can silkie chicken mom hatch and raise phesant chicks?

[silky ma]

I have a mailman who takes my xtra silky roos.... He asked if I could raise him some phesants for food. I know phesant chicks are more delicate but I have one hen who I know would be a great mom to any chick. She has raised many smaller end silkie chicks successfully, I did not think these runts would make it past a day or so. So can this be done?
What about disease or virus transfers?

 

[fancyfowl4ever]

I have had silkies and other bantams hatch various gamebirds, mainly chukars and ringnecks, but the propblem always was the chicks would not stay with the hen. 4 hrs after hatch all the chicks have wandered away to be found hours later and the other end of the property either dead or dying from cold.
So my hens hatch them for me now and I pull them as soon as they hatch for keeping in the brooder.

 

[Roostinridge]

My experience was pretty much the same they stuck with my silkie hen for most of the day but woundered off never found them. Just like silkie ma said grab them as soon as they hatch and put them in a brooder.

 

[JJMR794]

Also Dont Forget About Disease Transfer Issues. Best To Let Mamma Pheasant Or Mr Brinsea/ Hovabator/ Dickey/ What Ever Brand You Have And Use Do It

 

[Tony K T]

They are the best incubators around,but after the chicks hatch,take them away immediatly and put them in a brooder.The little buggers will disappear faster then you can imagine.
In N.H.,Tony.

 

[ranit]

My experience was also the same - silkie hatched them just fine, but had trouble mothering them . The chicks scattered soom after they hatched. Seemed like the pheasant chicks just didn't understand when silkie mom was calling them. I had hoped that if I let a silkie raise them I might be able to free-range them with her and maybe they would stay around. Gave up on that idea after the first try when I had to gather all the chicks soon after hatch.

 

[greekbioguy]

she will incubate them but the babies will leave her as soon as they can( baby pheasants are very active little things) have used a bantam hen in the past and all babies were gone the next day. some were found by a neighbor in his yard 100m away . have also used a mallard duck to incubate and raise pheasants but the babies followed mom to the pond and all drowned. luckily for the past few years my pheasant hens have been excellent mothers (one of them called Penelope incubated 3 clutches of eggs last year and would have done a 4Th one if i did not stop her by taking her eggs away (she was really thin by then)

 

[tennesseered]

You can use a silkie or other kinds of chickens to incubate and brood, but like the others have said if you let them run free the chicks will probably take off and die from exposure. I have made several small pens which are 2' by 4'. This is what I use when I want to use a hen instead of an incubator. I put in a nest box and 1 hen with a clutch of eggs. When she hatches them out the chicks stay close enough to the hen that they learn her call and I haven't had any problems with letting the hen brood the pheasant chicks this way. Last year one of my silkies raised a brood of 9 ringnecks in one of these pens. It was wall to wall birds by the time I took them out at the end of three weeks!

 

[J3172]

I love to use my bantams to hatch pheasant eggs, but I noticed the chicks don't respond to her clucks, so I take them away and brood them myself.