Decided to sell out and close up shop on February 3rd 2009 for personal reasons that I prefer not to go into. So far the majority of breeder birds are sold and gone. None went to brokers who I have no respect for and all were placed with folks that are conservation and quality minded. Try to stay away from brokers, there are many and I can name a few that visit various message boards. They care nothing about the bloodlines, purity, quality of the birds, but only in flipping a few dollars to line their deep greedy pockets. This may be my last update ever and I just wanted to make sure friends and concerned breeders had an idea of what was going on.
Also an issue that has come up recently I wanted to address. We all know birds will pass for unknown reasons and many times its the predators that scare the pheasants during the night who in turn fly up and break their necks. When you find a dead bird run your fingers along the neck slowly and many times you can feel a break. Okay how to dispose of the carcass. When an unknown cause takes a bird away it may be best to bury the carcass or burn it in case it was a virus or bacteria. In a case where it is obvious that the neck is broken or the bird just died from old age you can try and sell to a taxidermist or feather peddler. I have dealt with them in the past and found that only a small percentage are honest, the rest will rip you off and pay you much less than the birds are actually worth. Many of the birds we raise are worth more dead than alive to a taxidermist or feather peddler. There are some that follow message boards and jump at any occasion when some one posts questions about deceased birds or ill birds. They are worse than leeches and thrive by making big dollars selling feathers, or mounting the pheasants and waterfowl. I will give an example of value. One two year old male Blue Eared pheasant in perfect feather 75.00; for a feather merchant selling individual feathers he can make 200.00; a taxidermist can charge 350.00 or more for a good mount. One two year old Impeyan male in perfect feather 300.00; a feather merchant selling individual feathers can make 500.00; a taxidermist can get 700.00 plus for a good mount. My prices are underestimated as I have not dealt with these leeches in may years and no doubt both taxidermy and feather merchants make much more. Just a few examples I never wanted to write about so folks wouldn't get ideas and dump conservation practices and start raising birds for slaughter. So when you loose a bird try and get the same value for a dead bird as you do for selling lives, don't loose money and don't let these leeches suck you dry. Make them pay for your losses. Those that know me can contact me as they have in the past, but I have removed all contact information from this web page. I may not raise birds in the future, but will continue to advise when asked...
Roman
