Below are some questions that we have been asked in e-mails with the answers we have given.

Question:
Our Golden Pheasant has had an accident and lost his tail will he be alright?

Question:
Do you sell eggs?

Answer:
We don't. The reason for this is that it can be quite tricky to incubate pheasant eggs especially with the rarer species. We feel that we would end up with a large number of complaints if eggs did not hatch or if chicks died.
We prefer to sell birds when they are at least a few months old and tough enough to travel well. Our customers can see that the birds are healthy and have been looked after well and we can relax knowing that everyone is happy.

Question:
We stay hundreds of miles away, can birds be delivered as far and will they be OK?

Answer:
We can have birds delivered throughout the UK mainland. We would never send a bird away that was not strong enough to travel far. The birds tend to sleep for most of the journey as they are in a dark box. We do try and have them packed so that they are comfortable and if they did panic for any reason they would not be hurt. Any birds delivered by courier do have food and water available to them as they can occasionally be in transit for a day or so depending on the distance they need to travel and sometimes weather conditions during the winter can delay them a little.

Question:
How do you mark your eggs for incubation?

Answer:
When we first started incubating eggs we had some worries about how to mark eggs as obviously whatever you use has to be waterproof and also quick drying and not likely to smear. This meant a pencil was not ideal. When asking around we found out that some alcohol based markers are used in laboratories as they are non toxic. We use Sharpies permanent markers as they are reasonably priced and widely available (and they do state that they are non toxic on the packet). They also write very well on the eggs which can be a problem for some pens.
I am sure our hatch rates do not suffer because of the ink as we have had 100% hatch rate with our Lady Amherst's in 2009 and very close to this with some of our other species.

Question:
Are there any laws stopping me from breeding and releasing ornamental pheasants either as free range birds or for shooting like the ring neck pheasants?

Answer:
Yes. The law does state that no animal should be released into the wild that does not normally live in the UK. It may however be worthwhile to check with DEFRA and ask if it is possible to be granted a license to release them. There are some Golden and Amherst Pheasants already in the wild (these have no doubt been released or escaped and have survived and bred). I have heard of game keepers releasing Reeves Pheasants but this could be illegally. It may be however that they have been allowed to if they are licensed.
Many pheasants are fine free range if they have already had an opportunity to become used to their new surroundings. If you therefore start of with them in an aviary and allow them to become used to you and being fed it may be that they can gradually be allowed more space, eventually not having to be shut in at all. I know lots of people prefer to keep them this way but if they do disappear and turn up somewhere else you can be prosecuted.