Golden Pheasant

The golden males have brilliant golden ruffs which they fan out in anticipation of charming the females.

The golden pheasant is one of the most popular of all pheasant species kept in captivity. They originate from the mountainous area of central China and found their way across to the Americas as early as the 1740s. This species, along with the lady amherst, make up the group of pheasants called the ruffed pheasants. They are named for their cape or ruff which they spread around their face and neck during courtship. Since these two species are so closely related, many breeders have crossed them, making "pure" goldens and amhersts hard to find in captivity. The wild form of the golden is often called the red golden in captivity, and the males are one of the most brilliantly colored of all birds.
We love our goldens; not only for their intense, shimmering colour of red and gold but for their friendly disposition and easy going attitude to life.
They are delightful bird to keep, best housed in well planted large flights. We keep one cock bird to 5 hens and this ratio has worked well for us as some males are very proactive and constantly display and chase the girls. We did have one boy from a different blood line that was just happy to chill out all day and do very little courtship. The girls thought he was great but it did not help the fertility! So he was moved on and we now have Roger (see photo!) who is vigorous, very keen and a delight to watch going about his courtship rituals. These pheasants are hardy and easy to keep so would make an ideal beginners bird. They are docile and can be tamed to eat out of your hand. We have had Roger’s dad out free ranging on our block for a few years now. He is a real character darting across the lawn and in and out the trees making sure his turf is in order! We think this season we will surprise him with some young females to keep him company!.....And to follow up Roger was delighted with not only having some lovely young females released to keep him occupied and very busy...but we also released some young golden males...Surprisingly he has not worried too much about the young males...they all seem to stay out of each others way!

Yellow Golden Pheasant

Our sunshine pheasant!

The yellow golden, also known as the ghigi's golden, is a popular color mutation of the golden pheasant occurring in captivity. This mutation originated in Italy when the late Professor Alessandro Ghigi was given one male bird in 1952. Initial matings were with a normal hen and normal heterozygous chicks were produced. The heterozygous females were then bred back to the mutant male. By 1955/6 the yellow mutants were breeding true. Today the yellow golden it is a fairly popular and common aviary bird.
Here at Appletons we have a well planted large aviary for our yellow golden pheasants. This helps the brilliant yellow plumage of the males from fading fast in our harsh New Zealand sun. Also it is worth noting that some strains of yellow goldens have a much more intense yellow than others. The yellow golden hens are different in appearance to both the lady amherst and the goldens hens as their plumage is pale yellow all over with barring.

Lady Amherst Pheasant

My boys call these beautiful pheasants the rainbow pheasants.

These stunning birds originate from south western China and northern Burma. They are a sought after aviary birds in many parts of the world and in some areas have escaped or been purposefully released and now live semi-rural. They were first sent across to Britian in the 1800s by William Pitt Amherst, Govenor General of India and named after his wife Sarah – Lady Amherst.
In New Zealand and world wide it is increasingly difficult to find pure lady amherst blood lines as many of these captivity birds have been crossed with goldens or have golden somewhere in their ancestry. When buying adult birds please observe for signs of golden blood so we can work to keep the blood lines pure. We love out lady amherst pheasants, they are similar in character and nature to the goldens and are a pleasure to keep.

Silver Pheasant

The male is an impressive display artist and makes a great dad!

The silver pheasant is a species of pheasant inhabiting the forests of mainland Southeast Asia and eastern and southern china. One of the most noticeable features is the bright red face wattles which are used during courtship. It is privilege to watch a male silver display to a female. He stands proud holds out his wings and beats them in the air. With this beating resonates a low sound that must capture the female’s attention. Silvers do not achieve their brilliant plumage until their second year. Of all our pheasants the silvers come into the lay first each season. Their laying season is also shorter. We also find the hens tend to go broody. It is recommended to allow the hens to go broody, as they are great mothers and is very interesting to observe the family behavior of this species. The males participate with the rearing of the chicks. The chicks do grow quickly and are able to fly at only a few days. They are extremely hardy and tough birds. Ample shade is recommended during the summer. These pheasants are best kept on their own but we have successfully run partridge in with them the last few seasons. Our aviary is of a good size (5m by 5m) and landscaped with flaxes, logs, rocks and a timber shelter. We have heard the males can be aggressive towards their keepers but we have never experienced this ourselves. We have not as yet released any silvers to free range but I have heard they do make a good free range pheasant species.

Ringneck Pheasant

New Zealand's 'common' pheasant

Know as the common pheasant, the ringneck pheasant is the striking bird we see out in the paddocks or on the roadside. It is a well-known gamebird and one of the world's most hunted birds. It is also common on game farms where it is commercially bred to be mass released and shot. The males body plumage is barred bright gold and brown with green, purple and white markings. The head is bottle green with a small crest and distinctive red wattles and white neck band. The female is much less impressive with a duller mottled brown plumage all over. Juvenile birds have the appearance of the female with a shorter tail until young males begin to grow characteristic bright feathers on the breast, head and back at about 10 weeks after hatching. The breeding season runs from end September through to just after Christmas. The hens lay small greenish brown coloured eggs and each hen can lay between 50 to 60 eggs a season if she is in good breeding order. We keep our breeding groups in two large avairies that are well planted out with flaxes, pittosporums, logs and hideaways. We run one cock to 6 hens and find this ratio successful with high fertility. We enjoy our ringneck pheasants and release some young each season which hang around and enjoy the free meals in our backyard.

India Blue Peafowl

The National Bird of India

Today simply known as the peacock; the peacock is the male, females are known as peahens and the young are peachicks(up to a year in age). Peafowl have been kept in captivity for many centuries and have been recorded in ancient Egyptian, Roman and Greek history.
Peafowl come in a wide variety of colors including blue, green, white, light brown and purple. These colors and many other colors not mentioned have come from selective breeding done by people all over the world. The India blue and the green peafowl are the two most common colors of peafowl found in the wild. India blue peafowl are by far the most common peafowl in captivity and they are what most people are familiar with from visits to nature parks and zoos.
We keep both the india blue and the white peafowl and have some very attractive pied progeny.

White Peafowl

The white peacock makes an impressive show
displaying to the peahens...

...or whoever else is around at the time!

Red Legged Partridge

They love to sunbathe in the midday sun snoozing with a wing fanned out only moving an eye to see what we are doing!

We are very fond of our plump round little red legged partridge. We find them endearing as they are happy to hang around our place and free range with our other birds. They are friendly little birds, very attractive in their beautiful monochromatic tones of brown, red and cream. It is a rotund bird, with a light brown back, grey breast and buff belly. The face is white with a black gorget. It has rufous-streaked flanks and red legs. The cocks and hens look very similar but the female is lightly finer in the head and does not have a spur.

Red-legged partridge feed mainly on plant matter such as seeds, leaves, roots, grasses and legumes. It may take fruits occasionally. It also consumes ants, grasshoppers and other insect species, especially in summer. The young in particular consume insects as an essential protein supply. Red-legged partridge feed after emerging from the roost in the early morning, and in the late afternoon. The call is a three-syllable ka-chu-chu. They can be found in Western Europe, in France and Spain and were introduced to Britian some 200 years ago. When they found their way to New Zealand we are not that sure. Probably brought here as a game bird to be released and hunted.

Guinea Fowl

These silly clowns are comical to watch with their one brain may bodies mentality!

We adore our guinea fowl. They make us laugh and they make us cry. Sometimes they seem to be smart and other times they are just plain stupid! They work on a one brain many bodies mentality: so where ones goes the rest follow but that one leader is forever changing...getting confusing...well that is guinea fowl for you!
They are essentially grazers and constantly roam looking for bugs, insects and nipping off greens and seed heads. They are not big scratchers like chooks so the lawn stays intact yet if they come across a dusty dirt spot they relish a dust bath. During the non breeding season they mass together and live as a group of males and females.
In spring they will pair of in twos or small groups and hang out romantically on our front lawn and in our paddocks all breeding season. They are a delight to watch. The hens will all lay in the same nest/s and if the eggs are not secretly removed will go broody and sit on sometimes up to 40 eggs. They are dedicated broodies but useless mothers. I think they have good intensions but the keets are just not strong enough to cope with the cold, damp and the distances traversed. So keets are best raised in brooder boxes and released back to free range when old enough.
We keep both the pearl grey and lavender varieties and have pied in both colours.
They are prolific layers of small hard shelled eggs with a round and a pointy end. The hens lay from September to March. Guinea fowl also make an excellent table bird; succulent and tender, similar to eating a gamebird. Guinea fowl are native to Africa. They are often used for tick control. They are low maintenance, hardy birds to keep and do best free range.

Muscovy

Our muscovy patrol are the best bug control you could ask for!

They don’t quack so they go about their business pretty much silently. The muscovy drake makes a dry hissing sound and the hen a quiet trilling coo. The males are twice the size of the females. The drakes waddle around with great effort no wonder when you see the size of them. The males most distinctive features are a bare red face with a pronounced caruncle at the base of the bill and a low erectile crest of feathers. They are not faithful to one duck but like a whole bevy of lovely ladies! We recommend only keeping one drake with your ducks as the boys can get over keen. They have very social behaviour: meeting and greeting with lots of neck waving, low hissing and trills and tail wagging. They must have some great conversations! They are also great weed eaters and polish off any feed or scraps lying around. The females are petite and like the drakes have very sharp claws. Once the ducks are experienced sitters they make devoted mothers and raise the young exceptionally well teaching them all they need to know. One of our mums has just raised 18 ducklings all the way through to teenagehood. We gave her a gold medal for being so patient with that many kids!
The eggs make good eating and are great for baking sponges. The drakes make excellent table birds.
The meat is lean when compared to the fatty meat of mallard-derived ducks, its leanness and tenderness being often compared to veal. The carcass of a muscovy drake is also much heavier than most other domestic ducks, which makes it ideal for the dinner table.
We have bred some beautiful colours blue, blue and white and splash.

Silver Appleyard Ducks

Picture perfect plumage and characters to match

Last season our silver appleyards hatched out and grew eclipse plumage so we was totally confused as to what we had. They all looked the same. We then did the upside down test on them and discovered to our delight that half were drakes and the other half were ducks. The ducks quack loudly when hung upside down. Towards the end of the season they finally moulted into their stunning breeding plumage. The duck is silvery-white with a heavy flecking of fawn on her back. The drake has a beetle green head and neck and his throat is white with fawn markings. Add to this his silver-white neck ring, breast, wing coverts, and tail tip and you have a very handsome bird indeed. Beak should be yellow, legs and feet orange, and eyes dark hazel.

They are real characters and most entertaining to watch. We love to hear the ducks quack. It sounds like a short deep laugh. It is always the ducks and never the drakes and it makes us laugh to hear them laugh. Those girls must have a great sense of humour! So our backyard is full of lovely laughing quacks!
We have found them quick to mature both sexes reaching a good size.They make a good all round utility bird.
The silver appleyard was developed in Britain during the 1930s and '40s by Reginald Appleyard, a widely known breeder of domestic waterfowl. He was trying to produce the ideal duck.