Pheasant eggs under chickens

Wolfhillbilly

A couple of years ago, a poster on here (can't remember who!) was hatching pheasant eggs under chickens with the hope that a 'wild' pheasant population could be built up by the offspring who would be taught to forage for food etc by the hens.
Just wondering if there's been any progress?

meathstevie

Wolfhillbilly wrote: »

A couple of years ago, a poster on here (can't remember who!) was hatching pheasant eggs under chickens with the hope that a 'wild' pheasant population could be built up by the offspring who would be taught to forage for food etc by the hens.
Just wondering if there's been any progress?

I've never done it myself but have seen it done, and quite succesfuly, years ago by my dad and his friends. Pheasant eggs under a broody bantam and put the lot out in a sheltered area in relatively close proximity to a feeder a few days after hatching..

patdahat

I have hatched from an incubator and they done fine without the help of any older bird helping them along the way, i know of people that hatch then out from under bantam's and silkie's with great success. The bora bog project hatch out loads of partridge under bantams and then turn them free.

Wolfhillbilly

I was thinking more about a population establishing themselves in an area. I let out birds every year but they dont breed the following spring. I have heard that this is because incubated birds have lost natural instinct ti breed?
I don;t know that this is true. Sites like Pheasants Forever maintain that incubtaed birds will never establish themselves in an area.

patdahat

i done it for 2/3 years and birds i hatched out layed the following year and i hatched them out also. I release adult hen's after the season and hold back the cock's until mid to late September and find it to be a success.

Invincible

Wolfhillbilly wrote: »

I was thinking more about a population establishing themselves in an area. I let out birds every year but they dont breed the following spring. I have heard that this is because incubated birds have lost natural instinct ti breed?
I don;t know that this is true. Sites like Pheasants Forever maintain that incubtaed birds will never establish themselves in an area.

They say an incubated hen will hatch her eggs the first year but following that will not, supposed that when they're not under a bird before hatching, they don't inherit the instinct.

Theshooter2012

A bantam hen is a better mother than a hen pheasant. a hen pheasant keeps going regardless where the chicks are but a bantam hen will always round the chicks up.

Thomas Drennan

Well i have reared phesants under bantams for years its true to say they get well eduacated with the mother but can i say they turn out a better bird its hard to say they still dont hold any better in that area after release , and they dont go on to become a better mother,and you will have alot of work segregating the bantams with their chicks , but you wont have picking problems and they feather much quicker, But i think unless the habitat is very good and vermin kept low your fighting a loosing battle.

Dalken

Thomas Drennan wrote: »

Well i have reared phesants under bantams for years its true to say they get well eduacated with the mother but can i say they turn out a better bird its hard to say they still dont hold any better in that area after release , and they dont go on to become a better mother,and you will have alot of work segregating the bantams with their chicks , but you wont have picking problems and they feather much quicker, But i think unless the habitat is very good and vermin kept low your fighting a loosing battle.

We've tried it a few times and found the same that Bantoms make good mothers but it is very difficult to say what happens to following generations.

daniels.ducks

This thing that incubated birds don't hatch eggs is utter bull****! Just because the egg is under a bird does not mean that they inherit the trait through osmosis or something. The reason people put eggs under bantams is to get them roosting at an early age to avoid vermin. It's the best way of doing it in my opinion. Otherwise there has to be roosts in the pen from an early age aswell.

Thomas Drennan

Well i do believe that phesants will sit on eggs regardless of how they are reared and i also believe they will roost its their instinct to do so but i do agree that they roost earlier with the bantam it may be a better way to rear them but you want a great set up in order to to rear a decent amount it all depends on your set up but next years stock depends on habitat and vermin not how they were reared .

Wolfhillbilly

Thomas Drennan wrote: »

Well i do believe that phesants will sit on eggs regardless of how they are reared and i also believe they will roost its their instinct to do so but i do agree that they roost earlier with the bantam it may be a better way to rear them but you want a great set up in order to to rear a decent amount it all depends on your set up but next years stock depends on habitat and vermin not how they were reared .

Some interesting points. But how do you explain habitat that hasn't changed that much in the last 40 years and used to hold a decent supply of wild pheasants but now doesn't? The wild birds started to fall away from the area I shoot in round about the late 1980s to early 1990s. Usually the reason pointed to is changing in farming methods, less crops, pesticides, inseceticides etc but this area is mainly cattle farm, there's till plenty of cover, not much crop but we keep the feeders topped up all year round and despite only shooting roosters, only one year in he last 10 has a hen successfully reared a clutch of young birds.

Birdnuts

Wolfhillbilly wrote: »

Some interesting points. But how do you explain habitat that hasn't changed that much in the last 40 years and used to hold a decent supply of wild pheasants but now doesn't? The wild birds started to fall away from the area I shoot in round about the late 1980s to early 1990s. Usually the reason pointed to is changing in farming methods, less crops, pesticides, inseceticides etc but this area is mainly cattle farm, there's till plenty of cover, not much crop but we keep the feeders topped up all year round and despite only shooting roosters, only one year in he last 10 has a hen successfully reared a clutch of young birds.

In the 80's cattle farmers increasingly switched from hay to silage. Silage is typically cut much earlier in the summer then hay which means many ground nesting birds don't get a chance to rear even one brood. Silage ground is also heavily treated with artifical fertilizers and heribides which kills nearly all the food plants that support the insects which young chicks need to grow and thrive. Its not just pheasant that have sufferred, but everything from skylarks to barn owls have been hit hard. In these parts the highest pheasant densities are in and around what remains of older hay meadows or their equivalents. Wild game birds also do much better in areas where stubbles are left over the winter instead of ploughed under. This is why spring varieties of barley,oats etc. support alot more birds then winter varieties.

Wolfhillbilly

Birdnuts wrote: »

In the 80's cattle farmers increasingly switched from hay to silage. Silage is typically cut much earlier in the summer then hay which means many ground nesting birds don't get a chance to rear even one brood. Silage ground is also heavily treated with artifical fertilizers and heribides which kills nearly all the food plants that support the insects which young chicks need to grow and thrive. Its not just pheasant that have sufferred, but everything from skylarks to barn owls have been hit hard. In these parts the highest pheasant densities are in and around what remains of older hay meadows or their equivalents. Wild game birds also do much better in areas where stubbles are left over the winter instead of ploughed under. This is why spring varieties of barley,oats etc. support alot more birds then winter varieties.

Would you say that is the main reason for wild pheasants dying out Birdnuts (farmers switching from hay to silage?) I have more or less given up hope of wild birds re establishing themselves on our shoot.
From looking at websites such as Pheasnats Forever, it pretty much seems the case that wild pheasants are a thing of the past in most areas and cant be 'brought back' unless there is major habitat work carried out. Has anyone any experience to the contrary?

Birdnuts

Wolfhillbilly wrote: »

Would you say that is the main reason for wild pheasants dying out Birdnuts (farmers switching from hay to silage?) I have more or less given up hope of wild birds re establishing themselves on our shoot.
From looking at websites such as Pheasnats Forever, it pretty much seems the case that wild pheasants are a thing of the past in most areas and cant be 'brought back' unless there is major habitat work carried out. Has anyone any experience to the contrary?

The loss of small mixed farms with their hayfields and oat stubbles is a big factor in the decline of many farmland birds including Corncrakes. Another factor with Pheasants is that they are not a "native" bird but were brought here by the Normans. In their native lands (Turkey eastwards) they inhabitat dense mountain forests and certain riverine gallery forests of the type we just don't have in Ireland in terms of tree/shrub species mix etc. so pheasants here have to hang out in less then optimal habitats.