Pheasants are a pleasure of our garden but not without their drawbacks. We have had them for several years and they have become relatively tame, appearing on time each morning, when I go to leave out the hens, and give them some rolled barley. They are always within reach in the garden during the day and come to a low wall outside the kitchen window if I have failed to leave enough food for them. One feeds from my hand – pheasants will do anything for peanuts! They are not pets and are not tamed but are very much our pheasants and they add an extra interest to our gardening lives.
However, there are some little disadvantages – very little, and really just part of the amusement of having them in the garden. When the weather is hot and the soil becomes dry pheasants, like the hens, like nothing better than a dust bath. This is all very well but it has become obvious that the perfect place for this dust bath is the latest prepared seed bed in the vegetable garden. Obviously, this disturbs the seeds, germination is lost, time is lost and the work has to be done all over again – while the pheasants look on and wait for a newly raked and prepared bath.
This has called for drastic measures and the latest seedbeds have had added security added to frustrate their beauty treatments. I’m sure they will find another location!
Paddy Tobin
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