PHEASANTS IN COVERT AND AVIARY 



comprise the Pheasant coops, hatching - boxes, feeding 

 utensils, a portable boiler, a fodder house, baskets for the 

 transit of birds and for eggs, vermin traps, incubators, 

 etc. etc. 



Egg cabinets to hold several thousand eggs should be 

 on every game farm, as the eggs keep fresher much longer 

 than when they are stored on bran, etc. The tray should 

 run in and out of the cabinet, and the eggs fit into holes 

 drilled in the trays. 



The best time to commence a Pheasant farm is at the 

 beginning of the year, so that the opening operations, if a 

 successful season, will at once bring immediate return, 

 through the sale of eggs, which constitutes the principal 

 source of revenue in all game-farming operations. Early 

 maturity and sheltered pens are mainly conducive to early 

 production of eggs, and the highest prices are obtained for 

 eggs that can be put down early. For instance, eggs which 

 can be sold in April up to the loth of May are worth about 

 ;^4 per hundred, or ;C3^ per thousand. From May the loth 

 to the 15th, I OS. less per hundred, and from the latter date 

 to the 20th, another los. less, dropping by increments of 

 I OS. every five days, up to the end of May, so that eggs 

 that were worth ;^4 per hundred in April are during the 

 last week of May only worth one half. After the date last 

 named it is not a wise plan for anyone to purchase eggs — • 

 in fact, it is against Pheasant-rearing to set any eggs later 

 than the 2 ist of May. However, Pheasants can be reared even 

 later on than this, but every Pheasant-rearer will admit that 

 the late broods are in 90 per cent, of cases at least failures. 

 As it is, Pheasant-shooting begins a month too soon, and 

 precisely the same remarks apply to partridge-shooting. The 

 former should begin on ist November, and partridge-shooting 

 on the date as at present fixed for Pheasant-shooting. 



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