How To Keep A French Partridge
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How To Keep A French Partridge
It is very important to keep the area clean around where your partridges live. They are very susceptible to bugs and parasites. It is also important not to overcrowd the pen.
If you're going to keep French partridge, it's best to keep them in pairs if it's a small pen. If it's a large grass pen, say 12 x 12 x12, 12-foot squared, something like that, you can probably run a cock bird with four hens. That would be fine.
If you just wanted to keep your partridges off ground, must be a suitable size wire bottom pen. They must have a dust bath available, food and water on supply. It's best to feed them on a partridge pellet.
If you find a good, good miller, they will, or feed supplies, they will be able to put you in contact with someone that can supply this but it is best to feed them on partridge food. It's got everything in it that they need. The proper pellet for breeding or for just for maintenance.
Again, for the small pens, they've got to have an area that is out of the weather so that they can keep dry. If you're keeping them in a small pen, one cock, one hen, don't run more hens in there or there will be a problem. If you're running them in a bigger pen, cock bird with four hens, you can, if you're doing it on a large scale, swap the cock birds between the hens so that if you do have a doff cock bird, it won't be too bad because if you keep swapping the cock birds around, keep moving them along, you'll get an average fertility throughout the lot.
If you decide to keep your birds off ground on wire bottom cages, this is to stop them picking up bugs and diseases because if you keep them on the same piece of ground, they will pick up bugs and they are quite susceptible partridge, both types, the English and the Gray, and the French to picking up parasites, bugs, and what have you. You can't treat them like a chicken or anything like that. It has to be, the husbandry has to be quite clean, especially when rearing the youngsters as well.
You have to be very, very clean when you're rearing the youngsters. They do pick up bugs very, very quickly and quite easily lose the whole lot if your husbandry isn't up to scratch. That's how to keep a French partridge. .