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CHAPTER IX 



Feeding Pheasants in the Rearing Field 



The complete feeding regimen for pheasants as practiced by Superin- 

 tendent Rogers of the New York State Game Farms, from hatching till 

 the birds are old enough to be placed on a straight dry grain diet is given 

 herewith : 



FIRST FOUR DAYS 



Feed 4 or 5 times daily with not more than 3 hours between meals. 



Hard boiled egg mixed with cracker dust till dry and crumbly — chick 

 charcoal and grit — no water, 



FIFTH TO SIXTIETH DAY 



Feed 4- times daily fifth to thirtieth day and 3 times thereafter. 



a. Wet mash: To the ration described immediately above add 

 pheasant meal (Wallace Evans, St. Charles, 111., preferred), fine oyster 

 shell, middlings, kiln-dried corn meal (Buffalo Cereal Co.'s preferred) 

 boiled rice and bone meal. Hulled oats (R. D. Eaton, Norwich, N. Y.) 

 may be added on the tenth day with profit. 



b. Dry feed. During the same period begin feeding ordinary chick 

 grain mixture obtainable at poultry supply dealers, mixing grit and charcoal 

 with it. Give one feed of this daily (the last) . Canary and hemp seed 

 may be mixed with the chick grain in small portion from time to time, 

 but give very little of the latter. 



No meat substitute for insect life is prescribed by Mr. Rogers, as his 

 birds have such extensive range that they do not need it. Where the 

 range is limited, he advises boiled beef liver put through a meat chopper 

 and mixed with the wet mash at the rate of a handful to each gallon. The 

 small breeder whose young birds have free range need not bother about 

 feeding meat. Crissel, a beef scrap, obtainable at poultry dealers, is used 

 by many breeders, but Mr. Rogers prefers the liver. 



After the twelfth day, give two dry and two wet feeds, the dry the 

 last of the day, and from the eighteenth day, give only one wet feed a day, 

 making it the first. 



After the sixteenth day, use the second of the three sizes of chick grain. 



From the sixtieth day on, dry feed is given principally, the third or 

 largest size of chick grain or, more properly, scratch food being employed; 

 the general feeding system as heretofore described for adult birds is 

 followed, except that the wet mash is fed once a day every other day till 

 freezing weather ensues and an occasional feed of crissel is given dry on a 

 board, charcoal being mixed with it. 



