9 - x 2 eve a eT a ° 
ofeKo PHEASANT FARMING oofo 
° - — ° 
number of pheasants you have and the state of the weather. ‘The 
warmer the weather the more rapid the development of the larvae. 
If you contemplate using larvae, you should start with the bone 
mixture a week prior to the date of first hatching. 
The advantage of this food is that you need not hesitate to feed 
young birds all they will eat. They are wild for it and will fre- 
quently crowd their crops and throats to overflowing 
with no apparent bad results. They thrive better on 
this food than on anything else. Other methods may 
be employed to produce the larvae, but it should be 
remembered that but fifteen days’ time elapses from the laying of 
the fly egg until it has successfully become larvae, entered the pupa 
state and turned into a fly again. The larvae are clean feeders and 
they must have a medium (shorts, bran or clean fine dirt pref- 
erably) in which to bury themselves. When about ten days’ old 
they pass into the pupa state, in which form they may be kept if 
stored at a low temperature. (40 degrees F.) The low tempera- 
ture stops the development. 
Advantage 
of Larvae 
as a Food 
Every one is familar with the history ef the butterfly: how a 
worm apparently dries up in the fall of the year and in springtime 
breaks open to release a beautiful butterfly. This dried worm is 
the pupa, and just as the butterfly’s egg develops a worm and later 
produces a perfect insect, so the larvae of the common fly, when 
grown, dries up and later produces a fly again, only the change to 
the fly is accomplished in a few days instead of months. 
Should the pan of shorts, bran or dirt become heated, it means 
‘that the larvae are too crowded and will leave, if possible. A part 
should be removed to another pan or given a larger proportion of 
shorts, bran or dirt. 
With the facts above, your own ingenuity and some experience 
will suggest convenient methods for producing larvae, but remember 
that the pheasant is primarily an insect eating bird, and the larvae is 
a natural food. As stated, custards, eggs, etc., may be used suc- 
cessfully, but they are substitutes. When the birds are two weeks 
old, chopped meat may be gradually substituted for the larvae until, 
when a month old, the larvae may be discontinued altogether. A 
good way to prepare the meat is to chop it fine with a sharp chopper 
and then mix shorts with it, rolling it between the hands until it 
crumbles. After the birds are a month old, they may be fed 
cracked wheat (soft wheat is best) with a little charcoal or grit al- 
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