Raising Game Birds

By Horace Mitchell

This antiquarian book contains a detailed and practical guide to keeping and breeding game birds, with information on pheasants, quail, ducks, bantam, and more. This easy-to-digest guide contains all the information a prospective owner might need to know, and is highly recommended for those with a practical interest in the subject. The chapters of this book include: “Raising Game Birds”, “Mallard Ducks”, “The Little Ducks go Into The Brood Coops”, “Ring-Neck Pheasants”, “The Breeding Season For Ring-Neck Pheasants”, “Quail”, “Bantams”, “Raising Bantams”, “Ornamental Fowl”, “More About Ornamental Fowl”, etcetera. This vintage book is being republished now in an affordable, modern edition complete with a new introduction on shooting wildfowl.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Read Books Ltd.
• Release date: Jan 10, 2013
• ISBN: 9781447481508

Book preview

RAISING

GAME BIRDS

HORACE MITCHELL

ILLUSTRATED BY

ROLAND V. SHUTTS

1944

SILVER PHEASANTS

Introduction

WHEN I first met Horace Mitchell he was trying to decide whether he should continue the studies which were fitting him to become a lawyer or to drop the heavy tomes and devote himself to writing in general and the raising of game birds in particular. We sat there talking it over in the office of The Open Road magazine, and it did not take me very long to discover that his heart was with the birds and the typewriter. As I listened to his vivid description of Golden and Amherst pheasants, I knew well enough that his future was not to be in prosecuting criminals before the bar or in arguing the fine points of corporation law.

In the years that have passed he has followed his bent, first as a practical raiser of game birds, second as a writer.

Here is a man who loves the game birds—and I feel that they need him more than the courts and corporations need him, for there is a great service to be performed today in keeping the coverts of our country alive with feathered creatures and in stimulating the growth of the important industry of game farming.

Mr. Mitchell began his experiments in raising wild birds as a young boy and has kept them up unremittingly. He knows, by that best of teachers—practical experience—whereof he writes, and has been able to make this book much more than a mass of technical information. I am glad that, instead of engaging himself to plead the case for or against Jimmie the Bandit, he has made himself a protagonist for the beautiful Ringneck, the Mallard, the Mandarin Duck and the Bobwhite.

Already Mr. Mitchell has to his credit a most successful department on Game-Breeding in The Sportsman magazine, an authoritative book on Game Farming, and numerous magazine articles on these two and other allied subjects. This new volume adds still further to his reputation and to his service.

CLAYTON H. ERNST

Editor, The Open Road for Boys

Foreword

IN recent years sportsmen in this country have become increasingly aware of two things, first that the supply of game birds, no matter how lavish the restocking by a State bureau, cannot equal the demand of the gunners and, second, that the whole traditional American system of free shooting is doomed. Sooner or later, at least in thickly settled regions, we shall have to come to some system whereby landowners, either singly or in groups, will close their land to the public and raise their own game. What is now the business of the State’s conservation department will more and more become a private undertaking.

For that reason, if for no other, Mr. Mitchell’s book deserves the careful attention of all who are interested in game birds and shooting. No one is more competent to write on this subject than the author. He is a thoroughly experienced man in the actual practise of Raising Game Birds, and he is, besides, a scholar in the theory, the background of his profession. He has been the editor of the Game Breeding Departments of Field and Stream and The Sportsman. As editor of the latter, I have leaned heavily on his learning and wise judgment, and he has never failed me. It is a pleasure to testify here to his entire competence.

RICHARD DANIELSON

Editor, The Sportsman

Contents

Illustrations

Silver Pheasants

Mallard Ducks

Ring-neck Pheasants

Quail

Golden Pheasants

Lady Amherst Pheasants

Wood Ducks

Canada Geese

RAISING GAME BIRDS

CHAPTER I

Raising Game Birds

THERE is a lot of pleasure in raising game birds in captivity! It makes one feel as if he had a private zoo of his own. Everybody wants to see the birds and the boy or girl—or man or woman—who raises them can well be proud of the hobby.

Not many people have pheasants and quail and wild ducks in pens on their place. In some localities there isn’t a single game farm. However, many state game commissions will give away without charge eggs of game birds to qualified persons who hatch them, raise the downy little birds to maturity, and then release them to swell the populations of our woods and fields. If you live where no game farmers are keeping birds you can have some novel pets that will attract attention, and if your home is located in a place where many men and women are working with the state at game-breeding you can show them how to do it better and cheaper with the methods I am going to tell you about in this book.

It doesn’t make any difference whether you live in the city or not. You can raise a few birds each summer in the country, have the fun of owning them and then turn them loose to live by themselves in the fields until you return the following year. I cannot imagine a more enjoyable way of spending a summer. The more you have to do with the birds the more you discover that they are extremely interesting and that nobody yet knows all there is to know about them.

The game birds on your place are always showing you something new. You can watch them for days and never get tired of seeing how they act and of trying to determine why they do what they do. They are constantly surprising the observant person.

Ornithologists have told me that no one knew how the Mallard Duck carried her eggs when she moved her nest. In the woods there are times when the mother duck thinks her nest is in danger and then, if she is a particularly wise bird, she will try to move it to a better place so that the eggs will not be harmed. Often she will forsake the old nest entirely, even if the eggs are almost ready to hatch. One morning at our place I found out how she would carry her eggs if the need occurred. We were working on the car in the garage. Hammering and pounding. The Mallards were all loose on the place, to nest wherever they pleased. One of them had gone broody on eggs by the creek bank, another had taken a site under the henhouse, and so on. While we were repairing the car an old Mallard hen waddled out from a pile of things in one corner. She went off into the underbrush that we allow to grow thickly in order to give protection and natural food to the birds.

In a moment the duck returned and pad-padded her webbed feet on the floor toward the pile of things in the corner. I was lying on my back under the car with a fine view of her as she came out with an egg held tightly between her chin and her neck. She had made a second nest in the raspberry bushes and was moving her eggs away from that terrific noise in the garage.

It would have been impossible to see a wild duck do such a thing as this, unless she was right on the place, without spending long and uncomfortable hours in the breeding grounds of the Mallards watching and watching for just such an occurrence.

But don’t think for a minute that every one of you can raise wild ducks or even keep them the year round. There wouldn’t be any sense in your having birds unless you could give them the room they need to be happy and contented, the sunlight, the shade, protection from the wind and the right kind of feed. All these things must be considered, whether you raise game birds for fun during the summer vacation or whether you want to have them with you all the time.

A little backyard in the city, a barn, henhouse or other old building in the country is no place for wild birds. Every one of the species which I shall describe needs and must have the open air if they are to thrive. Their pens must be on good ground with grass and weeds growing inside the enclosure. And, except for the far north where winters are extremely heavy with snow, the birds need no roofed shelters over their cages.

It may seem cruel to leave them out of doors during cold nights to sleep in the snow but it must never be forgotten that they are wild birds. Their bodies are snugly covered with feathers that keep them as warm as your own thick woolen clothing. And a game bird that cannot survive rough weather is better dead. If he must be pampered to get through the winter he is worthless for the breeding season since his children will inherit his own weaknesses.

On our place in southern Maine we keep the birds in open pens always; they have no more protection than a pile of evergreen boughs in one corner of the enclosure. Usually they scorn this shelter and roost a-top the pile while the snow falls on their backs.

At least two acres of land are necessary for any really worth-while achievements. All this may not be used at the same time but it is best to have it available so that your birds may have fresh ground as often as necessary. In the wild they wander over an immense amount of territory, sometimes flocking in great numbers to places abounding in food and cover only to desert these later for new districts that offer more.

The ideal location for an ambitious project of game propagation is a southern slope of sandy soil but we cannot all have such good fortune and doing the best with what you have is the surest road to success in any venture.

One thing is essential above all others for game-breeders and that is a love for the birds. You must like to be with them and watch them and care for them every day. Also you must be willing to do the small amount of work on their pens to keep these always secure and the stock must be protected from vermin. It is always an adventure and at times gamekeeping is mighty exciting.

Ducks need different quarters from the upland birds. Quail should not be managed in the same way as pheasants. Lady Amherst Pheasants, the most beautiful birds in all the world, are cared for in a way somewhat unlike the schedule for the Ringnecks. So we will take up all these separate species in their turn and you will know just exactly what to do and when to do it.

Game-breeding is quite dissimilar from poultry ranching. With the wild birds the ornithologist must work with his scientific terms along with the farmer who makes use of his practical knowledge of livestock. Thus, at the start you should know a little about the former as well as a good deal in regard to the latter.

Game birds do not come in Breeds like domestic hens. The Leghorns, Wyandottes, Cochins, Rhode Island Reds, Plymouth Rocks, and all other breeds of barnyard birds are said to have come from the same ancestor—the African Jungle Fowl which is a distinct species in itself. All these various breeds of birds commonly called Hens interbreed of course and all sorts of mixtures may be obtained. It was in such a way that the breeds were developed. Birds of a certain shape and color were kept by their owners until their offspring were uniform with the ideal desired.

It has not been the same way with the game birds. They are just the same in shape and color as when their ancestors roamed the open country. They are of various species, each of which belongs to a larger classification with certain features in common known as a Genus and each Genus is in its turn a member of a still larger group of birds called an Order. It is like a tree. The trunk is Birds of all kinds, one limb for each Genus and smaller branches for the many species.

By knowing how a bird is classed you can, without other information, tell instantly something of its habits and its closer relatives and whether any of these can be cross-bred with it. For instance: There is the Order Gallinae—pheasants, turkeys, domestic chickens, quail, peafowl, etc. Among the pheasants is the Genus Thaumaleae composed of the two species: Chrysolophus Pictus and Chrysolophus Amherstiae. These latter are the Golden Pheasants and the Lady Amherst Pheasants. They cannot be crossed successfully with Ringnecks but they will interbreed among themselves and produce all degrees of blood.

The matter of breeding is a highly important and extremely fascinating subject. You should know a little about it so that you can produce better game birds. Cross-breeding is the mating of a cock of one species with a hen of another. Inbreeding is the mating of closely related birds. Father to daughter or brother to sister. This is often done to intensify the good qualities of the family and to make their offspring breed true with all the inherited desirable points. Inbreeding carried too far spoils the stock and results in weak and unhealthy birds. Line-breeding is a systematic use of inbreeding to improve the strain. You can find detailed information on these items from any good book on Genetics.

The chief aim of the game farmer is to avoid too close inbreeding. With such large numbers of birds of other breedings offered each fall, the wise owner of game can obtain fresh blood without difficulty. Under close supervision and with detailed records kept each season line-breeding may be tried but for all general purposes the ends of the business are more easily met by disposing of all male birds each fall and the obtaining of others from another farm. Inbreeding for more than one generation is harmful because it often results in birds with low stamina, specimens without vigor and health which are no credit to the farm on which they are raised and a potential danger to the wild birds when liberated.

The best season of the year in which to get started is the autumn. If you can possibly do so purchase some tested breeding stock between September and Christmas. That is the best way to make a beginning and the cheapest in the long run. The prices on live game birds rise higher and higher as April and the laying season approaches. Also, it is best to have the birds on your place as much before spring as possible so that they will be thoroughly at home and ready to produce for you the largest possible number of eggs. Don’t expect to wait until the laying season has started before buying. There are few birds for sale then and nine times out of ten such birds will stop laying during transportation and will not start again for the remainder of that year. Barnyard hens are not bothered in this way to any great extent and here is another point on which the game birds differ from domestic fowl. The former are nervous creatures that stop laying on the slightest provocation. But if you follow directions and use common sense your birds will continue to produce eggs for you right through the spring and most of the summer.

Starting with a purchase of setting eggs requires less capital and is of course the only method for city people who come to the country in late spring. For the fellow who lives on a farm only in summer this kind of a start is all right but much better results come from having the birds themselves on the place the year around. For the first season at least you will have little actual experience with hatching and raising wild fowl. You are very likely to make mistakes. We all do. And if, through error, your first setting of eggs is spoiled or the baby birds lost you must spend more money for more eggs if you are to act wisely and profit by your mistakes immediately. On the other hand, should you have the birds on your farm they will continue to lay and you can raise a certain number of young even though your first and second hatches have been ruined.

The difference in costs runs something like this: Ring-neck Pheasants, fall delivery: $7.00 to $10.00 per pair; spring delivery: $10.00 to $15.00 per pair. Eggs: $5.00 per dozen or $30.00 per hundred before May fifteenth, $4.00 per dozen and $25.00 per hundred thereafter. These figures are an average of a number of established game farms and single establishments may differ slightly.

Should it be necessary for you to start with hatching eggs you should be sure to place your order with a reliable breeding farm as far in advance as possible. Sources of supply are often sold out or booked with egg orders so far in advance that you cannot obtain the eggs you want on a particular date unless your order has been placed several weeks in advance.

Where will you buy your birds or eggs? From any reliable game farmer. They will arrive safely after traveling fairly long distances, although it is best to buy eggs as near home as possible. Any of the better sporting magazines, publications for the owners of country estates, and farming magazines contain the advertisements of first-class game-breeders.

I suggest that you write to several of them for their price-lists and whenever possible visit their establishments. See their birds, ask questions about their methods of management, and see how their birds are cared for generally. It will help you with your own stock.

But, if you would keep the proprietor for a friend, do not constantly annoy him with questions nor ask to see the birds from April first to July fifteenth. They are then laying and strangers may stop egg production. One spring when our birds were laying splendidly and we were booked with all the orders we could fill that season a visitor came while we were at the other end of the place. Not finding anyone at the house he went down by the enclosures. The birds saw him, started jumping into the air and crashing into the wire. They knew their keepers but they did not recognize this stranger. And for the next month the number of eggs laid dropped considerably and threw us two weeks behind on filling the orders.

As soon as you have actually started with your birds or eggs, look upon your work as a business. Keep a record of all expenditures and all money received.