Part 4

The natural food of the duck is principally vegetable and animal, and is obtained in brooks, puddles, swales, and consists of flag, grass roots, small fish, pollywogs, etc. Unlike the hen, the duck has no crop,--the passage or duct leading from the throat to gizzard direct, is very small compared to the size of the bird. Consequently it does not assimilate or thrive on hard food. I am continually receiving letters from amateurs during the months of March and April, complaining that their ducks do not lay, at the same time saying that they give them all the corn they will eat. I write back suggesting soft food, giving ingredients and proportions. In an incredibly short space of time a postal will come to hand saying, "Thanks, my ducks are all laying." Success or failure in the poultry business often date their origin from just such trivial things as the above. So insignificant in themselves as to be entirely overlooked by the novice who, if he is persevering, will eventually discover both cause and remedy; but only through years of costly experiment and a loss of valuable time which he can never recall.

How to Feed Breeding Ducks for Eggs.

There should be quite a distinction between feeding ducks to obtain a supply of eggs and feeding them for market, as in one case the object is to lay on fat and the other is to furnish the most available supply of egg material. As before hinted, soft food is much more readily utilized in a duck's organization than a hen's. We make a habit of turning out our breeding ducks to pasture during the moulting season, housing them in the fall according to the nature of the season, say, from the middle of November to the first of December. We feed soft food morning and evening composed largely of bran with a little meal, keeping them purposely short to induce them to forage for themselves, but when the birds are housed this is all changed.

They are then fed on equal parts of corn meal, wheat-bran and low-grade flour, with about twelve or fifteen per cent. of animal food. One fourth of this food should be composed of vegetables cooked--say, small potatoes, turnips, etc., with all the green rye and refuse cabbage they will eat. We feed this compound morning and evening with a little corn, wheat and oats at noon. Feed all the birds will eat clean and no more. The birds, young and old, may be expected to lay in three weeks from the time they are housed. This part of the thing seems to be under perfect control. You turn in the proper variety of food and they cannot help turning out a generous supply of eggs.

The fertility however, cannot, at this season of the year be so perfectly controlled, as the standard of fertility in the first eggs is apt to be very low, but soon comes to a high point. The fecundity of these birds is wonderful. As a general thing each bird can be depended upon for 140 eggs each season, and as the eggs always command from 5 to 10 cents per dozen more than those from hens it makes the Pekin ducks more profitable for eggs alone than any other fowl.

Incubators.

With the necessary buildings constructed and the stock selected, the next thing required is the incubator, for I do not suppose the modern poultry grower is going to do his incubating with hens, for the simple reason that he cannot afford to. Hens show no desire to incubate when you want them to the most, or in time to command the high prices for ducks and chicks in the early spring, and this is attended with a loss of at least one-half of the season's profits.

I often have letters filled with questions concerning incubators. Which is the best incubator? Can a person of ordinary intelligence run one successfully? Do they require watching during the night? Is there an incubator in the market today that will hatch as well as the average hen? and many more of like import. To the first I would say that modesty forbids a candid answer. There are objections to many machines, though the same do not apply to all. It does not become me to mention their failings. But first of all do not buy a cheap incubator, as the conditions to which the material of an incubator is exposed are of the severest kind. It must be exposed constantly to a temperature of 103 degrees, and that in an atmosphere surcharged with moisture; and unless the material of which the machine is constructed is of the choicest kind, well kiln-dried and put together, the chances are that it will warp out of shape, admit drafts of air and injure, if not destroy, the regulation.

I do not think an incubator can ever be complete unless it is a double-cased machine. It requires that to effectually resist thermal changes. Years of careful experiment, and of experience in the competitive show room have convinced me of the truth of this. Extreme cold will affect the uniformity of heat in the egg-chamber of single-cased machines. Imagine if you can a single-cased machine constructed of five-eighth inch stuff, with a temperature of 103 degrees inside, and that of freezing outside. How can the eggs at the extreme corners and the thin cold sides of that machine be as warm as those in the centre? Of course that difference does not exist in warm weather, but that is the time when incubators are usually let alone and the business is given up to the old hen. Now, I say this frankly, as much for the benefit of incubator manufacturers as for their customers. I have letters every day from parties ordering circulars and saying that they have used from one to three machines of different makes, denouncing the machines and their makers in the most emphatic terms as frauds. Now, this is all wrong; one-half of the time you will find that it is the purchasers, not the makers, who are at fault. There are probably just as many honest incubator makers as there are in any other branch of business. But there is such a thing as a man being honest and yet ignorant.

Many of the manufacturers of incubators know very little about the first principles of artificial incubation. They have the idea that a simple heat regulator is all that is necessary to insure the success of an incubator, when in reality it is only one of the many requirements. I will enumerate some of the most essential points, viz.: heat regulation; uniformity of heat in egg-chamber; absolute control of heat by the operator on any given egg-tray; automatic moisture supply; accurate thermometers; thorough construction and good material to avoid warping and shrinkage, together with a safe lamp adjustment.

There are many other minor points which will come up with care of machines. I am often asked, "Why do so many fail to hatch with incubators?" I will answer by saying: "Not because it is difficult; for I have always found it a far more difficult thing to grow ducks and chicks successfully after they are hatched, than it is to hatch them." Doubtless everyone knows that an incubator, different from other machines, must run three weeks continually night and day, (and when filled with duck eggs, four weeks,) and preserve an even temperature all the while.

Some machines as described above, are not adapted to this business, and some men are not adapted to the use of machines even when they are good ones. They are not willing to bestow the little but intelligent and regular care required, and many times during the four weeks they will forget some of the most essential points, such as replenishing their lamps, or forget to attach the extinguishers, thus depriving the machine of all self-control, or they neglect to trim the lamps for days, and perhaps a week, allowing the wick to crust and the heat to decrease. Others of nervous temperament will open their machines every fifteen minutes during the day and get up many times during the night to do the same thing, necessarily creating a great variation in the temperature of the machine. Now, all these, when repeated often enough, mean disaster and grief. One man who had been very successful, said he liked the hatching very well, but there was too much confinement growing chicks and ducks, and he was not going to make a slave of himself any longer.

Another very young man who has been uniformly successful, and is running four large machines, said that the hatching and care of incubators was nothing, as he simply looked at his machines twice per day, but that the care of chicks and ducks was hard work; but there was more money in it than anything else he could do, and he should stick to it. Another man, because his machine did not run to suit him, threw his boot at it, knocking the regulation all off, which he called upon me to duplicate. (This man has done better since and increased the number of his machines). So the reader will see that there are cranks even among the poultry men, and that many of them enter the poultry business simply because they are looking for an easy job,--a sad mistake on their part. I have always noticed that the man who knows the least, but is willing to acquire knowledge and follow instructions implicitly, is the man who generally succeeds.

Best Place for Incubators.

Having secured a good machine, the next thing is to locate it where it will give you the least trouble to run it, and at the same time do you the most good. The best place for this is either in a barn or house cellar or in some building partly under ground, for obvious reasons. Though a good machine can be regulated to run in any temperature (provided it can generate heat enough), yet constant thermal changes of 30 or 40 degrees between night and day will necessitate regulating to meet them,--as the amount of flame required to run a machine in a temperature of 40 degrees, will be far in excess of that needed to run it in one of 70 degrees, for, though the change will be very slow in a nicely packed double cased machine, yet in time even that change will affect.

This, of course, could be easily overcome with a little care, yet it is just as well to avoid all unnecessary care and trouble in the beginning; there will be still enough left to keep you thinking. In a common building above ground during the winter months it will often freeze around your machine, and in turning eggs in a freezing atmosphere do it as quickly as you can, as it will always cool your eggs perceptibly, and more or less derange the temperature of your machine. This is of course decidedly injurious and will more or less impair the hatch. Now, this is a very important matter, and people do not give it sufficient consideration.

It is even advocated by some incubator manufacturers, that eggs should be cooled every day to 70 degrees, for the simple reason that the old hen does. They do not take into consideration that it is a necessity for the old hen, but may not be for the embryo chick. When the hen leaves her eggs to feed, and they become partially cold, when she recovers them and brings those eggs in immediate contact with the rapidly-pulsating arteries of her body, in fifteen minutes they have acquired their normal heat. With the machine it will require an hour or two.

To meet this difficulty, suitable instructions should be given with and to suit different machines. Where the eggs are turned automatically inside the machine, it is necessary that they should be cooled at least once a day during the last two weeks of the hatch. Taking the eggs out to turn twice each day, as in the Monarch, cools them sufficiently during the winter months; in warm weather, leaving the outside and inside doors open while turning cools them sufficiently.

Some incubator manufacturers will tell you that thermal changes, however great, will not affect their machines. Their patrons tell a different story. No machine was ever made, or ever will be, that will run as well or give as good results amid constant thermal changes as in an even temperature. It is true that they reduce the heat, but it is by admitting large draughts of air, running off the moisture and completely destroying the humidity of atmosphere in their machines. Then, how about those little ducklings which have been pipped forty-eight hours? They can never get out unless you help them.

Suitable Buildings.

Many insurance companies object to incubators being run in buildings covered by their policies, and will often cancel them. This originated from the fact that so many fire-traps, which were thrust upon the public in the shape of incubators, had consumed the buildings in which they were operated. The insurance companies were obliged in self-defence to prohibit their use in insured buildings. But the interdiction is usually removed upon the representation that the machine is safe. Sometimes a slight premium is exacted. In the event of insurance companies being obdurate, it is very easy to excavate a place in a side hill, or on level ground. Stone it up five feet high at the sides. It is not necessary to dig more than two or three feet deep, as the excavated dirt can be used to bank up with on the outside. Upon this stone-work put a simple roof. I use a building of this description. The original cost, exclusive of labor, was $15. It was large enough for two machines. My new incubator room is ten times as large, but the cost was in proportion.

This building never freezes in winter, and is always some ten or fifteen degrees colder than the outside temperature in summer, making a very handy place to keep eggs for incubating purposes. It is well to run your machine a few days and get the control of it. The next thing is to fill it with fresh fertile eggs. In the winter time, if one does not have eggs himself, this is sometimes a very difficult thing to do, for the eggs must not only be fresh, but fertile. The young beginner is often obliged to depend upon others for his eggs when first starting in the business, but the poulterer, as a rule, cannot afford to do this, because he can grow them a good deal cheaper than he can buy; and not only this, and what is more to the point, he, by proper care and feed during the winter months, can make his own eggs a great deal more fertile than any he can buy of others. Usually about one-third of our novices go right to the stores and purchase eggs to fill their machines with.

This is running a great risk, especially during the winter months, but will give the reader an idea of the amount of knowledge that many of our would-be poultry men have acquired to begin with, and when he knows that the incubator has to shoulder all these mistakes, he will naturally have a little sympathy for the maker. Several years ago I sold a six hundred-egg machine to a lady, who, on receiving it, filled it promptly with eggs obtained from the grocers. Now, as this was in the month of December, it was, to say the least, an exceedingly doubtful operation. As she only got about forty chicks she was naturally very much dissatisfied, and strongly denounced both the machine and the maker. Her husband suggested that possibly the machine was not to blame, and that the eggs might have something to do with it. They went to the grocer to enquire about it. He told them that he had had some of those eggs on hand for several weeks, and that they had been exposed to the cold and freezing weather, and that probably the farmers from whom he had obtained them had held them for high prices.

They found on enquiry that this was the case, and one party especially, who kept a large number of hens, and from whom he had collected the largest share of his eggs, kept no "crowers" with his hens. This threw some light on the subject, and stock on that incubator went up at once. The next time she had parties save their eggs for her, taking them in several times each day. She then obtained a hatch of ninety per cent, and was uniformly successful afterwards, getting out some 3,000 chicks and ducks during the season with her machine.

How to Keep Eggs for Incubation.

The above is only one case out of many that are constantly taking place. In nine cases out of ten, failure with good machines may be traced directly to the operator or the eggs. Occasionally there is a defect in a machine overlooked by the maker, which he is in honor bound to make good.

The best way to secure good eggs is to engage them beforehand from reliable parties, who will gather them carefully several times each day in cold weather to prevent them chilling, and turn them at least every other day. If these eggs are kept on end it is not necessary to turn them as often.

I have egg boxes for the purpose, in which the eggs are set on end, like the common market box. These boxes and contents can be turned as readily with a dozen as when full. Eggs intended for incubation should always be kept in a cool place,--duck eggs especially,--as the fertile eggs will change at a temperature of eighty-five to ninety degrees, and spoil within three or four days. One may safely calculate on one-half of them being spoiled in a week at a temperature of 80 degrees. All kinds of eggs can be safely kept three weeks for purposes of incubation, say, at forty-five to fifty degrees, though I always like to have them as fresh as possible.

In filling orders for eggs at a distance I make it a point never to send eggs more than four days old, or with less than seventy-five per cent of fertility. Transportation, even over rough roads, does not affect their hatching, except in extreme warm weather, when the contents, becoming thin and slightly evaporated through the heat, are apt to mix, when they will surely cloud and rot. I have often sent eggs 2,000 miles, with the report that every egg produced a duckling. With machine ready and running steadily the eggs may be introduced at once. They need no moisture now, and it is not necessary to disturb them for the first forty-eight hours.

How to Choose and Use Thermometers.

Place your thermometer on the eggs in middle of egg-tray. Be sure, in the first place, that you get a good glass, as all depends upon its accuracy. Do not use one with the mercury bulb lying upon a solid metal plate, as the refraction of heat upon the plate from the tank above will always run that glass one or two degrees higher than the heat in the egg-chamber, but get one, if possible, with a hole in the plate opposite the bulb, so that the heat can play around the bulb and through the plate, giving the correct heat of eggs and chamber. Do not hang your glass up over the eggs, or put it down between the eggs, but lay it on them, for the reason that, though either of these positions may be all right during the first twelve days of the hatch (if your eggs are fertile), they will surely be all wrong during the last part.

I will endeavor to explain this thing, so that the novice will understand how important it is. Before circulation begins in the embryo chick or duck, and there is no animal heat in the egg, the temperature of the egg chamber regulates that of the eggs. But after circulation begins, and especially during the latter part of the hatch, when the rapidly-developing young bird throws out a great deal of heat, the thing is often completely reversed. For instance, a glass may be hung one inch above the eggs and another placed immediately on the eggs beneath. The one above may register 102 degrees; the one below, on the eggs, will register 105 degrees,--conclusively showing that the eggs are now, by their own caloric, heating the egg-chamber.

I have often, during the last part of a hatch, when the thermometer was ranging from 70 to 80 degrees outside of machine, placed a glass on the hottest part of the boiler, where but one lamp was dimly burning, carefully covering the glass. In that position it would register perhaps 96 to 98 degrees, while a glass inside the machine, and on the eggs, would register 103 degrees, proving beyond a doubt that the eggs, by their own caloric, were not only heating the egg-chamber, but contributing their quota towards heating the water in the tank. Now, who will pretend to say that a glass hanging above the eggs will give the correct heat of the egg after circulation begins. So that, even in cold weather, the amount of oil consumed during the last week of the hatch is less than half the amount required during the first part.

The operator must not expect the eggs to heat up at once. On the contrary, they will cool the air in the egg-chamber very sensibly, though they will not affect the heat of the water in the tank. It will be from five to eight hours before they arrive at their normal heat.

How to Turn Eggs.

At the end of forty-eight hours they may be turned. This should be done by gathering up the eggs at the end of egg-tray and placing them upon the eggs in centre of the tray, rolling the centre ones back to the end of the tray. The tray should be reversed, and the same thing done to the other end. It is not necessary that the eggs should be completely reversed,--simply change the position, rolling over one-half or one-third.

The egg-trays should always be turned end for end, and changed from end to centre of machine. This is necessary in case there should not be a uniform heat in egg-chamber, as it will equalize matters, and, in a measure, obviate the difficulty. Now, all this, though it takes some time to describe it, can be done very quickly, requiring only a few moments for each machine. I usually allow about ten minutes for each 1,000 eggs, though it can be done much quicker if one is in a hurry. I am often requested by people to put in patent automatic egg-turning trays in my machines, it would so simplify matters. I reply:

"So it would; and when you can produce a machine with a perfect uniformity of heat in the egg-chamber, I should be most happy to use an automatic tray, but I have never yet seen that machine." In our own double-cased Monarch, in cold weather, there is at least one degree difference between the end and centre of egg-tray. In single-cased machines this difference must be largely increased, and in automatic trays the eggs must necessarily remain where they are placed through the entire hatch. Now, under these conditions, if the heat is right in the centre of trays it must be all wrong in the ends. The hatch will be protracted long after the proper time, and if those on the ends of trays come out at all it will be forty-eight hours behind time and with weakened constitutions, keeping one in constant stir with their sickly plaints. It is needless to say that there is a great mortality among birds of that description, and at the end of ten days they are usually among the things that were.

Hatching the Eggs.

The next thing is testing the eggs. This matter is essential as well as economical, with both hens and incubators. I once knew a man who ran a six hundred-egg machine for three weeks on one fertile egg. The other 599 proved infertile, and he did not know it until they refused to hatch at the end of three weeks--a great waste of oil, but a greater waste of time,--three whole weeks in the best part of the season. Another man kept forty hens sitting three weeks with an average of one fertile egg to each bird, when three of them could have done all the hatching just as well, and then, at the end of four days, could have had the rest put upon better eggs.