O/T Anyone feed wild pheasants?

[OhioFisherman]

I have some Pheasants living in my back field and would like to encourage them to stay, beautiful birds. Anyone have any experience with a commercially available food for them? They don`t seem to be too spooky got 15 feet from one on the lawn tractor and all it did was stare.

 

Lots of grasshoppers in the field later in the year, wild blackberries, possibly wild strawberries, no grains though, I am not a farmer. No clue on their choice of diet.

[mpt]

Cracked corn should make them happy.

[ricoboxing]

feed them till the fall.

then they will feed you.

[Riparian]

If you are near a feed mill, go in to the office and ask for a 25 kg bag of non medicated broiler feed. Tell them its for pheasants. They will help you out. I should know, I work in one and we make all sorts of animal rations including one for ducks. But the broiler chicken feed in pellet form should be fine.

[Riparian]

I found something else for you.

 

http://www.wildlifeseeds.com/foodplots/birds/index.html

 

-Rip

[OhioFisherman]

Thanks OFNERS! Ya lot of feed mills within 10 miles of me, I will check them out! also want to get some feeder blocks for deer anyway. Rico, I don`t hunt, just no interest in it, although I will and can shoot at targets. I let about an acre and a half of my backyard go back to nature to encourage wildlife to stay.

 

Most just stop as a place to rest when passing thru. LOL no point in cutting all the grass if you don`t have too. For me it`s nice seeing animals other than horses,cows and alpacas.

[verno]

You should be able to find some good info here, and you may even be able to get them to help you out.

pheasants forever

[Corey]

I would feed them lead, #6 to be exact.

[OhioFisherman]

I did find this http://www.answers.com/topic/common-pheasant. LOL Corey a game club in the area leases a lot of farmers fields and other areas for hunting and stocks them with Pheasants and maybe other birds? They built homes across the street from me about 5 years ago and these are the first I have seen since. I have no idea if these decided it was a better place and moved or if some of the old stocked ones have managed to breed.

 

We have 2 cats and 3 dogs, that is enough hunting pressure on my land. I don`t have to clean a target! LOL

[taper]

One thing to add is if you are going to feed them it is a commitment. If you start they become Dependant and if you stop some birds can have trouble returning to scrounging for their feed.

[ilario]

One thing to add is if you are going to feed them it is a commitment. If you start they become Dependant and if you stop some birds can have trouble returning to scrounging for their feed.

 

 

a good reason not to feed WILD animals...but to each his own!

[OhioFisherman]

LOL Taper, ya I know about that, not really looking to become their daddy and provide food all the time, just looking for means to encourage them to stay or visit. We used to put out Hummingbird feeders and had a bunch of them hanging around, the feeders seemed to attract 100 yellow jackets for each Hummingbird, I didn`t want them around! We just planted a small garden with plants they like, well the wife and kids did. I supervised though!

 

Honey bees seem to be hurting here, I have country grass, lots of clover, anything green is good enough for me. Walking out to the swimming pool was a challenge in season, look out for bees, haven`t seen a honey bee this year here. Numbers of others seems to be down too.