16 



Points on Care and Breeding of Pheasants, etc. 



The Caring and Breeding of Matured Pheasants 



To exclude sparrows from pheasant yards — and prevent them from eating two-thirds 

 of the feed — one-inch mesh wire should be used, and put five inches in the ground. A breed- 

 ing pen for a pair or trio should beabout 10x12 feet, sevenfeet high, covered top, with ashed 

 facing south in which the sand is banked four inches answering as a dust bath. It is abso- 

 lutely necessary for birds to bathe in dust in order to keep a fine, glossy and clean plumage. 

 The entire front of the shed should be left open. I plant small live evergreen or cedar trees 

 for shade in this run, and during the breeding season put the perches very low (made of 1 }^x3 

 inch lumber, in the shed only; , to avoid eggs being broken if dropped during the night, and 

 prevent egg eaters. 



Pheasants are very intelligent birds. If they once get a taste of eggs they will most 

 generally eat them during that season, in which case the only way to save the pheasant 

 eggs is to keep a lot of chicken eggs before them, which they prefer to eat to their own. 



CHINESE MONGOLIAN PHEASANT, 



Another good way to prevent both eating of eggs and plucking the feathers from 

 each other, is the practice of giving a portion of well crushed bone regularly. 



Sometimes a cock appears very cruel to his hens and drives them too much. As a pre- 

 vention, connect his legs by a piece of soft string, long enough for him to walk easily, but not 

 to run. By doing this the hens are allowed a chance to escape his cruel treatment. Again, 

 another easy remedy is to cut off the point of the cock's bill hindering him from pecking the 

 hen on the head. A pheasant cock will mate with two or three hens. 



I do not approve of more than one cock in a breeding pen; they are great fighters and 

 fight till death. Although cocks left without hens apparently are quite peaceable ; a great jeal- 

 ousy exists among cocks when put with hens. I advise changing cocks from time to time 

 in the breeding pen, in order to produce strong chicks, and every egg laid to be fertile. 

 Pheasants are of very hardy constitution and will stand most any kind of weather and not 

 take much shelter. Diseases so common among chickens, such as roup, etc., very seldom 

 occur among pheasants. For best egg results feed lots of good heavy oats and greens; 

 occasionally a little mash mixed of bran, ground oats, cut clover, beef scraps, sprinkled with 

 a pinch of PRATT'S Poultry Food. I do not feed corn from February until August. 



