Will my red golden sit on eggs? How do you harvest the eggs?

[Israels]

Hello ,
My red golden female has started to lay eggs, ideally I would like her to sit on them and raise her own chicks but I'm not sure if are typically good brooders/ mothers. Also she lays every other day, and I figure at that pace it would take her a while to get 9-10 eggs to sit on, I've read that for chickens and quails eggs more than 5 days old have a low chance of hatching, is this the same for pheasants? Should I be worried about that. I do have an incubator with some eggs I bought from eBay at the moment, is the best bet to leave the red golden's eggs in the nest or put them in the incubator? How do you guys collect the eggs, I would not like to have chicks hatching every other day in the incubator but would not want to wait too long and risk the eggs to going bad in the nest either.. Any tips/ suggestions?

 

[Tony K T]

You have to leave them in the nest to see if she will set.I pull mine out after 10 days and incubate myself if they have no interest in setting.After 15 days viability drops on pheasants,so after 7 eggs I would pull them.
In N.H.,Tony.

 

[Israels]

Thanks Tony! It sounds like there is more leeway with the pheasant eggs, I'll let her get up to 6 or 7 and then pull them if she decides not to sit .

 

[Tony K T]

All my birds have stopped laying for the season.I have about 70 chicks hatched out in various breeds.Not as good a hatch as I was hoping.
In N.H.,Tony.

 

[Israels]

wow thats still an impressive number of baby pheasants... I just have the one pair, and I only got the female about a month ago so ill be happy if I get 3-4 chicks...

 

[Tony K T]

My red golden came off the nest with 9 chicks today(wed).She had 4 more eggs in the nest,1 was pipped so I put all 4 in the bator.My grey peacock hen also came off with 2 chicks from 2 eggs.
In N.H.,Tony.