. Pheasant farming; containing general information about pheasants, with instructions how to raise them. Pheasants. PHEASANT FARMING 7 change the habits of the bird entirely. The hen rarely ever makes a pretense at laying in a nest, much less set and hatch a brood of young pheasants. The cock becomes decidedly polygamous, and will instantly kill a young bird, if placed in the same enclosure. The percentage of fertility of all pheasant eggs is remarkably great. It is not at all uncommon for every egg to hatch, and the writer has for many years mated from four to six hens with one cock, the latt
. Pheasant farming; containing general information about pheasants, with instructions how to raise them. Pheasants. PHEASANT FARMING 7 change the habits of the bird entirely. The hen rarely ever makes a pretense at laying in a nest, much less set and hatch a brood of young pheasants. The cock becomes decidedly polygamous, and will instantly kill a young bird, if placed in the same enclosure. The percentage of fertility of all pheasant eggs is remarkably great. It is not at all uncommon for every egg to hatch, and the writer has for many years mated from four to six hens with one cock, the latter number invari- when the yard is sufficiently large. In captivity a single China pheasant hen has been known to lay 104 eggs in one season, extending from April 1st to September 1st, but sixty eggs is perhaps a fair average. In the wild state, the pheasant seldom roosts in a tree, and then only in one that is open, so it is in confinement. While they may stay in the shedded part of their pen in the daytime, just at dusk they select a place with an open sky above them in which to pass the night, and this, too, regardless of the inclemency of the weather. They seem to be indifferent to snow and rain and after a night out in the rain, appear none the worse for the drenching. They commonly roost on the ground with feathers drawn down tight to the China Pheasants—Four Weeks Old. The young pheasants all have the same plumage until about two months old, that of a grayish brown. When a month old it will be noted that the feathers on the back of the neck near the body on some of the young birds will show slightly lighter in color with a salmon colored cast. These are the hens, the corresponding feathers on the cocks remaining darker and near the color of the remainder of the plumage. When two months old, splotches of chestnut red will begin to appear on the breasts of the cocks. The hens undergo small changes in plumage, and while of a general fawn color, some of the ti
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