PHEASANTRY EGGS VERSUS WILD ONES 



a hen that I think is unhealthy, or weakly or old ; this I 

 consider very important too, as I could not possibly know 

 her eggs if they were picked up outside. And by gather- 

 ing my eggs late and early, I can be sure that they are 

 never damaged by frost ; by no means a slight advantage 

 in almost every year as far north as this. Then I can store 

 the eggs away from rats and wet, and turn them as I think 

 fit ; there is no worry as to their safety. One reads that 

 a hen Pheasant will turn her eggs every time she visits 

 her nest, but she does not ; and when one considers that 

 a nest with fourteen eggs may take three weeks to fill, one 

 wonders if there is much in the turning theory if that nest 

 hatches out all right. I know also that there is a greater 

 chance of all my penned eggs being fertile. Several times 

 I have taken in a wild nest and not one fertile egg in it, 

 because the hen was too far away from her kind. I have 

 been contradicted and laughed at before for saying that, 

 yet it is none the less a fact. My birds also pay me better 

 because I get twenty eggs from a hen that may only lay 

 fourteen outside, and I also save to the extent of my own 

 time and the time of my men, when they would be looking 

 for wild eggs. Some would say 'picking up wild eggs,' 

 but I say 'looking for,' advisedly. There is such a lot of 

 looking for and so very little of the picking up, especially 

 when one has the hen waiting on the eggs. Over and above 

 all these advantages I have comparative peace in my mind 

 about vermin. If one takes a reasonable amount of care 

 the eggs are secure from winged vermin, even in an open 

 pen ; foxes cannot get near the birds without a lot of trouble ; 

 hedgehogs and rats can be looked after, and little is left to 

 luck or chance. With wild eggs a very great deal always 

 must be left to both. Nor do I believe that the young 

 chicks from wild eggs are one little bit the easier to rear 



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