APPENDIX. 
119 
We have quoted largely from Farmers’ Bulletin No. 390 on “Pheasant 
Raising in the United States,” issued April, 1910, by the United States 
Department of Agriculture, and prepared by Henry Oldys, Assistant 
United States Biological Survey. 
PENS. 
The location of the pens is a most important factor. Well drained, 
sandy or gravelly land facing the south should be selected if possible, 
and the pens arranged to get all the sunshine possible during the wet 
months, as sunshine is one of the very best preventives of bird diseases. 
In hot locations the pen can be shaded when necessary. 
A good sized pen or run for one cock and four hens would be about 
ten feet wide by sixteen feet long and six feet high. The sides and top 
should be covered with one-inch mesh poultry netting, carefully fas¬ 
tened and sunk into the ground at least a foot, to keep out burrowing 
animals. It is well to have an entrance at both ends of the pen for 
convenience in gathering eggs. A shed should be built in the north end 
of the run, with the side facing the sun, open. This shed should be at 
least four feet wide by six feet long and as high as the sides of the pen. 
A roost should be provided the length of the shed and a foot and a half 
above the ground. The front of the shed must be left open or the birds 
will not enter; the roof, rear and ends should be tight. When possible, 
it is well to enclose in the run small trees or shrubs for the birds to use 
as perches and for roosting; they will, besides, provide a shade during 
the hot summer months. Pheasants usually refuse to roost under cover; 
consequently, roosts of some sort must be provided in the open. Where 
more than one pen is used, they should communicate with each other, 
either directly or through a covered alleyway. This greatly facilitates 
the moving of birds from pen to pen. 
It is absolutely essential that the pen be kept clean and free from lice 
at all times. The pheasant is a wild bird, with greater vitality than 
domestic poultry, yet conditions and diseases that affect poultry but 
slightly are fatal to the hardier bird. It is, perhaps, safe to say that 
most failures in pheasant rearing are due to filth and lice. We can not 
emphasize this fact too strongly; keep your pheasants in clean quarters 
and free from lice or you will lose them. 
Before the beginning of the mating season it is advisable to move the 
adult birds to a fresh, clean pen. The ground in the old pen should 
then be spread with unslaked lime, allowed to stand two or three weeks, 
and then spaded up and planted to some grain or vegetable crop. All 
woodwork about pens and sheds should be sprayed or washed several 
times during the year with a good wash made with unslaked lime and 
w^ater, to which has been added carbolic acid in the proportion of six 
ounces of acid to the gallon of wash. No whitewashing should be done 
