Incubating Pheasant eggs

[JScatt69]

Hello!
This will be my first time incubating pheasant eggs and of course I have questions.
I did read some info hear that was helpful but still have some questions.
I need the basics on how to incubate pheasants. Any websites or links here that can help?

Thanks!

J

 

[casuarius]

what questions do you have? some are easy, and some are not...55-60% humidity and 98.5 degrees temp.

 

[kartking22]

Most are not easy. Pheasant eggs are very hard to incubate. My personal hatch last year had a hatch rate of about 65%. This being that I controlled the collection of eggs, incubation, and hatching process. I sold eggs last year with 100% recieved none cracked or broken but hatch rate of 50% at best. My eggs were sent with the eggs that I had collected that day to ensure that they had the best results. Still had great feedback for shipping eggs but not so good for the hatch rate.

 

[JJMR794]

Quote:
I TEND TO AGREE... I HAVE BEEN COOKING PHEASANT EGGS FOR QUITE SOMETIME NOW.... THEY ARENT AS EASY AS SOME MAKE IT SOUND

 

[ColbyNTX]

I picked up 10 red golden eggs last year and all 10 hatched! Man, I thought pheasants were going to be easy. Mine haven't started laying yet but I guess I will see when I hatch more. I do hatch a bunch of turkeys, guineas, chickens and some quail. But just keep a steady 99.5 degs and about 55% humidity for incubation and I bumped the humidity to 70% and lowered the temp to 98.5 for the lockdown and hatch. I do that on all my eggs and it goes much better. I keep my GQF hatcher set on 98.5 degs and 70% humidity all year for all eggs. When you raise the humidity that high and higher, it keeps the inner membrane soft but with humidity that high or higher, the lower temp really helps. High temps and high humidity is a killer. If you have ever seen a bird pip and later it has bubbles and and a yellow looking liquid oozing, the temp is too high with the humidity.

 

[casuarius]

It all depends on what species of pheasants you're talking about, true pheasants(ringnecks, melanistics, etc.), golden pheasants, silver pheasants, cheers, elliots, swinhoe's, have all been easy for me, and I hatch most of what they lay. Some species like tragopans, impeyans, firebacks, koklass, peacock pheasants, etc can be pretty difficult...so I guess I shouldnt say most, but maybe half are easy. I always run my temps around 98.5 and 99 as well, but I never go over 60% humidity for most species i've bred. Some of the more tropical species probably need higher humidity. The problem is that too high of humidity can drown the chick, or cause it to be too puffy when hatched. Likewise, high heat is the number one cause of crooked toes and legs. The higher heat causes the embryo to develop too fast and dry out, and the legs and feet are one of the first things to develop along with the head and spine, so growing too fast will deform them.