Several hens may lay eggs in a single dump nest and then abandon them. As many as 50 eggs have been found in a single dump nest. The incidence of random egg laying and laying in dump nests appears to increase as the local ring-necked pheasant population increases . After constructing a nest, the ring-necked pheasant hen lays 6 to 15 eggs, usually 10 to 12. The hen lays one egg per day until the clutch is complete.
Incubation begins after the entire clutch is laid.
Ring-necked pheasant hens often renest after a clutch is destroyed. The hen will continue nesting attempts until she successfully hatches a clutch, loses a clutch late in incubation, or can no longer produce eggs that season. The average number of eggs laid per clutch decreases by one or more with each successive attempted renest. An average first clutch of 10 eggs may be reduced by half in the third or fourth renest attempt . The eggs are incubated by the hen for 23 to 25 days.