pheasant eggs

[harvey]

Hello,  does anyone know anything about incubating pheasant eggs,  I bought 50 eggs,  this thursday they will have been in the incubator 23 days.  I think I am suposed to take the turner out and lay the eggs on the bottom of the incubator for them to position for hatching.  Once they hatch how long do they stay in the incubator?  when do I water and feed them?  How warm should the brood pen be under the heat lamp?   Thanks   Harv

[Jerrymac]

Just google "incubating pheasant eggs" and you get a lot of stuff on it.

[VolunteerK9]

Pretty much the same procedure as a chicken. I dont remove any of my eggs from the trays, I just make sure that the turners are off 2 days before the hatch date.  I keep all my birds in the incubator a day or so after hatching and remove them all the same time where I'm not constantly losing my humidity by opening the door several times.  My two biggest recommendations on raising pheasants is not to skimp on feed-buy a commercial game bird starter and not chick starter as the chick starter has less protein and they wont do as well. The second is to go ahead and order you some of the peeper blinders that look like little sunglasses and put on them as soon as they are big enough to wear them. Pheasants are notorious for  cannibalism and if you dont do this ,you will wind up losing a bunch of birds.

[Jerrymac]

I was wondering if I could leave the eggs in the turner and just turn it off. I was afraid they would get their feet caught in the gaps.

I have one of those cheap Styrofoam incubators. I rigged up some clear tubing through a series of holes, sealed the holes around the tube with silicon, and use a syringe to inject water into the water tray so I wouldn't have to open it up and loose humidity in doing that. But I was still opening it to remove the eggs from the turner.

There was a guy around here that advertised on Craig's list that he had some hens breed for brooding.  I think I will try to get a couple of them for the hatching part. The day my last batch hatched in the 'bator I had a hen go broody. I left some eggs under her. 20 days later she hatched them out and they were really cute little fluff balls. The ones I hatch in the incubator are always so yucky looking.

The hens just do a better job than I do. 

[MrJeff]

Hatch rate generally goes down under a bird versus an incubator.

[Jerrymac]

My hens have had better percentages than I have. Usually I leave them ten and they hatch 8 to 10. I put 41 in the 'bator and get 17 to 20 to hatch. And some of them die.

[harvey]

Do you feed or water them in the incubator?   The eggs will have been in there 23 days on Thursday, tomorrow.  I am going to shut the turner off and remove it as I have 58 eggs in there and the turner will not allow them to hatch,  it has prongs all over to hold the eggs.  How long should they stay in the incubator?   
   Last year I raised 35 day old chicks I lost two as they flew out of the box and died on the basement floor before they were old enough to move into the barn.  I lost one due to cannibalism.  I released 32 adult birds!!!   This year I have 58 eggs right now.  I am only planning on raising these birds to 8 weeks old prior to release and then I have 50 day old chicks coming second week of june.  I will release them at 8 weeks also cept this year I want to keep 1 rooster and 4 or 5 hens and try breeding them next year.  I don't hunt I just like seeing the birds.  Coyotes, hawks and owls have really reduced the population around here.   This spring we are seeing more birds than we have in many years so some that I released survived.  After this year i am hoping that I have influenced some type of a comeback, or just fattened up some hawks and owls!

[wd]

The rules I use are 24 hrs or until they are all dry and fluffy then placed into a brooder using the normal rules

Several breeders on both of these forums have a wealth of information http://www.thatquailplace.com/smf/

A fellow by the of Steve at Pheasant Hollow Farm will help you out with any questions here at http://www.coturnixcorner.com/gameforum/index.php

[VolunteerK9]

I dont feed or water anything in my incubator as it just promotes bacteria buildup not to mention the poo buildup.  I feel your pain though. I started out with a styrofoam model before I got my cabinet incubator. Much better hatch rates and far less aggravation.