Y. Malisoux—Must Pheasants Roost ?



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scratching and exercising ; now and then they retire to the box,

obviously to warm themselves. They are the picture of health.


Five young Diardi female chicks were brought up in the same

manner last year. They were hatched on the 26th August. Not one died,

and we sold the last one this last summer. For health and size it was

not inferior to a two-year hen that we keep as a stock bird. [I can

vouch for this fact, as this hen is at present on my place.—P. J.

Lambert.]


I am quite sure one could obtain quite as good results with Bantams

or Silkies, provided the young Firebacks can be persuaded to sleep

with their foster-mother in a shut box and on thick litter before they

show the first propensity to roost. The chicks must on no account be

allowed to roost. I cannot understand why so many breeders rejoice

when they see their small chicks taking to roost for the first time.

This is the most dangerous period of the growing stage. The growth

of the plumage bears directly on the bird’s health, and though the chick

may be too big to sleep under its mother’s wing, it is still much too

young to hold the necessary warmth by itself on the roost, at least in

such a climate as ours. One has only to observe them to stand

convinced. If by mistake one of our chicks has been allowed to spend

the night outside on some roost of its own choice, we at once detect

it the next day and, indeed, the day after from the rest of the chicks

by its slower movements and loose plumage.


I am positive any breeder will succeed as well as we do with first

and second brood Firebacks provided he uses a shut box with ample

litter. For the very late broods I am not sure this would be sufficient,

because the Bantam or Silky might be unwilling to mother her chicks

through the winter during the day . At night when the box would be shut

her very presence would be sufficient as the chicks would cluster round

her. One could perhaps combine the two systems.


The only secret is to keep the chicks warm by compelling them to

sleep tightly clustered together on a warm litter and so prevert them from

losing their individual warmth though isolated roosting. Of course

ore must on no account heat a shut box, otherwise the chicks would be

suffocated. To sum up, the roosting is injurious to some adult

Pheasants, prejudicial to all chicks, and even deadly to many of them.



