Applications to become a Day-Old Pheasant Chick Program (DOCP) cooperator will be accepted until April 1. The program allows the public to participate in raising and releasing pheasants to enhance small game hunting opportunities across New York. Cooperators gain animal husbandry experience while connecting with an important game bird species.
As part of the program, the DEC provides ring-necked pheasant chicks, free of charge, to approved applicants who can properly raise pheasants and will release adult pheasants at suitable release sites. Adult pheasants reared through this program must be released at sites with appropriate pheasant habitat and which allow public pheasant hunting. Locations where the department already releases pheasants can be found on the interactive pheasant release map, and would make great places to release adult pheasants reared through the DOCP. Pheasants released through the DOCP supplement the approximate 50,000 pheasants the DEC stocks annually, further enhancing hunting opportunity and advancing efforts focused on Recruitment, Retention, and Reactivation of hunters (R3).
The application to rear pheasant chicks in 2026 can be found at: https://survey123.arcgis.com/share/cd96c1bc1e1f40ec9dc61015daec1448
