon maturity. They usually consist of hawthorn, wild apple, red-osier dogwood, ninbark, and the non-native, common buckthorn. This habitat is especially important as a source of food and low ground cover for a great variety of wildlife. Successional forest consists of dominant hardwoods such as white ash and sugar maple. Other tree species include sumac, trembling aspen, Carolina poplar, and willow.
Native grasses provide a cost effective, sustainable, open meadow habitat during the summer and fall periods which is of critical importance to many species of wildlife for breeding, foraging and cover.Upland woodlots consists of 200 Ha forest patch that has shown to support over 80% of expected bird species on the landscape. Some of the Pheasants are also released in these woodlots. The coniferous hedgerows provide excellent winter cover for some wildlife and the deciduous hedgerows provide buds and berries for food.
