By the middle of April, the gamekeeper finds that a few of his
pheasants are sitting. They are the older hens. Those that begin to lay
early in April do not often lay more than ten or twelve eggs before
beginning to sit. But it is not unusual for a young hen to lay fifteen,
seventeen, or even more eggs. That the older hens should lay fewer eggs
suggests that they have no more than they can furnish with the heat
necessary for hatching. Later on, in warmer weather, a pheasant can
manage half as many eggs again as in early spring. The old hens have
eggs well on the way towards hatching before hens still in their first
year have begun to lay. Pheasants commonly lay eggs in each other's
nests. We have known a pheasant even to lay eggs in a thrush's nest,
built on the ground beneath a furze-bush. Like the nest, three of the
four thrush's eggs were destroyed by the intruder. The keeper well
knows how to take advantage of this slovenly habit of his pheasants.
About ten days before the time when he expects them to begin to lay in
earnest, he makes up a number of false nests, into which he puts either
imitation nest-eggs, or addled eggs saved from the last season. Having
some respect for the sweetness of his pocket, he takes the precaution
of boiling the addled eggs for several hours in lime-water. He makes
up the false nests in places where the eggs shall be comparatively
safe; his great object being to induce his birds to lay at home, and
not to stray away into his neighbour's coverts. The method saves much
time in searching for nests. But even when he has the best of luck, a
keeper would not be a proper keeper if he did not complain that his
hens are laying on his neighbour's ground. Not unusually, three or four
hens lay in the same nest--we have known six to lay in one nest, and
on one day. From three nests within fifty yards of each other we have
counted more than one hundred eggs--and this in a place where pheasants
were few. It is a great satisfaction to the keeper to find one of these
co-operative nests. He knows that if he leaves the hens to themselves,
their eggs will soon be piled up in the nest on top of each other, like
a heap of stones. No one pheasant could hatch out such a prodigious
clutch, even if left in undisputed possession. What usually happens is
that some hens want to lay and others to sit, so that between them the
eggs are spoiled. The keeper anticipates trouble by collecting the eggs
and distributing them elsewhere for hatching. He knows that his fowls
will not hatch out as high a proportion of pheasant eggs from large
nests as from smaller ones, since few are given the regular turning
necessary to preserve their fertility. But, in spite of this knowledge,
there is a deal of friendly rivalry among keepers as to who shall find
the nest with the most eggs.
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