' Pheasant Rearing Under '' Broodies ." 221 



through my not having' a sufficiency of wire runs and in the 

 case of the Quail five or six eggs were spoilt through drop- 

 ping through the wire at the bottom of the sitting box. 

 Therefore, as I mentioned before, if wire is used for this pur- 

 pose it should be of a very fine mesh to avoid accidents of 

 this nature. I think I also made the mistake at first of plac- 

 ing too many eggs under one hen. 



I should say (though an expert could decide this 

 point much better than I) that a dozen eggs is quite suffi- 

 cient for a Silky ot Silky Cross and fourteen or fifteen for 

 one of the standard breeds of poultry, though if avoidable I 

 should strongly advise anyone against using one of the latter 

 for such delicate and fragile little objects as Pheasants, etc., 

 as such birds are much too heavy and clumsy. 



Of course a decent sized barn door hen will com- 

 fortably cover from twenty to four or five and twenty Pheas- 

 ants' eggs, but in, the first place I doubt very much whether 

 she can properly turn so large a number and secondly even 

 if she were successful in this, it is a practical certainty, that 

 she would crush half of the chicks during the first few hours 

 after hatching. 



One more most important point, if you mean to try and 

 rear a number of Pheasants, or anything eise under broodies 

 for thai matter, never commence operations without a reliable 

 incubator, or better still, both incubator and foster mother 

 (artificial) in readiness for use in case of need. 1 wished a 

 hundred times that I had had one or both. 



Moreover, I am not at all sure that it would not prove 

 an excellent plan to, on the day before the chicks are due to 

 hatch, remove the eggs to an incubator, returning the chicks to 

 the broody the following night, when they should be fairly 

 strong on their le^s. 



But here again the practised " hand " could probably 

 enlighten us from actual experience. My nicnu for newly 

 hatched game birds is Sprait's "' Banto " (a most excelleni 

 staple iood by the way for any species of bird that will eat 

 it, from Long-tailed Tits to Waders j. Mixed with chopped egg 

 and when obtainable live ant's eggs, plus a dish of small seed 



