Tnl-News.com - Bird dogs led Dick Young to pheasants and game-bird business

By DENISE R. FREELAND

News Leader Staff Writer

"It all started with training dogs," said Dick Young of the 2,000 pheasants he raises each year. "I didn't really start raising pheasants. I was raising German shorthair pointers and, in order to keep them sharp for the season, I bought a few young pheasants from a gentleman and proceeded to work my dogs with these birds. Well, word got around that I had some pheasants and, first thing you know, we're in the business."

That was 11 years ago, and Young said his pheasant business at his 40-acre farm on Malibu Road in Minerva has gotten "a little bigger every year," now encompassing a breeding flock of 125 hens and roosters, five incubators, two hatchers, brood pens, numerous flight pens, and two tons of feed a month.

The process begins in earnest in late March, when Young's brood stock, which he replaces every two years, starts laying. When the hens are producing about 20 eggs a day, Young begins collecting, washing, disinfecting and cooling them.

He continues to collect and cool eggs, until he has a large number to place in an incubator. Cooled eggs laid on different days, but placed in an incubator at the same time, will all hatch at the same time, Young said; although he does not cool eggs for longer than seven days,

As the birds get serious about laying, Young collects eggs as many as three times a day and fills all five of his incubators, each holding 354 eggs the size of golf balls and varying in color from light tan to pale blue to chocolate brown.

The incubators keep the eggs in constant motion, mimicking a wild pheasant's instinct to turn her eggs several times a day. After a period of time, the eggs are moved to hatchers, which keep them still.

The temperature of the incubators and hatchers is crucial to hatch rate, Young said, and he has arrived at a system that usually produces an 80-percent hatch rate.

After the chicks hatch, they are kept confined for 24 hours to be sure they are completely dry and healthy, then moved to brood pens with electric heaters, where they stay for four to six weeks. After this initial period, Young moves the birds outdoors to a succession of pens, each offering less protection from the elements than the last and where they have food, water, and shelter.

Pheasants are hardy birds, Young said, noting they can withstand subzero temperatures as long as they have food and water.

Before the birds are put into the outside pens, they are fitted with "blinders," which look like small, blue, plastic sunglasses attached to their beaks. The blinders keep the pheasants from being able to see other birds that are directly in front of and close to them, so they cannot see to peck at and potentially injure or kill other birds; however, they can see to eat, drink, and peck in the dirt. The blinders are removed before the pheasants are sold or released into the wild.

Young raises all ringneck pheasants, although some appear black or bronze, and sells them to shooting preserves, farmers and sportsmen who want to release birds on their property, and as dressed birds around the holidays. He also said he has released about 50 pheasants into the wild every year for the past five years, and saw wild chicks for the first time last summer on his farm.

Some game-bird breeders say their pheasants will not fly when they are released, Young said.

"The secret to keeping your pen-raised birds more like wild birds, is don't domesticate them like chickens," he explained. "Keep as many people away from them as you can; keep them as wild as you can. Make sure they have enough room in their pens to run or fly."

In addition to raising pheasants, Young also operates Dick's Gun Shop and a licensed dog-training area, where hunters can work their dogs, with Young providing as many pheasants as they want.

In order to maintain his license to raise game birds, Young must tag all birds put out and harvested in the dog-training area, and track how many get away and their gender. He must submit his records to the game warden annually to renew his permits, and is also required to produce his records any time the warden makes a spot check.

Young's pheasant-raising enterprise is a family affair and he is assisted by his wife, Darla, and 5-year-old granddaughter, Abby Young.

"My wife is my right-hand man," he said. "She knows how to do it and it's done, and done right."

Abby this year will get to band some birds to mark them as her own.

"I've got a big helper in the summertime," Young said of Abby. "She may not be big enough to do it, but she can tell you what has to be done, and what pen is next. She helps me with all the feeding - she loves to go in the pens - and she helps me with the chicks, and she'll help me move the birds if we have to move some."

"We've always been a family of hunters and shooters," he said. "I've been messing with bird dogs and a few birds ever since my dad and I used to hunt when I was 9 or 10 years old."

Young remembers a time when pheasants were much more common in Ohio.

"In 60s and 70s there were a lot of pheasants. Any little drainage ditch, any fence-row, you could find them. It was a whole lot neater then than it is now," he said. "The wild bird is almost extinct in Ohio and that's an awful pretty bird to see go away."

In order for pheasants to survive in the wild, they need feed, water and cover. If any of these are lacking, they will move on, Young said. The birds will eat milo, sorghum, buckwheat, corn, wild weed seeds and insects, and especially like hayfields, which they can move through easily and provide good cover and nesting areas.

According to the U.S. Geological Survey Northern Prairie Wildlife Research Center, the primary reasons for the decline of wild pheasant populations in the Midwest are the intensification of agriculture practices and increased pesticide use during the past 30 years.

The shift from production of hay and small grains to corn and soybeans has reduced the amount of ringneck pheasant nesting and brood-rearing habitat to critical levels, according to the NPWRC. Additionally, the first cutting of alfalfa hayfields in the Midwest is currently around June 3, about 10 days earlier than it was in the 1950s, resulting in greater destruction of ringneck pheasant hens, nests and chicks.

Additionally, wild pheasants must contend with a wide variety of predators, including feral cats, hawks, owls, and a "tremendous population of coyotes," Young said, noting that the birds' human predators also bear some responsibility for maintaining wild populations.

"A lot of guys will keep going back until they've cleaned out an area," he said. "You can't do that - if you're a true sportsman. If you're lucky enough to find one or two and you know there are more in the area, you've got to leave them alone, or you'll kill your sport."

Young also enjoys sharing this love of and respect for the outdoors, wildlife and hunting with the next generation.

He welcomes teachers and parents bringing children out in the spring to see incubating eggs and newly hatched chicks.

"We love it," he said. "Kids get a kick out of it."

Young and Harold Tedrow, the owner of a shooting preserve in Port Washington, Ohio, also provide an annual free, all-day hunting experience for the Carroll County Sharp Shooters 4-H Club.

"We're tickled we can do it for them," Young said, explaining that the club members, and their parents and advisors travel to the preserve where they hunt pheasants provided by Young in the morning, have a sit-down dinner, then shoot a 50-bird sporting clay course in the afternoon.

For Young, a discussion of his pheasant-raising business begins and ends with his dogs.

"Just the enjoyment of watching the dogs work is phenomenal," he said. "They can be running at a full gait and hit bird scent and it's like they're in slow motion, or instantly, they'll just stop. That kind of makes it all worthwhile, whether you get a bird or not."

"Hunting and the outdoors can be a lot of fun for a lot of people," he continued. "I'm going to go as long as I can."