Agriculture Reference
In-Depth Information
in a corner. I suggest you never try this with expensive day-old game birds unless you
have no other choice.
Giving a broody hen fertile game bird eggs to hatch is no different than giving her
chicken eggs to hatch. Let her set on dummy eggs or nest eggs for a few days — nest
egg gourds or wooden nest eggs — and once she is a committed mother, slip the game
bird eggs under her and remove the dummy eggs.
Game bird waterfowl eggs can be handled similarly. Place mallard or Canada goose
eggs, for example, under setting domestic waterfowl and all the work will be done for
you.
Chickens for Baby Pheasants
Good brood bantam or chicken hens will adopt pheasants with ease. Silkies make ex-
cellent mothers for pheasant eggs. The eggs are about the same size, so a typical Silkie
hen can easily hatch out 8 to 12 pheasant eggs. She will be caring and watchful, and will
help to domesticate the pheasants, gentling them down. Remember to keep her in an en-
closed building for a while to accustom the pheasant chicks to indoor facilities.
Typically, young pheasants will take on the traits of the adoptive mother chicken, so
if you want your pheasants more chickenlike this is the perfect way to do it. I have done
this many times and my pheasants are truly domesticated as a result. This is not the ap-
proach to take if you plan to release the pheasants into the wild. This will make them
too comfortable with humans and thus easy targets during hunting season.
Quail-like Birds Won't Be Adopted
Surrogate moms are not an option for rearing quail, partridge, and chukar, as they are
way too small. They would have trouble surviving even under a broody bantam hen,
which would probably crush the eggs during incubation. You must hand-raise these tiny
youngsters into adulthood, when they finally can raise their own.
A Second Home
The clock starts ticking once the eggs hatch or the day-olds arrive, and if you don't have
your rearing and flight pens ready, work fast! Game birds grow rapidly and must be
transitioned to their future facilities as quickly as they are ready. This can be as soon as
three to four weeks. A shelter placed inside a large pen can provide them with a bit of a
natural experience.
