Following Edge

I should tell you that our house has become a pheasant production line. I had mentioned that we got our pair of pheasants, Lady and Mr. Amhearst, back in February. I had mentioned that our first baby pheasants arrived as "birthday pheasants" in June. I even mentioned that, by July, the young pheasants had to go outside. But, I haven't mentioned all the other ensuing steps from the production line that once was our quiet house.

You see, until the baby pheasants are old enough to be truly impossible, they live in our dining room, where they can stay warm, well protected from raccoons, and monitored for health problems. They begin (for 24 days) as eggs in the incubator, then move to a fish tank we use as a brooder. The picture here is of two of the three week-old pheasants currently in the brooder. They're intolerably cute, aren't they. And, happily, they only peep quietly and a few hours a day.

After a week or two, they move into a 100-gallon stock tank, which we use as a "relatively easily to clean pheasant schoolyard". By the time they're 4 or 5 weeks old, they've become far less cute... stinking up the house, peeping loudly most hours of the day, and occasionally managing to fly out of the netting of the tank and running around the house scaring the cat.

Regretably, aside from the general lesson that you shouldn't take raising pheasants lightly, I should also mention that we learned an important lesson after putting the first batch of pheasants outside... First, both the mother and the father will attempt to kill their children. How do these things survive in the wild!? Second, do not use standard chicken wire to house 5-week-old pheasants. After a couple of days in their new outdoor cage, they decided to learn how to squeeze their fat bodies through the little holes and were gone. So, either we helped broaden the species of exotic pheasants in Elmira, or we treated the raccoons to six tasty hors-de-oeuvres.

For the second batch, that we moved outside after returning from our vacation, we installed some three-eighth-inch netting to try and keep them around a bit longer. So far, it's worked.

Honestly, I'm not sure what all of this effort is for. Anne Marie wanted to try it, which, of course, is good enough for me. I think we're planning to sell them on EggBid. Hopefully, the market for Lady Amhearst pheasants is strong.

By the way, would you like to buy a pheasant?