PHEASANT RAISING IN THE UNITED STATES. 
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the invariable experience has been that it is extremely difficult to 
secure satisfactory results by leaving them to hatch the eggs. Incu¬ 
bators may be employed, but the results are usually unsatisfactory. 
Bantams, especialty Cochin bantams, are frequently used on account 
of their lightness. In the Royal Zoological Gardens of Antwerp, 
where pheasants are reared very successfully, half-bred Japanese 
silkies are used. Hybrids between Japanese silkies and ordinary 
game have been tried with good results. The silkies are small, light, 
and broody, while the game make excellent mothers, owing to their 
fighting qualities. Wyandottes and Rhode Island reds are very 
satisfactory. Some of the large and successful pheasantries of the 
United States use any hens that are light, clean-legged, and free from 
disease, as it is difficult to secure enough sitting hens when they are 
wanted. A few pheasantries raise their own hens, which is perhaps 
the better practice. In selecting a hen, it is essential that she be 
free from scaly leg, roup, and lice. Dipping the hen’s legs in a 5 
per cent solution of carbolic acid before placing her on the eggs, and 
repeating the treatment several times during the season, is a useful 
precaution against scaly leg. To guard against lice, which are very 
fatal to young pheasants, the hen should be dusted with insect 
powder before she is set and once a week thereafter, though not 
within three days of the hatching. In addition to this precaution 
the hen should have ready access to a good dust bath. The style 
and dimensions of the hatching box or coop may vary according to 
the judgment of the pheasant raiser, but the simpler it is the better. 
It should have no floor, but should be simply a cover for the nest, 
more for protection than for warmth. It should be well ventilated; 
a close, hot, stuffy hatching box will soon be infested with fleas and lice, 
which irritate the hens and injure the chicks. Impure air also lowers 
the vitality of the chick, even in the shell. The nest should consist 
of a sod placed grass side down on the ground and lined with a little 
short straw or grass. A 1-incli mesh wire or board run should extend 
in front of the coop for at least 2 or 3 feet, in which the hen may eat, 
drink, exercise, and dust herself at pleasure, and in which the chicks 
may run before they are removed to the rearing field. The run 
should be covered with ordinary poultry wire. A hinged top to the 
coop is convenient, as it gives ready access to the nest and eggs. 
Food and water may be placed in the run once a day. If natural 
dust can not be readily secured, ashes may be supplied. It is well to 
place other eggs under the hen for a day or two while she is shaping 
the nest, and thus avoid possible loss of pheasant eggs by breakage. 
If many settings are made, it will be found convenient to record the 
date of setting and the number of eggs to each hen. This may be 
done by marking the eggs or labeling the coops. On the ninth or 
tenth day the eggs may be examined and the fertile ones distributed 
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