The reliable pheasant standard, a practical guide on the culture, breeding, rearing, trapping, preserving of pheasants, game birds, ornamental land and water fowl, singing birds, etc by Sudow Ferdinand Joseph b. 1862

Author:Sudow, Ferdinand Joseph, b. 1862
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Pheasants
Publisher: [Poughkeepsie, N. Y., The A. V. Haight co., printers]

By Ferd. J. Sudow, Poughkeepsie, N. Y.

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attention to the young birds used for that purpose, for after they pass the stage where they require artificial food they naturally leave their foster mother and seek their freedom.

"One of the greatest dangers to the successful rearing of pheasants is from lice. We begin to fight these pests from the time that the sitting hens are brought to the grounds until the pheasants are able to care for themselves, after which they spend much of the time rolling in the dust and sand which is Nature's method of keeping off these insect pests.

"The coops and chicken houses are thickly coated with whitewash and they are frequently sprinkled with other insect-preventive washes. In a season we use barrels of different washes.

"As soon as the broody or sitting hens are bought, they are thoroughly dusted with insect powder and their feet and legs are dipped in kerosene oil. The hens are placed on trial nests and given a setting of China eggs. A few days later the hen is transferred to the regular sitting boxes, nesting material that was in the trial box is burned and the coop fumigated. Then the'old lady receives her set of pheasant eggs and is disturbed as little as possible until the eggs hatch. This method eliminates the possibility of insects infecting the chicks. One should never put a hen on pheasant's eggs immediately after her legs have been oiled, for the oil will kill the life germ.

"Body lice are not very harmful, the head lice are the ones we dread and fight most. When the young pheasants are taken from the incubator and before they are placed in the brooding coop with their foster mother, their heads and the bare spots beneath their wings and about their thighs are well greased with vaseline and a very weak solution of carbolic acid. This operation is repeated about every week until they become difficult to catch.

"Students of Natural History enjoy visiting the brooding grounds during the height of the season, from June to August, when hours at a time can be spent watching the little birds from a distance, as it is risky to allow strangers to enter—except by special invitation—the brooding grounds as they might unintentionally trample on the young birds, which, when

they are frightened run and hide in the grass instead of going to the mother as an ordinary young chicken does. Even the gamekeepers have to exercise great caution in this respect and walk as much as possible in the well-beaten paths leading from one brooding coop to another in the rearing fields. These coops are moved on alternate days about the length of one on to new grass on account of cleanliness.

"You see the natural instinct of all game birds of this family to hide at the sight of danger, causes the young pheasants to take shelter in the grass as soon as they get scared. But the crafty little chicks are much brighter than would be

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