Tuesday, May 26, 2009

Watching & Waiting

A couple of weeks ago while clearing our the flowerbeds I came across these ~

So in I came to grab the camera and do a bit of research on my find. I suspected right away that they were pheasant eggs and I was correct. In reading up on them I found that the hen can lay anywhere from 6-15 eggs (average is 10-12) over a two/three-week period. (depending on what web site you look at)
A pheasant egg is about 1 1/3 x 1 2/3 inches. It can be a light tan to pale olive green color. The hen doesn't start incubating the eggs until the last egg is laid. That way, all the eggs will hatch on the same day. It takes 23-24 days for the eggs to hatch.

So now we have 12 ~
And there has been 12 since Saturday ~ no more since and she has not started to incubate them yet. I suspect that she should be on the nest the entire incubation period ~ I will have to research that some more. I just hope that something has not happened to the hen and the nest is abandoned. ~ along with I really need to clean up that side of the house!

2 comments:

Unknown said...

This is a great photo, I hope the bird comes back.
Olivia

mimi charmante said...

You know I would have those babies in my incubator so fast! What fun!