BOARD OF FISH AND GAME COMMISSIONERS

STATE OF CALIFORNIA, U. S. A.

BULLETIN No. 1

Pheasant Raising

Arranged by

CHAS. A. VOGELSANG
Chief Deputy

SACRAMENTO:
W. W. SHANNON, : : : : SUPERINTENDENT STATE PRINTING

1910

se PHEASANT RAISING.

INTRODUCTION.

The State Fish and Game Commissioners, realizing that there is a
strong and unsatisfied demand by hotels, restaurants, and by private
citizens who do not hunt for wild game, and with a constantly increasing
population, which renders it necessary to place greater restrictions (such
as longer closed seasons and lessened bag hmits) upon the amount of
game that can be taken, believe that the situation could best be met
through the establishment of a game farm, where pheasants and other
game birds could be raised and distributed throughout the State, to
people who would agree to give them proper protection and attention,
and would take up the work of propagation seriously. The raising of
pheasants in captivity has been carried on for years in European coun-
tries, and with considerable success in Eastern States.

It is the intention of the Fish and Game Commissioners to recommend
at the forthcoming session of the legislature that pheasants raised in
captivity can be sold in the markets. It would mean a new industry
and would serve a double purpose. It would reduce the drain on wild
game in the field, and give the profit that formerly went to market
hunters to citizens and taxpayers who engage in a legitimate business.

At practically every session of the legislature for the past ten years
some variety of game bird or animal has been added to the nonsale list,
leaving wild ducks, wild geese and rabbits the only game that can be
sold in the markets. It is only a matter of a very short time until wild
ducks are added to the nonsale list.

The establishment of the game farm has been rendered possible by the
hunting license law, which provides yearly a large revenue. Such a
farm has been establishmed near Hayward, Alameda County, at a cost
of approximately $10,000, which includes its equipment, houses, barn,
water tank, pumping plant, pens, horse and wagon, necessary tools, and
the original stock of birds. Our first year’s work was performed under
serious disadvantages. We raised, however, 1,200 pheasants. We
expect to have 3,000 for liberation this year. All expenses in connection
with this game farm are paid out of the hunting license fund, without
taxing the general fund of the State one cent.

As an aid to those who are desirous of embarking in such an enter-
prise, we offer the following brief account of methods that have been
proven successful by this Commission and other experienced breeders.

D. OF D.
SEP 19 1910

4s ae

We have quoted largely from Farmers’ Bulletin No. 390 on ‘‘ Pheasant
Raising in the United States,’’ issued April, 1910, by the United States
Department of Agriculture, and prepared by Henry Oldys, Assistant
United States Biological Survey.

PENS.

The location of the pens is a most important factor. Well drained,
sandy or grayelly land facing the south should be selected if possible,
and the pens arranged to get all the sunshine possible during the wet
months, as sunshine is one of the very best preventives of bird diseases.
In hot locations the pen can be shaded when necessary.

A good sized pen or run for one cock and four hens would be about
ten feet wide by sixteen feet long and six feet high. The sides and top
should be covered with one-inch mesh poultry netting, carefully fas-
tened and sunk into the ground at least a foot, to keep out burrowing
animals. It is well to have an entrance at both ends of the pen for
convenience in gathering eggs. A shed should be built in the north end
of the run, with the side facing the sun, open. This shed should be at
least four feet wide by six feet long and as high as the sides of the pen.
A roost should be provided, the length of the shed and a foot and a half
above the ground. The front of the shed must be left open or the birds
will not enter; the roof, rear and ends should be tight. When possible,
it is well to enclose in the run small trees or shrubs for the birds to use
as perches and for roosting; they will, besides, provide a shade during
the hot summer months. Pheasants usually refuse to roost under cover,
consequently, roosts of some sort must be provided in the open. Where
more than one pen is used, they should communicate with each other,
either directly or through a covered alleyway. This greatly facilitates
the moving of birds from pen to pen.

It is absolutely essential that the pen be kept clean and free from lice
at all times. The pheasant is a wild bird with greater vitality than
domestic poultry, yet conditions and diseases that affect poultry but
slightly are fatal to the hardier bird. It is, perhaps, safe to say that
most failures in pheasant rearing are due to filth and lice. We can not
emphasize this fact too strongly ; keep your pheasants in clean quarters
and free from lice or you will lose them.

Before the beginning of the mating season it is advisable to move the
adult birds to a fresh, clean pen. The ground in the old pen should
then be spread with unslaked lime, allowed to stand two or three weeks,
and then spaded up and planted to some grain or vegetable crop. All
woodwork about pens and sheds should be sprayed or washed several
times during the year with a good wash made with unslaked lime and
water, to which has been added carbolic acid in the proportion of six

eee:
ounees of acid to the gallon of wash. No whitewashing should be done
during the laying season, as the hens are so affected by the odor as to
stop laying.
HANDLING NEW BIRDS.

When a shipment of pheasants is received, first of all consider that
they will feel strange and timid; therefore, must be quietly handled.
Place the crate in the pen, with food and water near by. After arrang-
ing it so that the birds can come out when they get ready, leave them
and keep away from the pen, except when necessary to feed and water,
as pheasants are easily scared when changed to new quarters. After a
few days they will become accustomed to their new home and can be
cared for without trouble. The same person should attend to the birds
all the time if possible, and should always wear the same clothing when
among them, as they are sensitive to any change of appearance and
become frightened very easily. Strangers always bother the birds, and
dogs and eats should never be allowed near the runs. Handle the birds
only when actually necessary and then only by grasping them over the
wings and around the body. Never grasp them by the wings or legs as
is commonly done with poultry.

FEED FOR ADULT BIRDS.

Those foods that contain the elements and properties of their natural
food supply, and to which they have become accustomed through cen-
turies of feeding in the wild state, are naturally best suited to the
pheasant in captivity. Do not overfeed, as it is sure to induce disease.
The pheasant is a small feeder, needing only about half as much food as
the chicken.

Variety in food is very important, as the pheasant in his wild state
eats practically every edible substance he finds. Adult birds require
feeding morning and evening, no more food being given them than will
be cleaned up. We have found the best food to be a mixture made after
the following formula:

Brokenawheate (Not SCheenines ae so senee ee ee ee 20 pounds
Hine (eranulacec))e. cracked! CORM===: ae sas ses seen en eee eae 15 pounds
COVER fi COED SY eae Pi le So es oe ee Se ee, See ee 15 pounds
Coarse beef scrap __------ Se ee ma) re ne ads Melee a: 10 pounds
Milleteseedt 22 ste 5 oF oes soe Ee, fete 5 Sa eae coe ey nk Ree 10 pounds
Canary scedipeen ees Se ee eee ete. 10 pounds
TU OM SCO esate reese ee tare eS oe eA ee 5 pounds
IETS TOES e Cle eee ee ee ee es 2 Ee BAe er eee sees 5 pounds
STITCRGHIGKGN Me Ie eee et ee ee rey ee a eee ee 5 pounds
Mineysran il aytediehyncoal=s sess eee san 0 kee aye ee 5 pounds

100 pounds

We should say at this point that none of the various poultry foods
that.we have tested has proven suitable for pheasants. The birds must

cue Cape

“have plenty of green ground bone at all times and be given an abund-
ance of green feed, such as cabbage, lettuce, swiss chard, fine cut lawn
clippings, clover or alfalfa. They lke lettuce best. Pheasants get
unthrifty at once if deprived of the green stuff they need. Fresh water
in abundance must always be handy. Seald all watering dishes every
day, and keep drinking water in the shade or change it often; warm
water favors the development of bacteria that cause disease.

MATING SEASON.

The mating season will of course vary with the locality, but, generally
speaking, it begins in April and extends into August. In captivity the
pheasant hen lays from forty to seventy-five eggs. Nests are useless, as
the hens will seldom use them, but drop their eggs on the ground any-
where in the pen.

The eges should be gathered as soon as laid, or at least twice a day;
otherwise the birds (particularly the males) will eat them. A sure cure
for the egg-eating habit is to blow some eggs and fill them with melted
soap and place in the pens. Eggs should be set as soon as possible ; after
they are fourteen days old they are unfit for hatching.

After hens have stopped laying for the season they can often be
encouraged to resume by moving them and the male to a new, clean pen.
The ‘‘lav’’ in the new pen sometimes exceeds that in the old o one, and of
course more than pays for the expense of extra pens.

HATCHING.

The pheasant hen in captivity is a poor mother; besides, it is more
profitable to keep her laying. Wyandottes and Rhode Island reds make
the best ‘‘mothers’’ for pheasant eggs and chicks, although any domestic
hen will do, so long as she is a good ‘‘setter.’’ Turkey hens are splendid
mothers, as they are very quiet on the nest and careful with young birds.
They seldom step on the chicks and are not so given to roaming as hen
chickens are. The eggs must be set so that they will receive the benefit
of ground moisture in a nest made after this plan:

Dig a hole in the ground in a shady place and shape a nest in it with
excelsior; a handful of onion skins is a valuable addition, as they help
to keep lice away. The nest should be enclosed with a box without a
top and about twelve inches high to prevent the young birds from eseap-
ing as soon as they hatch. Before placing the hen on the eggs be sure
that she is free from lice and disease, as lice are certain death to young
birds and are the cause of most failures in raising pheasants. One
insect feeding on top of a chick’s head will kill the bird if not destroyed
or removed. Dust the setting hen with some good lice powder at least
three times during the hatching period (but not within three days of

eet ae

hatching), and if at any time the young birds show evidence of being
infested with lice, such as drooping and refusing to eat, dust them with
lice powder and grease under their necks and on top of their heads with
lard or olive oil.

From fifteen to seventeen eggs make a good setting for a chicken hen,
while a turkey hen will cover from twenty to twenty-five. The period
of incubation varies from twenty-one to twenty-eight days, although well
fertilized eges usually hatch on the twenty-third day, and all about the
same time. The hen should be undisturbed during the hatching time

and the voung birds left in the nest until the youngest is a day old, as
they need the ‘‘mother’s’’ warmth for drying and streneth-giving,

A coop for the mother and her chicks should be ready as soon as they
are taken from the hatching nest. A cut and description of a very satis-
factory coop is given herewith.

This coop (as shown) is three feet wide by six feet long and is twelve
inches high, except in the hen’s compartment, which is raised to twenty
inches at the inner end. A space two feet long should be partitioned
off at one end for the hen and an eight-inch opening left. This opening
should be covered with slats spaced so that the chicks have just enough
room to pass from one compartment to the other. The hen’s compart-
ment should be made with a hinged cover—to facilitate feeding and
handling—while the runway should be covered with one-inch mesh net-
ting, set in a sliding frame. It is a good plan to set the coop on a

patie} lb

freshly cut grass plot and move it daily. The tender shoots of new
grass form a wholesome part of the chicks’ food, and they are very fond
of it, besides which, there is daily provided a supply of insect life. .

After the chicks are four days old and know the eall of their foster
mother, they may be allowed to leave the coop after the morning dew has
disappeared, and forage for themselves. Many breeders even allow the
hen and her brood their freedom until the young birds show a disposi-
tion to fly out of the enclosure, when they transfer them to covered pens.
Young birds cared for in this manner will be hardier and freer from
lice and disease than those confined in coops.

THE FEEDING OF PHEASANT CHICKS.

It is important that the hen and her brood be fed separately. The
young birds should not be fed at all until they are twenty-four hours
old, as they come from the shell sufficiently well nourished to maintain
their strength for that length of time, but they should have clean sand
or fine gravel to pick at from the first. By the second day they will
begin to get hungry and need feeding every two hours. After they are
five days old, let the feedings be gradually reduced, until, at the expira-
tion of three weeks, the birds are being fed but three times a day.

As soon as the young birds are ready to eat, they should be fed on a
milk curd made as follows: Heat one quart of sweet milk to the boiling
point, stir in ten eges (well beaten) and then cook until the curd is well
done. Strain off the watery fluid and you have a crumbly food that
contains nearly all the elements essential to young pheasant life. <A
mixture of milk, eggs, and oat or corn meal in proportions to make a dry
erumbly mixture is also a fine food. Boiled potatoes, mashed and mixed
with finely chopped hard boiled eggs, corn meal, and bran—with or
without finely chopped scraps of meat—provides a food that the young
birds like. Still another suitable food is a mash of corn grits, wheat
middlings, bone meal, beef scraps, and milk, made rather dry. In mak-
ing curd, make only enough to last one day, as it spoils quickly and sour
food is death to the birds.

Maggots are the very best animal food for young pheasants. They
are easily procured and the chicks may eat as many as they desire
with perfect safety. But maggots should not be given to the birds until
they have lain in bran long enough to clean themselves. Maggots when
taken direct from meat seem to be poisonous and are a dangerous food.
Maggots may be procured in various ways, but we will describe but two
plans, both of which have been used by us. Take crushed green bone
and finely chopped meat and place out doors until the mixture is well
covered with fly eggs. Then fill a box or pan half full of bran, over
whieh spread thin scraps of liver or meat for food for the maggots, and

=e Of as

spread the Hyblown green bone and meat on top. Another good method
is to hang a beef or sheep head until the maggots get big enough to drop
out. Then place a box of bran underneath and allow the maggots to lay
in the bran a day or so before giving them to the birds.

Lettuce is a splendid food for young birds, and they should have it
all the time. Fasten a head to the ground with a sharp stick and the
birds will pick it off as they want it. Leave no remnants of food around
the pens to become stale, and keep everything as clean and dry as pos-
sible. Dampness causes colds and gapes. Have plenty of fine grit and
sand in reach at all times, and it is well to keep a pan with such food as
is fed to the adult birds in the coop so that the youngsters may learn to
eat it.

For watering the young birds, it is best to use the fountain jars that
can be bought of any poultry supply house. The quart size is the best.
Their drinking water must always be fresh and the fountain jars (and
food pans) should be cleaned and sealded every day.

Usually the birds can be moved to the large runs by the time they are
two or three weeks old. Don’t put them with old birds. By the time
they are five weeks old they may be fed anything they would find in the
wild state. Young birds (as well as old) must always have dust or
ashes to ‘‘dust’’ themselves in. This is their way of taking a bath and
freeing themselves from insects.

DISEASES OF -PHEASANIS:

By GEORGE Byron Morse, M.D., V.S.

In charge of investigations of diseases of birds and cold-blooded animals, U. 8. Bureau
of Animal Industry.

DISEASES AFFECTING YOUNG PHEASANTS.

Pasting.—Pasting occurs usually during the first week of life. The
chick loses its vivacity, sits with eyes closed and its downy coat fluffed
until it appears like a ball. Examination reveals the vent plugged or
covered by a whitish, chalky, or pasty substance. This stoppage of the
vent frequently leads to death in a day or two as the result of the absorp-
tion of putrefactive poisons due to retention of the feces. Treatment
consists in the immediate gentle removal of this chalky plug and the
application of a few drops of sweet oil or a bit of petrolatum.

Diarrhea—Whitish diarrhea may be caused in very young chicks by
cold, by overheating, by overfeeding, or by too little or too much water.
The observant fancier will come to recognize these conditions almost
instinctively, and will relieve them by at once altering the régime. This
should be all that is necessary. If more is required it is evidence that

Se

either the case has been permitted to run so long that the chick is too
weak to recuperate or infection is operating.

White diarrhea of chicks, so dreaded by the poultryman, is an affec-
tion of pheasant chicks as well. The diarrhea is merely a symptom of a
severe infection of the intestines, especially of the blind pouches or ceea,
by a low form of animal life, known as Coccidium tenellum, and we
therefore speak of the disease. as an intestinal coccidiosis. The white
coloration of the fecal discharge, as in the two previous diseases, is due
to excretions from the kidneys. In certain virulent forms of the disease
the minute blood vessels on the inner portion of the intestinal wall burst,
and the bleeding gives rise to a dark brown or even blackish coloration,
which obseures the white effect of the uric acid.

Treatment should begin with the administration of Epsom salts, mix-
ing them in a mash and estimating from eight to fifteen chicks to one
teaspoonful of the salts, according to age, size, and previous thriftiness.
The drinking water should contain sulphate of iron (copperas) in the
proportion of ten grains of the copperas to one gallon of water or enough
permanganate of potash may be added to the drinking water to give the
water a claret-red color. The coops, feeding utensils, drinking vessels,
and runs should be disinfected. As a preventive measure, incubators
and brooders should be cleansed and disinfected, and, prior to incuba-
tion, whether natural or artificial, the eggs should be dipped in ninety-
five per cent alcohol or in a four per cent solution of some good coal-tar
disinfectant.

DISEASES AFFECTING MAINLY ADULT PHEASANTS.

Roup.—Certain affections known as contagious eatarrh, diphtheria,
and roup, if, indeed, they be distinct diseases, generally group them-
selves in the fancier’s mind under the one name, roup. The term diph-
theria should not be used, because it belongs properly to that disease in
the human family which is caused by a special bacillus which does not
cause disease in birds. The other two names may represent two different
stages of the same disease, a contagious inflammation of the mucous mem-
branes of the eyes, nose, mouth, throat, gullet, or windpipe, which may
express itself by a watery, sticky, bad-smelling secretion, or by the devel-
opment of yellowish patches.

In the treatment of these affections the first thing is to recognize the
contagiousness and to isolate the sick birds. Disinfect the houses and
erounds. Make a mixture of peroxide of hydrogen and boiled water,
equal parts; into this plunge the head of the affected bird. By means
of a slender wire covered with a little absorbent cotton and dipped in
this mixture clean out of the eye or scrape off the tongue and sides of
the mouth all yellowish matter and apply a four per cent solution of
borax or boracic acid or the peroxide solution named above. Give all

sores Ey [pa

birds, sick and well, a dose of Epsom salts. Keep iron sulphate or per-
manganate of potash in the drinking water.

Enteritis —Enteritis, as used in bird medicine, means inflammation of
the intestines. While it may originate from cold, improper feeding, and
the like, it is usually an infectious disease and calls for prompt cleansing
of the digestive tract, which is best accomplished by Epsom salts or a tea-
spoonful of castor oil containing about fifteen drops of turpentine. Add
iron sulphate or permanganate of potash to the water; isolate the
affected birds. Disinfect thoroughly the houses, utensils, and grounds,
and sprinkle lime everywhere. The causes may be coccidia, such as we
find in white diarrhea of chicks ; flagellates, as in the canker of pigeons;
or bacteria, as in Klein’s infectious enteritis.

Cholera.—Cholera would really come under the third class just men-
tioned. The organism causing it is frequently so virulent that death
comes within a few hours, even before the diarrhea Symptoms have had
time to manifest themselves. The treatment would he practically that
outlined under enteritis, although treatment is usually of no avail. Kill
the very sick and treat only the apparently healthy, thus anticipating
and preventing the disease. Necessary in all the other diseases, it is of
supreme importance in cholera to burn quickly all dead birds, after
saturating them with coal oil. Burying deep and covering with lime
may have to do, but it is not so good a method. In killing the sick birds
do not use the ax, and thus spatter everything with the infective blood.

Scurfy legs—The affection known as scurfy legs, scaly legs, scabies,
or mange of the legs and feet is caused by a parasitic mite, Sarcoptes
mutans, which burrows under the scales and by its presence sets up an
irritation which causes a rapid increase in production of cells, together
with a secretion resulting in a gradual thickening and elevation of the
seales. Being a parasitic disease, scaly legs is transmissible from one
bird to another and from infested houses, perches, nests, etc. Treatment
must begin with isolation of the patient and the thorough application to
the coops and fixtures of boiling soapy water, then kerosene, and finally
a coat of five per cent carbolic acid, to which has been added enough
lime to make a whitewash. The affected bird should have its legs soaked
in warm soapsuds, this part of the treatment being completed by a good
scrubbing with a small hand scrub. This alone has cured the disease.
However, it is best to follow this with a good rubbing of sulphur oint-
ment (one part flowers of sulphur to nine parts of lard, sweet oil, or
vaseline).

GENERAL REMARKS.

Pheasants can be hatched in incubators and raised in brooders, but
unless one has had much experience along those lines, it is best to resort
to the domestic hen.

Mee

There are numerous other methods of raising pheasants, but from the
success had with this one, we recommend it as particularly satisfactory.

The best plan is to always follow nature as closely as possible and
beware of filth and lice. For any information that you may desire
which is not contained in this booklet, write to the ‘‘Superintendent of
the State Game Farm, Hayward, Cal.,’’ and he will give you such sug-
gestions as you may need to make a success of raising pheasants. Any
one going into the business extensively should have special instructions
and must provide a different equipment.

IMPORTANT.

HOW TO LIBERATE GAME BIRDS.

If game birds are taken from the crates and left to fly, in their fright
and desire to get away as far as possible from the crate, they will con-
tinue until exhausted. Such a flight will land them outside the lands
they are intended for and will scatter them so badly that the pairs may
never be reunited. If this is not the case, the exhausted birds will fall
easy prey to predatory birds and animals.

To prevent this it is best to take the crate to some suitable location—in
or near thick brush and with water at hand—and seatter plenty of feed
about. Now quietly open the doors and go away from the erate, allow-
ing the birds to leave in their own way—undisturbed by any one. If
liberated in this manner, the game almost invariably will make its home
close to the spot where it found its first food.

Birds should be liberated during the daytime so that they may get
together, if scattered, and select a safe roosting place before night comes
on. Where it is possible to do so, splendid results will be obtained by
opening the crates in some old barn or ranch building and keeping the
birds penned up for several days before allowing them their full liberty.

If the birds are fed and watered and left to themselves, they will
recover from the effects of close confinement and traveling, and be in
such condition that predatory hawks and ‘‘varmints’’ will do them no
harm. When ready to liberate them, open a door and allow the birds to
come out in their own way and time.

Game birds should not be hberated where their natural enemies are
numerous. By trapping, poisoning, and other means, endeavor to kill
off all predatory animals and such birds of prey as the great horned owl,
sharp-shinned hawk, Cooper’s hawk, duck hawk, butcher bird, and blue
jay, before turning out any birds.

bi i a9
j {
s, :
i %
¢
\
‘
, !
} ; x y ‘
f fi
j ;
' j
\ \
; ;
{ i
) { aM
f t
l t eid
; }
‘ ;
{ }
I t
ys9 t
\ free ;