PHEASANT REARING 8i 



method, and generally employs it unless short of small 

 pens. 



Unit Pens. In working out this method he builds a con- 

 siderable number of portable pens, without bottoms, and 

 about 12 X i6 feet, covered on top, and boarded up from the 

 ground about 3 feet. The ends of the bottom boards of 

 the two longer sides are sharpened up, like sleigh runners, 

 so that a horse can drag the structure to fresh ground. 

 Along one end inside there is a shelter of boards, some 3 feet 

 wide, sloping down toward the centre of the pen, for protec- 

 tion from storm and sun. These pens should be placed on 

 turf, with a brush-pile in each, and be banked up outside a 

 little. This will prevent the birds from digging their way 

 out, while traps and watchfulness must take care of vermin. 

 The pens need be moved only at considerable intervals, 

 when the grass is getting used up and the ground shows signs 

 of becoming fouled. On level ground they can be dragged 

 slowly, with the birds in them. In these arrangements 

 Rogers gets from five hens sometimes twenty-three to twenty- 

 five eggs per pen a week at the height of the breeding season. 



The number of eggs produced by each hen pheasant varies 

 with the vigour of the stock, the feeding, and the surround- 

 ings. From thirty to fifty per season is a frequent average, 

 and some birds lay seventy or even over one hundred. 

 Many of the late eggs, however, are useless, as it does not 

 pay to set eggs after about the first of July. One large 

 breeder who had quite a number of small chicks the first 

 week in August told me that he could not raise over one 

 third of them. Another expert remarked that he would not 

 dare to have such birds on the place, as it is very likely to 

 start epidemics. 



Avoid Close Confinement. It is not good for wild birds 

 to keep them shut up in a small yard indefinitely, as they 



