THE GAME BREEDER 41 



INCUBATORS AND FOSTER MOTHERS FOR PHEASANT 



REARING. 



By Head Keeper. 



Incubators were first introduced by the overcount. So soon as the incu- 



me in a small way in 1896. I saw how bators arrive I place them carefully on 



successfully a wealthy farmer's wife in levelled stands, fill them to the requisite 



the eastern counties brought her domes- test aperture with hot water, fill the 



tic chickens from the shell to the farm- lamps and light them, and get them to 



yard. I turned my attention to them the i03 degrees required. As the pheas- 



first as aids to the ordinary methods of ant eggs are so much smaller than ordi- 



incubation of pheasant's eggs, as prac- nary hen's eggs, the trays must be 



tised at that period. After closely watch- raised, so as to bring the eggs level 



ing the methods pursued by the lady re- with the bulb of the thermometer, 



ferred to, who, I may remark, used an I purchased a small account book, in 



empty lumber room in the farmhouse which I register the degree of heat at 



for the purpose. I purchased, through every visit paid to the mcubator room 



an agent in the country, the first in- or shed, and which with a pencil is 



cubator, and trusted to mother hens to kept in any handy place in the room, 



foster the broods as they came ofif. The or even on top of incubator. Every 



following season saw me in possession egg on being placed in the drawer I 



of a foster mother as well. mark plainly, with the date of puttmg 



We will suppose that the eggs are in, with indelible pencil. Three days 



ordered from the game farm or aviary after the pheasant eggs go in I place 



to come in sequence, and that 2,000 in, say, five bantam eggs in each drawer 



is to be the total. Seven hundred eggs — that is, fifteen in all. These birds 



at £5 per hundred are to be delivered come out contemporarily with the pheas- 



as soon after April 20th as possible,; ants, and as bantams pick food and 



700 more about May 15th or 16th, at drink water before they are fairly out 



£4 per hundred. These take the place of their shell, the example thus given 



in the incubators vacated by the first starts the duller pheasant chicks on the 



lot having passed to the foster mothers, feed at once. 



The last lot of 600 on June 9th, which I purposely leave a vacancy for eggs 



are cheap eggs at £2 per hundred, and in the smaller incubator which it must 



which, of course, are the latest we can be recollected only contains 75 eggs out 



deal with. These are late eggs, which of a possible 180, leaving room for 105 



are possibly the cheapest which can eggs. Now, any eggs which may be 



come. Now, it must be borne in mind brought in from the wild birds in the 



that 110 eggs are sent to the 100 — so coverts or by-paths or roadways, dan- 



novv the room must be prepared to work gerous positions, are marked with the 



them satisfactorily. date of putting in, and so started; of 



The No. 20 incubator holds 360 course, these come ofl at different 



pheasant eggs, but I only place 350 in, times, but that is not of the slightest 



as I require a vacancy or two in three consequence, as I separate them from 



days after placing my eggs. I shall re- the previous eggs with strips of flannel, 



quire two of these incubators. In addi- The young pheasant will make his Tip- 



tion I have a No. 11 incubator, which pearance, and can pass to the foster 



holds just 180 pheasant eggs, but which mother with his elder brothers and sis- 



I do not fill for reasons to be pres- ters, where he will soon learn to pick 



ently explained. In this I shall place the food provided. Care must be taken 



the remaining 70 eggs which come as that the incubator room is kept free 



