PHEASANT REARING 
hand. Coker mats are also sold for the same purpose, for which they are 
well fitted; while dry boards are also very useful when the chicks get a 
little older, and a little sand dusted over them greatly assists the keeping 
of them clean. 
If the weather is both wet and cold a warm bed will revive many a chick, 
and is easily contrived by making a hole in the ground and putting a hot 
half-brick into it, with a dry sod over it, and the sack on the top. 
The coops should always be disinfected immediately after the rearing 
season is over, before they are stacked away for the winter, and if a large 
wooden tub is procured which will hold four coops at a time, the work can 
be rapidly completed. Pure chloride of lime should be put into the water, 
and the coops dipped into the solution. It is a good plan to have the field 
intended for rearing grazed closely by stock during the autumn, but 
allowed to grow a few inches in the spring, before the coops are placed 
there, and then to cut narrow rides the width of the coops. The latter 
should be kept a considerable distance apart, at least fifty yards, to allow 
for shifting the coops constantly on to fresh ground, for excepting in very 
wet weather, they should not be allowed to occupy the same spot more 
than two days. To move them daily a yard or two is preferable. It is well 
to shift the coops towards the evening, so that the birds have the advantage 
of sweet ground for the night. The rides will require frequent re -cutting 
as the grass grows, while the long grass on each side provides shelter 
for the little chicks, and also plenty of insect food. A long furrow turned 
over with the plough is an excellent plan, down one side of each ride, for 
the furrow acts as a drain, and the sod soon dries after rain, which the 
chicks are quick to detect, and avail themselves of, for sitting upon. Some 
shelter should be provided also for the birds to run to if a hawk is about, 
and fir branches with their butts fixed in the ground outside a circle, 
with the tops inwards, make an excellent retreat. If the branches of beeches 
are cut during the previous autumn, when the leaf is still well on, they 
answer even better than fir, for the spindles of the latter gradually drop off, 
whilst the beech leaves will remain on the whole rearing season. 
Vermin . — ^Previous to the coops being placed on the field all four-footed 
vermin should be closely trapped, including moles, for their runs are fre- 
quently used by weasels, which thus gain unsuspected access to the middle 
of the rearing ground. The barn owl, as proved by the castings, seldom 
takes pheasant chicks, and the same with kestrels, though occasionally 
an individual develops a taste in this direction, when it should be at 
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