Recently, Office Manager Shawonda Fontaine, and Information, and Education Specialist Rene Schell visited the Sheridan Bird Farm to help with the hatch of the pheasants and to learn more about where the birds stocked at Ocean Lake come from and how they are raised.

Each spring eggs are collected from 1200 hens for 30 days. Eggs are incubated for 24 days before moving into the warm hatcher where they stay for 3-4 days hatching, drying and surviving on their yolk sacs. Birds hatch in four groups at the farm, each a week apart. At one day old, birds are counted and sorted into groups of 100. Each group of 100 gets moved into a brood house where they begin to eat meal and learn how to drink water. At 4 weeks of age they are feathered enough to begin to explore outside the brood house where they find 17 acres of dense cover crops to hide in.

The Sheridan Farm aims to raise 14,000 birds each year. These birds will be released this fall around the state and at Ocean Lake and Sand Mesa WHMA’s.