Joe, the flight pen.......

Dave Parks

Dave Parks

Well-known member
starts to be built this week-end. Mac called me today and said he'll be here Saturday morning with most of the netting for the 30'X100' flight pen. Tomorrow I will got pick up the treated posts and have them ready. Mac is getting the netting, cables and large fence staples.

We have 500 day old chicks coming. Mac will raise them in his brooder until they are 6-8 weeks old (that way I don't have to build a brooder house) and then they will be hauled out here and go into the flight pen.

By Mac doing the brooding, it give me more time to build the Quail, Chukar and Partridge pens which in total will also be 25'X100' and near the phesant pen. Lookinmg forward to releasing some birds on the place in September.

Phea_in_Flight_Pen.jpg

Day old chicks:
P-Day_Old_Chicks.jpg

Judy called and said that her flight to Devee was fine and right on time. After droping her off at the airport I did a little shopping, got two turkey decoys and ran into my neighbor Butch Martin. He was shopping for a percussion six gun and I helped him pick out a Colt 1851 Navy. He is going to bring it over so I can show him how those old muzzle-stuffers load & shoot.

Butch has been around here for a long time, he's our local version of Waddy Micthell & Baxter Black. He records the "Old Style" Cowboy Songs and Cowboy Poetry. He has an hour long radio shown on KRRM (the cream of Country Music station) called "Just Whitlin".

He also does work on our local PBS Station in Medford. He and his wife Liz live about a 1/2 mile north of us and are into horses, mules and old restored chuck wagons. Bucth has had plenty of guns over the years, but not a front-stuffer, I told him they are just as dirty to shoot as they are fun to shoot.

It's going to be a busy weekend!

Dave
 
As luck would have it,when you get the bird set up going strong,a buyer will come in for the entire place.Well Mac can take the birds,no problem on taking the pens down either.

Glad Judy made all her connections.Rare these days,especially flying AA.Sounds like the FAA swung their maintenance inspections from the sublime to the ridiculous.

I really like the Cowboy Poets.First time I heard one was on the Carson show about 25 years ago.I know they have an annual competition in Cody (I think) every year.

Talk to you soon.
 
Dave, if you are going to keep them for any length of time, i suggest you invest in a debeaker--The little buggers are VERY prone to playing pecking order stuff, even with humans---used to raise over a thousand a year--Ona good note, they were much easier to mess with than ducks,and a LOT flightier!
 
How fun, that will be one heck of a setup when your done. Are you elevating the quail and chukar pens or are they gonna movable? I know boith have some worm in there poop that make them difficult to raise. As george point out about pecking, you can just spex them, think that the termm for blinder like things.
 
Joe that is held in Cody each year ane I hear it really good. I asked Butch if he and Liz would show up at the "House Warming" party when we get it built down by the ponds? He said he's be happy to put on a show....if he could hang out in the down stairs 1880's Saloon where he'd look right singing his old Cowboy Songs.

As for the pheasants, we plan to install blinders on them. I'd hate to cut their beaks because I will be turning them loose in September (all except the ones we jeep for breeding. I have raised pheasants before and they can be a real pain in the bum if you don't nip those pecking problems in the bud. One way to settle them down if they do start to pick on a birds is to just throw out a few heads of lettuce or cabbage. They soon forget about fighting and spend hours eating the greens.

As for the Quail, Chukar and Partridge pens, I will leave those desings up to my bird expert. He will be here tomorrow to laid out the pheasant flight pens (I eventually want two 25'X100' pheasant flight pens so we can raise 800 to 1,000 birds a season). I'm looking at supplying a couple pheasant clubs with a few birds and a nearby State WMA for their annual Pheasant Season opener.

This year we just want to release as many birds as we can on a few local spots and service a local 80 acre Hunting B&B just down the road from me with both pheasants and chukar. It should prove to be interesting & we will see how things turn out.

Dave
 
As you say,the clip on dealies should work on the birds.Never had to use them on grown quail in the pen over three months.Another trick is to have brush and small trees inside the pen,which gives the birds a place to escape and hide.

For the Saloon opening we'll all chime in on the old western songs,like "Cool Water"et all.I'd like to learn a couple Cowboy poems as well.
 
Yes, you want lots of natural brush cover. Mac has ordered some dwarf spruce trees that will be planted inside the pens. We are also installing several plywood shelters that look like small "Pup-Tents". Mac has been raising exotic birds for 30 years and if I had to guess, he probably has over $300,000 in birds he is currently raising. He is currently building an additional 3 acres of new pens on his place down teh road from me.

The birds will look like this after I receive them:
P-8WEEKS-2.jpg

Lots of work, but also lots of fun and good eating. I mentioned the project to my Doctor yesterday and now he is all excited about coming over to shoot some birds this fall with his bird dog.

Maybe if I let him shoot enough birds he will give me the surgical transplant I need..........the complete body of a 20 year old male with my head attached! :^)

Dave
 
I figured that Mac would already have the trial and error stuff down pat.Sounds like fun.If you charged the doc for shooting a few birds,like he does to talk to a patient and write a prescription,he couldn't afford it very often.
 
Dave, we did find that they started regrowing--just not as sharp--the clips look to be a good solution, as long as you get plenty of practice cllipping them on---We did brush piles in the aviary, as well as roosts between the uprights.
Catching them was almost as much fun as putting them out on the property--you need to find some kids with lacrosse experience to weild the nets--Eons ago, we had a fellow who was not big on coordination try to help--he lost his footing and went bass ackwards thru the net-fortunately, we had the electric fence shut off at the time--after a fast scramble for the hog rings, we got the damage repaired---If you have any varmints around, it may be to your benefit to string a low and medium set of weed cutter electric--that ran full time, keeping dogs, cattle and other creatures away-only had one problem, and that occurred during a power outage, when some enterprizing raccoons breached the non functioning fence one night
we DID lose some adults to those buggers!!
Enjoy--they learn to flit about within a week, something we did not know!
 
Mac was never into the common birds like pheasants. He has always been into the exotic big money birds. We laid things out today and came up with 3 areas that are where I wanted to place the pens. 2 25'X100' footers for pheasants and 3 connected quail, chukar pens built inside a 30'X48' area. All teh pens will be in a lightly forested area next to the 6 acre food plot and between the ponds and the shop.

I made a phone call today and a friend will bring his big backhow/tractor and dump truck over next wednesday for me to use to make the pen pads. First I have about 12 dead pines, firs and madrones that I will have to fall and remove with the tractor. We have laid the pens out so that we can expand with more pens when needed.

Mac is going to install the watering and feed systems for me and he will take care of the birds when I'm not here. He is going to make me a constant flow watering system that sends the overflow into a pipewill that goes on down and into my upper pond. That way the birds are always drinking fresh water. It is the same system his friend (the guy we are getting the chicks from) uses on his pheasant breeding ranch. The feeders hold 30 pounds of feed and work via a baffle system that you only have to fill occasionally.

I have the hot wire fence chargers already (from when we ran cattle) and the pens will be hotwired from the ground level up to 6' a foot apart since I have everything from coons & coyotes to bears to contend with. I also need to call my well driller guy (who was supposed to be here 2 weeks ago) and get him to finish installing the PVC, pump and electrical in the new well house so I can make a run of underground PVC from the barn to the area of the new pens, with a couple of hose bibs at the ponds on the way up to the pens.

BTW Joe, I don't worry too much about what my Doc charges, I have zero co-pay! But I'm sure he don't have zero co-pay on my pheasants. :^


George,

All good info, Things have come a long way since I used to raise birds back in the '70's. Today they have auto waterers and feeders where you can go away for a month and not have to worry about the birds. The pen next to the food plot will have some short side doors where birds can be released on their own and they actually come back into the pens before dark. Kinda like Homing Pheasants!

Dave
 
These are the blinders that I'm ordering. They are easier on the birds and don't have the problems that "pinned on" blinders do. Birds with pinned on blinders can become injured or actuallu killed if they fly up and get tangled in the pen netting. These blinders can be put on by hand and they will pop off the bird if it gets hung up in the netting.

clip-on_blinder.jpg

Ahhhh!
XGROUP_OF_ROOSTERSXX.jpg

Dave
 
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