Morning dew is still clinging to the grass on your lawn. The sun is breaking over the forest on the far side of your pasture. Everything glistens with the moisture that the night has left behind. It is a warm, beautiful summer morning. The hens are beginning to stir in their coop and the doves are awakening in the oak trees around the house.

Silence of the morning is broken by a loud voice; shrill, but almost serenading. The chickens and the song birds perk up and listen to this stately song. The song repeats itself as the echoes sound through the trees. In the house, your eyes slowly open.

A variety of peacocks including an Indo-Chinese Green, India Blue and India White

Out in the yard the song is called out once more. Iridescent indigo feathers fluff up while the bird stretches in the morning sun. Its long clawed toes grip tightly to its perch. He turns slightly to face the sun. In this moment his whole body shimmers emerald green and turquoise. His wings show a beautiful contrast of black, greens and browns. Shaking the sleepiness out of himself, he ruffles all of his extravagant feathers. His tail feathers, the hundreds of them, flow down below his perch. This enormous tail cascades down like a waterfall. Its edges seem to have been dipped in a rainbow: shining blue, green and red in the daylight.

The adult peacock calls one more time. A crest atop his head sways as he calls and his long tongue sings his morning song. Two peahens come walking out of their house into their netted run. The first walks into the grassy area of their aviary and begins to pick at the moist blades of grass. The second peahen waits at the door. She first cocks her emerald green head to look at the peacock on his perch. He watches tentatively as his peahens come to his good morning song. She is assured that there is no danger and steps out of the house and into the grass of the aviary. Three little peachicks hop out behind her. They are old enough to be out in the morning air, but still have the cute tendencies of chicks. They alertly look around the dewy grass and then up at their mom. The flock of peafowl are an amazing sight to see as they awaken from their slumber. The peacock sings his song a final time before joining his family for breakfast in the grass. You sit up in bed and think to yourself, "what better alarm clock is there on Earth?"

A Chocolate guinea hen.

This is a dream scenario that many people have. Fortunately, as many people do not know, this dream is very realistic. Countless people have asked me how they can possibly own peafowl or any number of other exotic birds. "They can't be in this area because of the snow." "Don't they only live in Florida?" "You can't just buy a peacock, can you?" Luckily, all these misconceptions are wrong! Most people can have peafowl where they live and just don't know it. If you have chickens, you can probably have peafowl as well. There are a few exceptions, but in most cases they can even live with the chicken flocks. Not only can you have peafowl, but you can have exotic pheasants, quail, waterfowl and a large assortment of other gamebirds. You just have to know a little information about them before adding these gorgeous birds to your homestead. Let's explore some of this information and decide if there is in fact, a gamebird for everyone.

Gamebird Groups
Ornamental & Production

There are two main groups that gamebirds can be broken into-ornamental and production. The ornamental gamebirds are for hobby and leisure purposes. These colorful and intricate birds are just for show and usually don't have any benefits other than unique songs and striking plumage. Production gamebirds are used to produce eggs, meat or a variety of other products for a consumer market. Many birds can fall into both categories, however. Before deciding on a particular gamebird or group of gamebirds, you should consider a few things; uses, feeding, breeding, housing and conservation.

Uses

What are you looking for out of your gamebirds? Would you like a bird that produces eggs, or perhaps meat for the table? Are you looking for birds to stock your property for wing-shooting? Maybe you are looking for a beautiful conversation piece to adorn your backyard.

If you are someone who has limited space, but would like a showy gamebird that has a melodious song-California Valley quail would be a good option. They only need about one square foot per bird and don't eat much at all.

Helmeted guinea fowl are great to help with gardening and with tick control. They are also a good source of eggs and meat for consumption. Gardening With Guineas by Jeanette Ferguson is a great example of how we can utilize these birds' natural abilities. Guinea fowl come in an enormous variety of colors, currently over 20. Guinea fowl fit into both production and ornamental groups.

A Mikado pheasant cock.

This country is also filled with a large hunting community. You might be looking for a colorful bird to add to your "back 40." Red-leg partridge and Manchurian Ringneck pheasants are two colorful and flighty birds that do well when released. These wild gamebirds are great for flushing during upland wing-shooting season. They are a thrill to hunt and a great meat for the table.

And of course there are the peafowl. Considered to be the most ornamental of all gamebirds, peafowl are an amazing addition to any farm or homestead. And they are much more reasonable than most people think.

Feeding, Breeding & Housing

Each gamebird differs in its exact specifications, so these guidelines are just that-guidelines. Our gamebird farm is operated in Maine. It is the farthest north of the lower 48 states. Many of our birds need no special protection from the intense winters here. They simply need an enclosure that is draft free and dry. Our peafowl often spend the winters with chickens and guineas. They roost together, eat the same feed and get along just fine. They are allowed out on nicer days, but usually avoid the snow. Peafowl, as well as other pheasants do very well on breeder or layer pellets that are fed to chicken flocks. They are started on a high protein crumble as chicks then weaned down to a simple layer or breeder pellet. Peafowl are better with a wider perch, for the obvious reason that they are much larger than chickens. Other than the fact that they need more space, the housing is relatively the same.

Other gamebirds are even easier to take care of. Provided with some cover and a small hut, many pheasants can weather the cold just fine. A "dog house" type of hut filled with straw will suffice for most pheasants to sleep in. We need to make sure, however, that they always have a supply of dry feed and thawed water. A corner of their hut can be set aside to keep the feed dry. As for the water, there are heaters available. If this is not an option for you there is another solution. Heavy plastic dog bowls work well for water. The ice can be broken out by banging the bowl. Then simply fill it up with hot water. It will be hours before the water is frozen and in many cases, the birds will have gotten their fill by that time. It is still wise to do this in the morning and in the evening for the comfort of your birds.

Gamebird breeding is generally similar. One male can usually be paired up with multiple hens. Most pheasants can have up to seven hens per cock. Quail and Impeyan Pheasants do better as pairs. This information is better to obtain prior to getting your birds. While the breeding displays can be a pretty sight, many males will fight over the valuable hens. Like chicken roosters, in many cases it is wise to have only one male in each pen during the breeding season.

California Valley quail cocks.

Winter cold usually changes the mood of things. Once territorial quail will covey-up in large family groups for the winter. They seem to forget all the fighting when it's cold outside. Remember, however, these are just guidelines. There are thousands of gamebird varieties out there. Read about your birds before getting them. Know exactly how to feed, house, breed and maintain them. Some areas require you to get a low-cost permit to keep gamebirds as well. Check your local area for the exact requirements.

Breeding gamebirds can be very enjoyable for the production keeper and the hobbyist alike. With the right housing, most gamebirds will just follow nature and breed on their own. It is our pleasure to watch these beautiful birds as they display for courtship in their colorful plumage. Many pheasants and other larger birds will incubate and hatch their own eggs. Quail are not particularly known for this, but have been known to rear their own young. With the more elusive and rare birds we have a tendency to artificially incubate the eggs to prevent any unnecessary losses. Quail generally take around 17-18 days to incubate and larger birds have an average of 26-28 days. Whether hatched artificially or naturally, the chicks are one of the best parts to owning gamebirds. Little balls of fluff that cannot help but be cute are yours for the raising. It's very humbling to watch a little puff-ball mature into a young bird and then a full-grown adult breeder. While it is fun and cute to watch the little babies mature, they usually carry a bigger burden than we know.

Conservation

Many of our beloved ornamental birds are dwindling down to extinction. The Elliot's and Mikado Pheasant and Indo-Chinese Green Peafowl that we breed are listed as endangered in their native ranges. It is our duty as enthusiasts and hobbyists to continue a pure lineage of these breeds to be able to re-populate their wild habitat. Many cases of rapidly declining populations are man's fault anyway, so who better to re-stock these beautiful birds than us?

On our gamebird farm it is one of our goals to be able to produce enough birds that they can be distributed at reasonable prices. The more birds out there, the less endangered they become. We would also like to become part of a bigger picture by releasing some of these birds back to areas where they are no longer found in the wild. The more people that strike-up and join in this conservation, the better. Even if we each save only one bird, imagine the amounts that would add up to. We must ensure that this beauty will be here for the next generation.

Now that you have jumped into the spectacular world of backyard gamebirds, it's your choice: are you ready to pursue a certain species that has caught your attention? Maybe you have found something that has triggered an interest that you haven't had before. Colorful quail, flighty pheasants, gardening guineas, practical peafowl. It is most certainly my belief that there is definitely a gamebird for everyone!

For more information on these great birds visit our website: www.ShadyHollowFarm.com. We are a very customer-based farm specializing in keeping it friend to friend. The products we sell are living creatures and should be handled in such a manner and we operate as a family farm. If you are looking for a certain gamebird or just some information, feel free to visit our site and browse around. Questions and comments are always welcome.