CAMROSE, Alta. – The provincial government is looking for a buyer for its southern Alberta pheasant hatchery.
If there are no bids on the multi-million dollar pheasant hatchery in Brooks by the end of March, the government will close the operation, said Doug Milligan, head of the pork, poultry and horse branch of Alberta Agriculture.
“If there are no substantial bids likely we will close it down over the summer,” said Milligan, who is in charge of the operation.
The hatchery was built in the early 1980s under the administration of the environmental protection department to raise pheasants for hunters and to reintroduce pheasants back into the wild.
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The hatchery was designed to raise 150,000 to 200,000 pheasants a year. This year the government will raise 15,000 pheasants. The three staff members began collecting eggs last week for hatching.
“It really is a fantastic facility that has been badly under utilized,” said Milligan.
While the facility was built to provide a public service of supplying hunters with pheasants, there is little support to use public money to raise birds for hunters, he said.
Milligan is hoping a private company or individual will take over the facility and continue raising pheasants.
Because the facility is so large, Milligan said the new buyers have a challenge in how to make it pay. It costs about $450,000 a year to operate.
The government has placed one condition of sale on the facility. The new owners must continue to supply the government with free pheasants for four years as part of a transition process.
