THE GAME BREEDER 



21 



Hatching Pheasants. 



By Joseph J. Demenkow. 



In past four seasons I have tried 

 many different methods in hatching out 

 pheasants. I used common hens in the 

 work, incubators and hens and incuba- 

 tors combined with entirely distinct re- 

 sults in each case. The best possible 

 result obtainable comes by first method, 

 with a live hen, especially when setting 

 hen is a light weighing hen and kept per- 

 fectly contented and free from lice be- 

 fore and after hatching. 



A Bantam is the ideal foster mother 

 in raising pheasants. A bantam will 

 comfortably cover from 7 to 9 pheasant 

 eggs at the start of the season and from 

 9 to 11 eggs during warm months of 

 June and July, and take care of the little 

 ones at all times without any danger of 

 smothering or maiming them. 



The second method, by the incubator, 

 proved a total failure with me. In the 

 first place. I never could get with an in- 

 cubator one-half as many chicks from a 

 given number of eggs as by the setting 

 hen, and "the worst is yet to come" in 

 trying to raise them. It is not easy to 

 find a hen charitable enough or stupid 

 enough to accept a machine hatched 

 brood, and to try and raise them under 

 a brooder without the help of a hen is 

 a hopeless task. In a short time young 

 pheasants get used to a hen's talk very 

 readily, but somehow they refuse to heed 

 human language and every motion made 

 in feeding and watering scares them 

 away to all corners of their run ; sickness 

 and mortality soon follow and usually 

 result in wiping out the whole flock. 



I had fairly good results by using hen 

 and an incubator combined. I resorted 

 to this last method on account of the 

 over heavy setting hens I had to put up 

 with. When setting hens are too heavy 

 they quite often smash a number of 

 eggs during the period of setting and 

 with their heavy body they smother 

 young pheasants to death at the time of 

 hatching. To avoid this loss I allow 

 the hen to sit over the eggs for 22 or 

 23 days, then I take the eggs away from 



her and put them into the machine to 

 hatch. Of course I do leave one or two 

 eggs under the hen to hatch and thus 

 give her a chance to get acquainted with 

 baby pheasants. When the hatching is 

 over I take those that hatched out in a 

 machine and put them all under the hen. 

 I prefer to do this in the evening and the 

 next morning I commence feeding the 

 young. 



Mass'achusetts. 



Pheasant-Bantams. 



Herewith is a copy of our record 

 covering work with Pheasant-Bantams. 



A one-year-old ringneck cock was 

 penned up with a white cochin bantam 

 hen, having fertilized two out of five 

 eggs, twelve more hens (all virgin* pul- 

 lets) were ^.lotted to him. From the 

 look of the record he seems to have 

 served the first hen only. 



The birds from No. 1, 2 and 3 hatch 

 were all black; No. 4, 1 black and 1 

 about the color of a light ringneck ; No. 

 5, 4 were of the latter color and 1 black. 



As the picture will show, we still have 

 six of these birds, three black and three 

 light colored. [Picture was published 

 last month. — Editor.] 



Apr. 



24 



5 



2 



1 



May 16- 



-22 days 



May 



9 



32 



1 



1 



May 31- 



-22 days 



May 



18 



42 



1 



1 



June 12- 



-25 days 



June 



1 



66 



3 



2 



June 25- 



-24 days 



June 



15 



40 



7 



5 



July 7- 



-22 days 



June 



30 



17 















July 



8 



13 















July 



23 



14 















*A11 white hens. 



STATE GAME FARM, 

 Wm. N. Dirks, Supt. 

 Hayward, Gal. 



Now Is the Time To Buy Eggs. 



See Advertisements in this Issue. Ad- 

 vertisers report a bigger demand than last 

 season. Better order quickly. 



