will my hen hatch pheasents for me?

alsace royal

hi all,
as the title goes im thinking of realeasing a few on my own land for the upcoming season, i keep a few pb hens and one has started to clock.
i know she would hatch them but keeping my presence around them at the absalute min would the grow up to be suitable?
once they featherd id be putting them in a pen out on their own and all the rest
iv no experiance of this type of thing just wondering would it work or am i as well buy a few poults?

any advice or experiances very welcome

thanks

meathstevie

The old man and his shooting buddies used to do that years ago with bantam hens to hatch the pheasants. They put the hen out with the poults after they'd feathered and later recaptured the hens.

extremetaz

My auld boy would tell you that Bantam hens will hatch pretty much anything.

He keeps a few of them for that very reason - if another hen won't sit on the nest, he puts the eggs with a bantam.

One shot on kill

Cool idea infairness how long does the clock for ang how long will she need to sit on the eggs.

alsace royal

One shot on kill wrote: »

Cool idea infairness how long does the clock for ang how long will she need to sit on the eggs.

ah well it takes 3 weeks for the hen chicks to hatch id imagine the pheasent would be the same give or take a few days, and i know she would look after them no bother, just seems like if i have my hens why not get them to do the job of an incubator and give me a bit of sport for the season. for all id be messing at the few a hen would give me would be plenty and hopefully raise the numbers i the area

One shot on kill

Fair play ye I have a hen clocking there at the min I'd nearly give it ago providing you don't mind. Where would one get the eggs.

vapour_trail

Pheasant is 3 weeks and 3 days. No hen will sit as well as a bantam. The f'ers would sit on stones :P

patdahat

the bantam is the 1 or a silkie, sure wont it be worth a go anyway, every hen is different and it will be a learning curve.

One shot on kill

Learning curve or the but end off a joke.

Where would one get the eggs boys.

patdahat

have a look on don del

One shot on kill

Ye had a look I didn't really see any there seen plenty of young birds alright.

vapour_trail

Do you know anyone in any gun clubs in the area ? chances are someone will have a pen with a cock and a few hens for eggs. If not give these crowd a buzz theres a chance they might have pheasant eggs and they will post them.
http://poulacapplepoultry.com/

sikastag

alsace royal wrote: »

hi all,
as the title goes im thinking of realeasing a few on my own land for the upcoming season, i keep a few pb hens and one has started to clock.
i know she would hatch them but keeping my presence around them at the absalute min would the grow up to be suitable?
once they featherd id be putting them in a pen out on their own and all the rest
iv no experiance of this type of thing just wondering would it work or am i as well buy a few poults?

any advice or experiances very welcome

thanks

Hi Alsace,


Have reared my own birds by this method to let out on family land. Little bit work intensive but absolutely worth it. Without a doubt. Wish I could still do it but just don’t have the time for it now.

If you are getting eggs, or have someone who has pheasant hens laying and are willing to collect you a batch of eggs make sure you ask them to rotate the eggs daily. An easy way to do this is to write the day the egg is collected/laid on one side of the egg with a marker and simply turn to the opposite side daily. This is basically doing your hen’s job while you are waiting for enough eggs to be collected to put under her. The hen naturally rotates/shuffles the eggs whilst sitting. If you get them all in one go then happy days.

As already mentioned, the incubation time for pheasants is a little longer than chickens. 3 days longer. Make sure if you have a clocker that you remove all the original eggs she is sitting on and replace with them with your pheasant eggs.It helps to do this under the cover of darkness or at least in keeping light to a minimum. It’s handy if you can remove and replace eggs from nesting box without opening the whole thing up and disturbing your hen.

If you do not remove all chicken eggs you can run the risk of losing your brood of pheasants due to shorter incubation time for a chicken. Basically the chicken will hatch first and your hen may see the other late arrivals as 'aliens/different' and may decide to protect its original offspring by killing them. If you do end up with a hatched chicken and your bird is still on your pheasant eggs, remove said chick immediately and keep a VERY close eye on hatchlings in case things go pear shaped.

You don’t really need to do much once the eggs are under and she’s sitting. Just provide grub and clean water for your hen, keep an eye on her. She'll eat when it suits. Some will just sit. Mainly bantams and silkies as already mentioned would sit on a stone. Just broody birds. If you see your hen out of the nesting box, don’t panic, might just be for food or water. You will know if she is gone off clocking as she won’t return to nest.

Once your birds are hatched I presume you'll give them grower pellet or something similar to start? Also fresh water is important. For the first week or so I used jam jar lids to provide water for the young birds. You’ll have to keep an eye on water levels but it will stop them falling in and drowning. After that you can use a shallow bowl or full size drinker outside. Any shallow tray will do for the pellet – bottom of 7up bottle, old clean chinese take-away carton etc. For the first while, it is probably best to keep your young birds inside in the nest box, maybe create a ledge/step at the entrance so the hen can leave if she so wishes but high enough that the chicks are kept in safe.

I used to keep them with the hen for a few weeks as she will basically teach them how it’s done, from scratching for worms to dust baths. It’s very interesting to watch the learning process of the birds if you have the time. There are usually visual clues when to take the birds away also as hen will usually get a bit ‘agitated’ with them once they are old enough to be fending for themselves.
Once the birds were old enough to be taken away I kept them in a pen until they were young adult birds and then released. Again, clean water and you would probably have switched to grain from a hopper at this stage.

I do find the hen reared birds are different to that of incubated birds. They are hardier, better able to fend for themselves, generally smarter. I have heard that a hen reared bird will breed in its first year of release whereas an incubated or hand reared could take up to three seasons. Whether this is true or not, I’m not sure. I can only say that with the birds I have released that they did breed in their first year and there is a great feeling of satisfaction when you see your adult hen out and about with chicks in tow. Where I released the birds, there were little to no pheasants around. Since, there is steady numbers there without the requirement for supplementing the stock every year with more birds – I’d like to think that they can manage that by themselves now. The release areas are hunted, albeit not too heavily.

I am not claiming to be an expert, just simply saying what I have done and what has worked/not worked for me. It was very much a trial and error exercise and gathering as much info as possible from anybody willing to share. If you have any questions I would be glad to try and answer or help look for the answer at least but there are plenty on here who can and are willing to help and probably have a wealth of knowledge more than I.

Maybe most of what I posted you already know as you have stated you keep hens already. Hopefully you can take something useful from it. Just thought Id share my experience.

One shot on kill

Good read sikastag and very interesting.

You hardly know the meaning of life.

Tawny Owl

Enjoyed reading that story about a Hen rearing Pheasants, very good and well done very informative,

alsace royal

sikastag thanks for the advice was very helpfull hopefully it all goes to plan now

alsace royal

http://www.donedeal.ie/for-sale/poultry/5121227

eggs there in mayo if was any use to anyone