Game Birds!

[james dilley]

The thread on the low lifes of ALF got me to wondering. Does anybody raise Gamebirds for sale or release??? And if So how did you decideto start??

[RoyalOaksRanch]

I used to raise ringnecks, several varieties of quail, chukar and ornamental pheasants for hunting clubs and private collections.
I mainly got started because I wanted some ringnecks for the freezer, this other guy asked if he could swap me two chukar for each rooster pheasant for his hunt club... So it started breeding more birds to have enough for what he wanted, I started out small and soon I had 300 pheasant breeders and as many of the other birds..instead of those commercial brooder stacks I started brooding batches of birds in sheds LOL.. And ended up selling instead of trading LOL.. Pretty soon it became a rather good business.
It can be rather profitable. But it is a bit of work when you run that many birds.
Now I prefer rasing the rare poultry (jungle fowl etc) and just raise the game birds for my freezer.

[pancho]

Start slow and work your way up. It takes quite a bit of money to jump right in and raise for sale to game farms. You can start with a few birds and work your way up to higher numbers. Stating slow will give experience with game birds and you can put the profits back into pens and equipment.
Disease and overcrowding is the most common problem people have when they first start up. Predators can also be a problem.
Always have the pen space before getting the birds. There is highs and lows in the market and sometimes you will have to hold the birds a little longer than you planned.
If anyone wants you to raise birds for them always get a contract and a down payment. They have a way of being hard to find when the birds are ready.