Countryside Academy Raises Pheasants
1. By way of a generous donation, we accepted one outdoor pheasant run.
About 80 feet by 40 feet.
2. Students dig post holes, attach poultry fence, cover with netting.
3. Purchased pheasant eggs with a permit to raise and release.
4. Incubated eggs, turning by hand, until we wised up and purchased a turner.
5. Hatched chicks moved to barn after the smell in my lab became unbearable.
6. Many chicks make magnificent mess. Students help; right up until school is out.
7. Confined chicks are malicious. Students trim beaks to reduce damage to the weak.
8. With birds gaining size and temperatures moderating, pheasants moved to outdoor
run.
9. Birds fed and watered through the summer.
10. Students round up and release birds in the fall. Most leave school property within minutes. The birds that is.
11. We have reports of sudden pheasant population increases within a mile of the
school property. None are seen at Countryside.
12. The project was suspended when our largest brood yet was decimated by
intruders; likely fox or racoon or both.