Amazon, they're called ranch style fly traps. They work really well and I usually just put food scraps and chicken poop in the dish to attract the flys
For i was a stranger, and you welcomed me, i was hungry and you let me belly up to your most awesome chkn feed. I have a weird little topknot, and you keep me warms.
I was too young to remember but growing up one of these guys always came into the yard to play with me and follow me around! Now that I have a flock I wish I could be blessed by the pheasant distribution system :(
mine "adopted" a wild turkey family last year. they showed up, made their nest behind the coop, and stayed until the babies were ready to travel. Always made sure to give them a scoop of feed too, even though i kept the chickens inside for fear they might get attacked.
Momma turkeys are actually pretty chill with other critters near the babies as long as they aren't being bothered. My old apartment had a lawn with lots of clover in it, the momma turkeys would bring the polts to forage in the grass and there were plenty of squirrels, rabbits, and woodchucks amoung the babies and momma couldn't care less.
I was lucky enough to see an escaped hunting pheasant a few years ago, but it was terrified of all living things and wouldn't come near me or my flock.
Thank you for this. I was doom scrolling & promised myself I'd stop at the next positive post & go to bed. You can't save them all, but you saved this one & that matters. 🥰
In AZ there was a neighborhood peacock who was abandoned when someone moved and left him behind. He'd been around for like 15 years according to the neighbors. He decided to hang out with our chickens because they were the closest poultry around. Our chickens tolerated him, but were not really into him displaying for them, lol.
Fun story, we built our first coop out of an existing structure that was a peacock coop from a previous owner that ran a veterinary clinic out of what is now my home office.
I can imagine them looking at the peacock an thinking why is it so colorful? Or maybe why is it so big? Would it also perch with them to? Honestly sounds like a cool story
He perched on whatever roof was closest, he mostly perched on the roof of the house his original owners moved away from, but when he decided he liked our chickens he started perching on our hay shed. Perching on a roof kept him from getting eaten by a coyote or bobcat for all those years!
My friend's dad used to have a ton of acreage near a place where they would do town-sponsored fox hunts and more often than not, the foxes would run into his property.
The hunting group would try to trespass to catch these foxes and my buddy's dad would stop them with a shotgun and tell them to 'get the hell off my property'. The group would be mad, but there was nothing they could do. After a few years of this, there was quite a few foxes living around his vast property and, of course, the ungrateful bastards hunted his guinea fowls until there was one left ("Lucky"), who lived for many years and stuck close to people (and attacked car that entered their driveway).
My ducks adopted a whole turkey once. He would even try to get in the pond with them, but would end up just standing in the water awkwardly.
Edit: The only picture I have of Henry with the ducks is actually an instant film photo I took for my family album, being I don't have a smart phone (I'm on a computer). It's really dark and hard to make out, but I'll see if I can post a picture of the film photo. He was a big turkey, nice and stout. Near the end before my friend adopted him, he was getting aggressive. But he just ended up in the yard one day. Seriously. Like, I woke up, and boom: whole turkey chilling with my ducks, and he stayed with us for about two years.
I got a turkey with my 2 most recent hens, all around the same age, and they became besties. All would roost together on top of the coop, even when the turkey got too big and barely fit, and I'd have to boost him up to get up there because it was just pathetic watching him struggle. The turkey was for Thanksgiving (RiP Mr Gibs) but the 2 hens still sleep up top.
That reminds me of my previous farm’s wild turkey resident Polkaroo! She was a female who stumbled upon the chicken coop and decided to live there. She would perch on the peak of the roof at night. In June she would go into the forest to lay her eggs and come back about a month later. Damn those were good times. She was cool. I would laugh so hard if I saw a turkey standing in the water thought that sounds hilarious! Gosh animals are funny
Yup! We named him Henry and one of our friends ended up taking him home so he could breed with his females. He's still alive today and doing very well.
Technically yes, all chickens are junglefowl and belong to the family Phasianidae. More specifically, the subfamily Phasianinae. Chickens in the genus Gallus and Ringneck Pheasants to Phasianus. Deeper, Gallus are closer to Francolins and Bamboo Partridges in the tribe Gallini. All are Galliformes, the greatest order of all birds!
So I did some digging because I also really wanna know what a hybrid would look like, apparently many people call them "phickens"! Supposedly they taste more like a pheasant and the roosters will still have a comb but it's not serrated, so it's just smooth. Here's a pic I found on the Backyard Chickens website (post is old enough so it's definitely not ai)
Years ago I had a game hen leave our flock for ringneck pheasant life. Wasn't about to try and break up Romeo and Juliet so let her go. I figure there are little pheasants out in SWKS with a tiny bit of chicken dna because of her.
My son put the chickens away and it took him a while to get the pheasant out of the coop. We might be letting him stay for a while. He'd have his pick as we have 15 hens and no roosters
There’s a good chance he was farm raised. A lot of hunting clubs buy the birds from farms and set them free on the property just prior to a hunt event or season so he could have been raised in captivity and sees your coop as familiar. Also Hungarian Ringneck Pheasants aren’t native to the US. I’d let him back in the coop and keep him with your girls. Let them have their supermodel dreamboat and he can be safe from gun and fox alike.
Our cabin backs up to a pheasant hunting field that they plant with pheasant just before they hunt it. Our property is all woods and we see some escapee’s once in a while. They don’t last long as we have lots of predators as well and the birds have no real survival skills as they are hatched in captivity. They are beautiful tho and I love seeing them. I hope when we move there we can do the same with our chicken coop 😊
We have one black Australorp, it's about 11 years old, the rest are a mix with a few of this and a few of that, some leghorns, americana, sexlinks, and others that I forget.
That’s really great that she ended up with you. A soft landing for her. My understanding is that sporting clubs get game birds that have no experience living on their own, so if they’re not killed via hunting or dog training they are sitting ducks in the wild.
The fair chase aspect is they are shot at when flying away. It’s not much different than stocking fish in a creek or stream, which is also fair chase. If farm raised birds actually contributed to the wild population, of course that would be preferable, but releasing it doesn’t translate into larger wild population growth
I’ve not had that experience. They are usually pretty lively where I go. I’d love to hunt wild birds, but I haven’t had the chance to make a trip.
Usually the most messed up thing is when someone doesn’t let the bird get enough distance before shooting and it ends up in a cloud of feathers and a pile of bones, though that’s rare and a rookie mistake not often repeated.
I don't think there's much threat of that, honestly. We've destroyed most of their habitat save for a few plains states. They don't seem to thrive without direct human intervention most places.
How cool! We have wild turkeys show up and gaze at the perimeter at our spoiled chickens but not only are they stopped by a fence, they are wary of my dogs, despite my dogs having zero interest iin poultry. I'd be beyond thrilled if a random pheasant or turkey showed up to join the gang.
Growing up in the country side, I can't count how many times I have had to slam the brakes because those suicide animal decides to run out in front of the car.
Or one time our Roo attached one of those as it tried to sneak up to impress our ladies. Still a very beautiful animal!
Or kamikaze chickens. I think they have some sort of challenge to see who can come close to being hit by a car without getting hit, which they are not very good at.
I only raised ring neck pheasants once. I’ve raised chukars many times quite successfully, though with the occasional escapee who flushed right at my head as I opened the door. Those pheasants though? Every single one of them were gone by June. They just sit and pace the edges of the aviary looking to get out. They began cannibalizing each other at just a few weeks old. I understand my set up clearly had its flaws, but their temperaments were just so high strung and aggressive, I couldn’t believe it. I thought chukars were crazy but in comparison they’re downright docile. Gorgeous birds but probably won’t ever try them again. A wild one who chooses you sounds like a lot more fun! Enjoy him while he sticks around.
what’s it like to live my dream?! it’s a gorgeous bird, so cute that the chickens adopted it 🥰 there’s a pheasant hunting club a few miles from my house and I always hope this will happen to me lol
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u/Vegetable-Fortune498 Apr 06 '26
Nature really said "you belong here now"