An Egg-citing Start

Tim starts his gamebird rearing journey by finding out where the eggs come from, how they’re hatched, and what the alternatives are if you don’t have an incubator and unlimited time.

- Tim Maddams

The first port of call for me when exploring the subject of how gamebirds are reared was to look at the possibility of rearing a handful or so of pheasants or partridges at home in the garden: hatch the eggs (once I’ve found out where to get them from!), rear them up a bit, stick ‘em in the old chicken run, and jobs a good’un, right?

Well, before embarking upon any new project I like to do the terribly old-fashioned and very British thing and buy myself a book to use as a base reference point. Building a shed? Get a book on the subject. Maintaining the lawnmower? Get a book on the subject… This will seem like madness to some of you, but of course without the basic experience in these fields, not getting a useful reference guide would be unheard of, well, for me anyway.

And so, a copy of the very detailed and handsomely presented Rearing Game Birds and Gamekeeping landed on the welcome mat with a satisfying thud. This is an excellent book written by the very talented and dedicated Beth Williams, and it’s an eye-opener, that’s for sure. It is, unsurprisingly, written for the would-be game rearer and keeper looking to do it themselves. It also offers advice, options and suggestions on all aspects of rearing, releasing and then hopefully keeping gamebirds, with welfare, cost and practicality all dealt with brilliantly and more or less in that order.