Just a few of the 360 baby pheasants that are getting their start at the Lee and Mary Martinek farm outside of Browerville. Lee is dedicated to the tiny birds that were seven-days-old when this photo was taken on Friday, May 31.
Lee Martinek has been raising baby pheasants for the past 1 years as a volunteer for the Browerville Sportsmen Club. Prior to Martinek raising them, they started life out at the Dave Asmus place. The club has been raising them for the past 14 years.
A male pheasant is very colorful while the female will remain a brownish neutral color which allows her to blend in more with the scenery.
Just a few of the 360 baby pheasants that are getting their start at the Lee and Mary Martinek farm outside of Browerville. Lee is dedicated to the tiny birds that were seven-days-old when this photo was taken on Friday, May 31.
Raising "babies" for the future
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by Karin L. Nauber
Lee Martinek of rural Browerville is a new “father” and just in time for Father’s Day, too.
His new “children” are a bit “fluffier” than his other ones, but he treats these “babies” carefully and lovingly just like any “father” would do.
His new babies? About 360 newly hatched pheasants. The babies were “born” on Friday, May 24 and were a week old when I had the privilege of meeting them.
Martinek is responsible for the babies for about eight weeks of their lives.
“I keep them inside under heat lamps for the first four weeks and then the next four weeks they can stay inside and go outside into a pen,” he said.
The babies like it to be between 105-110° Fahrenheit which takes quite a few heat lamps to achieve.
After their caring start at Martinek’s place, the babies will go to Rooster Ridge on the outskirts of Browerville where they will continue to be cared for by Martinek and other volunteers until around the first week in May (2020) when they will be released into the wild. . . .