126 



THE GAME BREEDER 



A Successful Big Pen— Game Breeders* Association. 



Pens for Pheasants. 



A number of readers have expressed 

 an interest in the subject of large pens 

 vs. small pens for pheasants. 



There can be no doubt that the best 

 game keepers in America are in favor 

 of large pens for the propagation of 

 pheasants for sport. A few years ago, 

 numerous small pens were used on club 

 preserves, but the large pen is less ex- 

 pensive and in many places the small 

 pens have been abandoned. 



When high priced aviary species are 

 propagated there can be no doubt that 

 small pens may be used to advantage. 

 Excellent and accurate records can be 

 made, and there is, of course, no danger 

 of the loss of a valuable cock by fight- 

 ing when only one cock is penned with a 

 number of hens. But the losses due to 

 fighting in large pens where hundreds 

 of pheasants are confined during the 

 breeding season have been found to be 

 very small where the pens are properly 

 constructed with suitable cross covers 

 and the loss of a bird or two of the less 

 expensive birds used on shooting pre- 

 serves is inconsiderable when compared 

 with the cost of constructing many small 

 pens. 



The records of eggs gathered from 

 large pens are excellent and the birds 

 certainly do well in the large inclosures. 

 The little fighting which goes on seems 

 to be beneficial to the birds and where 

 there are ample opportunities for the 

 defeated cocks to escape and associate 

 with hens on the opposite sides of the 

 brush covers in the pens, most of the 

 cocks will "live to fight another day." 



It has been impossible to answer all 

 of the letters coming to The Game 

 Breeder on this subject. We have asked 

 some of the best game keepers in 

 America to write their opinions on this 

 subject of pens and we hope soon to 

 print some interesting letters from the 

 best authorities with some pictures and 

 diagrams of the large pens used on some 

 of the best American preserves. 



More About Pheasant Pens, 



The following letter was written by 

 one of our members to another and al- 

 though it was marked not for publica- 

 tion we feel that we know the writer 

 well enough to print the letter without 

 using his name, since it will be of great 

 interest to our readers and undoubtedly 

 will result in some interesting letters 



