And so, starting with the backing of the restaurant owner and with a hundred mature quail which would eventually lay brown speckled eggs, Griggstown Quail Farm was hatched. Last year the farm raised 100,000 quails and 35,000 pheasants. George Sr. now owns most of the land the birds occupy. One minute I'm a carpenter and the next a plumber. The farm is dotted with red wooden barns and large pens made from chicken wire.
Heavy netting draped over the pens keeps the pheasants from getting loose.
Male pheasants, or cock birds, strut around the yard showing off their beautiful red and purple feathers. Female pheasants, or hens, are not quite as attractive as the males and have creamy-brown feathers freckled with brown spots. Pheasants are raised inside the barn and at eight weeks are tagged with blinders. The blinders, also called peepers, keep the birds from looking straight ahead, which prevents them from pecking each other. When the cover is sparse, as was the case this summer because of the drought, the birds will go after the tail feathers of other birds, which contain protein.