Types of Housing for Pheasants
Types of Housing for Pheasants
Written by Clucky Nugget, author of this article and creator of Backyard Poultry Guide.
Published: 10/22/2026
Welcome to this article, Guide For Housing Pheasants! In here you may find 4 great ways that are safe to house pheasants, pros and cons of each, as well as some generalized recommendations and tips to keep them safe! When you are thinking of getting pheasants it's important to decide what type of housing you want!
The recommendation for pheasants is a minimum of 20 square feet per bird, that would be one section that's almost 5 feet by 5 feet per bird. This is just a minimum though, it is recommended to give pheasants more than this, and make their housing larger than needed as they can become territorial fairly quick. If you have 10 pheasants, the minimum pen size would be 200 square feet.
Flock size being smaller than minimum pen size with extra space to ensure there should be no territorial related stress, ensure proper male to female ratios to keep the pheasant hens safe. A safe male to female ratio is 10-15 hens per rooster for pheasants. Avoid excess roosters, for breeding one male can cover 8 hens. In large operations, like in the example of MacFarlane Pheasants Farm, they claim to use 16 hens per rooster for ideal breeding in their colonies.
10 birds, a pen for 10 should be at least 15 by 15 feet to provide 225 square feet of space.
50 birds should have a 50 foot, by 40 foot pen giving them 2,000 square feet of space
100 birds should have a 80 foot, by 60 foot pen giving them 4,800 square feet of space
Anything over and you could start going 100 feet by 100 feet per 400 for larger operations.
Fences can get quite expensive but the appropriate fence is necessary to keep your pheasants safe, ideally try to get a fence wire like hardware cloth that's 1 inch or half inch. You can also use chicken wire but its lower quality and needs far more support to make it work well. Pheasants may also get their heads caught in chicken wire.
Fly pens should be on average 10 feet tall, with several 10 foot posts as central supports, the whole post should be 11 or 12 feet when you buy them to bury 1-2 feet. Outer posts can be shorter but can still be 10 feet tall on average.
What's the best roof-top netting for fly pens?
Netting for fly pens should be either hardware cloth for smaller ones, or large operation fly pens should be netting made from a strong material with 1 inch by 1 inch holes. Ideally this is to keep most wild birds out, and keep your pheasants inside them. 2 inch by 2 inch can be a great solution as well.
What enrichment should be in the pen?
In the fly pens there should be a shelter large enough for all the pheasants to take shelter from weather and sleep at night if they like, fly pens can have perches and low hides, logs, grasses and bushes. Should avoid small tight spaces like cracks or crevices they can fit in to keep birds from getting trapped or cornered.
Pros and Cons
Pros: Tall and largely spaced with plenty room to fly ideal for 10 or more pheasants.
Cons: Larger, more expensive, may need to bury lots of wire to prevent predators. Predators may bite through netting
Recommended size for a tractor pen.
Most tractor pens are usually no more than 15 feet long and 8-10 feet wide for small homestead style ones. A 15 foot by 8 foot pen can house snugly 6 pheasants giving them exactly 20 square feet of space per bird. This is ideal if your goal is moving them around daily or weekly for fresh grass and your goal is small breeding style.
What is a tractor pen made from?
As for what they're made out of, most of them are made from wood and hardware cloth or chicken wire, they usually come up at a type of angle, but round top or square top ones would be ideal for pheasants safety. The tractor should at least be 6 or 7 feet tall to let them fly up.
What enrichment should be in the pen?
The tractor pen should have perches for the pheasants to sit on, avoid nesting boxes as they don't use them, nesting boxes may become entrapment for pheasants to bully their flock mates if they feel stressed.
Pros and Cons
Pros: Perfect for smaller breeding projects, especially for unique colors
Cons: Usually not tall enough for pheasants to jump and fly
What is the natural pen?
A natural style pen is one with live shrubs, small trees, and plants to mimic nature, some natural pens people may put leaf mulch or bark chips to simulate a natural forest floor, with grasses as well. A natural pen offers many places for pheasants to hide, run around. This style of pen is very enriching for pheasants which helps mimic natural behaviour and reduce stress, as well as bullying.
How big are natural pens?
A natural pen should be as big as you need for whatever group size of pheasants you put in it, they can be as big as large fly pens, or as small as a 20-30 foot pen. Ideally large enough for plants and shrubs to exist and still provide a safe large space for pheasants.
Pros and Cons
Pros: Mimics natural behavior for optimal happiness
Cons: May need to be little larger than expected to cover space that plants and shrubs take up.
What are cages used for?
Cages and small pens are used for a small variety of reasons, maybe you’re breeding a special pair or trio and want to protect their feather quality, or you're working in smaller spaces with many different varieties and you just keep some small on ground off ground level pens or cages for whatever reason may need be. This option can be excellent for getting a trio or pair quarantines or giving them maintenance before putting them out in larger pens.
Recommended size for pheasant cages?
While sticking to the minimum, a cage or small pen for a trio, 2 hens and a rooster would be an 8 by 8 pen, giving each bird around 21 square feet of space. For smaller ones like pairs you can do a size l8 by 5 feet providing appropriate space for each pair. Anything smaller may cause stress, hand made or commercially made cages should be no more than 2 feet by 3 feet small for a pair. This would be quite small for them and may cause stress. But this size may be ideal for quarantine or temporarily housing a breeder pair.
Pros and Cons
Pros: Perfect for quarantine, or working on ensuring fertility of a pair or trio
Cons: Most small pens or cages are usually too small and can cause discomfort or stress which increases bullying.
Final notes, do whatever works best for you and your pheasants, there is no one way to raise animals, there are many ways to house pheasants. As long as they are living in an ethical containment house however you see works best.