Scientific Information
Class: Aves
Order: Galliformes
Family: Phasianidae
Subfamily: Phasianinae
Genus: Syrmaticus
Species: Syrmaticus ellioti
Species English name: Elliot Pheasant
CITES Status: CITIES I - endangered
Distribution: China
(from A Monograph of Pheasants Volumes I, II, III & IV, William Beebe)
Description
• Male - Black and white scale patterned rump. Silver grey tail with black and hestnut barring. Silver grey neck with black throat. Metallic chestnut back, chest, and wings. White V-pattern across the back above the wings. White and Blue bands on the wings. White abdomen. Red wattles.
• Female - Body is a tawny brown with dark brown, cream, white, and black markings. Middle tail feathers are body colour with brown barring and outer tail feathers on both sides are reddish brown. Both types of tail feathers posses a white tippet. Crown of head is a darker brown than the body colour and throat is black. Abdomen is whitish cream and wattles are red.
Diet
• We feed our breeders and young adults 16% layer pellets, our tiny chicks 25% Turkey Starter crumble, and our growing chicks 20% crumble.
• They get a handful of mixed grains every second day except during breeding season, fresh greens (lettuce, chickweed, dandelions, grass) and fruits (tomato, grapes, berries, etc.) when available.
Breeding
• Done in pairs or trios.
• Elliots are first year birds meaning that the female will lay eggs the spring after she is hatched. The male is fertile the first year.
• They start laying eggs around the 15th of March and will lay every second day until they lay approximately 20-30 eggs.
• They lay a small creamy tan egg.
Incubation
• Eggs are collected twice a day and marked with the date and breeding pen number and set daily.
• Eggs are set in an automatic turning Lyons Roll-X (RX2) with grid 109.
• Temperature 99.8°F, humidity-wet bulb 84 with humidity adjusted periodically depending on development of the air space shown by candling
• On the final day of incubation, each egg is placed in its own oval wire mesh hatching basket (6" x 3" x 3") and set in the Sportsman Rattite hatcher.
• Incubation for Elliots is 24-25 days.
• After the chick hatches, it stays in the hatcher for a minimum of 8 hours.
Chicks
• Chicks have a golden brown face with a brown crown and dark eye streak. They have a reddish-brown back and wings with a dark bar on both wings. They also have a creamy pale abdomen and chin.
• They start out in our round 18" brooder pen with a mixed assortment of chicks. After a few days they are separated into a 2' x 4' baby pen for about a week. They are then transferred to a Humes-Elliot-Copper 2' x 6' pen for the next 7-9 weeks. They stay with this grouping until they go outside. All of these brooding pens have wire bottoms with a heat lamp at one end and feed & water at the other end. The heat lamp is attached to a dimmer switch so we can turn down the amount of heat as the chicks get older until it is turned off completely.
• After they are off of the heat for a few weeks, they are moved outside to the pheasant house (has outside grassy pens and a heated inside house part where hey are blocked in for the night). At this point they are separated into an all Elliot pen. After they are toughened up, they are moved to an outside chick pen.
• Chicks are very easy to raise together with their own kind.
Pens
• 25' long x 10' wide x 6' high with a 4' x 4' x 4' house in the middle.
• Pens are covered with 2" diamond top-rite.
• Pens contain grass, which needs to be mowed every few weeks to a month because they aren't very hardy grass eaters.
• See Scintillating Copper Article for predator proofing set-up
Behavior
• Are calm and very quiet birds. They are a very showy bird and are quite easy to tame. Females like to show off by prancing and flicking their tail frequently and the males like to puff up and beat their wings. They are friendly and curious birds who love fresh greens or grains.
Article By Krissy & Donna Bush
Pheasant Ridge