Part 6

Every young breeder of poultry should inform himself of these facts before he starts in, for no living man can afford to breed from inferior stock. I passed through experiences of this kind many years ago, and always found that the laws of primogeniture cannot be lightly set aside. I invariably select the choicest of my early hatched birds for breeding stock, and no matter how high the price in market, I cannot afford to sell them. A gentleman, who is a large breeder, said to me the past spring: "How is it that your ducks are so much larger than mine? I bought stock from you four years ago, and have been breeding from it ever since, and now your birds are six or eight pounds per pair heavier than mine." "True, but you bought my latest-hatched birds, because they were cheap, and have been breeding from your latest-hatched birds ever since, while I have been breeding only from the choicest of my early birds. You have been steadily breeding your stock down, while I have been breeding mine up. There is now a wide gap between them."

Caring for the Ducklings when Hatched.

The little ducklings should be left in the machine for at least twenty-four hours longer. Be sure and open the air-valves and give them plenty of air, so that they may be well dried off. A uniform heat of 90 degrees should be held in the egg-chamber. The outer doors of the machine should be closed and the little fellows kept in darkness the first twelve hours. After that the outer doors should be let down. Then you will see some fun, for the little ducklings are far more active than chicks, and will begin to play at once. In the meantime the brooding-house should be prepared for the reception of the young brood. The heat should be started some twenty-four hours previous to use.

The brooding-house should be the same whether you are growing on a small scale or a large one, with simply the length proportioned to your needs. But always recollect that heat should radiate from above on your ducklings, as bottom heat will soon cripple them in the legs and render them helpless. In fact, I do not consider bottom heat as essential even for chicks. The most successful grower I know of, who grows 3,000 chicks each spring, getting them all out between January 1st and March 1st, and closes up the whole business by July 1st, uses top heat exclusively. He has experimented fairly with both, and says he wants no more bottom heat. If the breeder is growing on a small scale it will be economy for him to use brooders instead of a heater.

Figure 11 represents the best duck brooder I know of. As there is no patent on it anyone can make it who has the conveniences. This brooder is six and a half feet long by three feet wide, and will accommodate 150 ducklings. These brooders are of the most improved construction, are intended for both indoor and outdoor work, keeping the young ducks dry and warm in cold, stormy weather, even when located out of doors. The heat is generated in copper boilers, the water flowing through a galvanized iron tank, under which the young ducklings hover. This tank is five feet long, twelve inches wide, and about an inch thick, and is hung about eight inches from ends and back of brooder, leaving nearly eighteen inches in front the entire length of brooder, in which to feed the first day or two. The case of this brooder is made of matched boards and thoroughly ventilated and furnished with glass doors to admit light. This brooder should be used in the brooding-house during winter and early spring, after which it can be used to better advantage out of doors.

Let it be understood that a good brooder is, next to the incubator, the most important thing in the business. It is worse than useless to get out large hatches of strong, healthy birds, only to have them smothered or chilled in worthless brooders. Numbers of the patent brooders now on the market are made by men who never raised a chick or duck in their lives, and are regular fire and death traps. Many instances have come under my personal notice where not only ducks, chicks, and brooders, but the buildings themselves have been entirely consumed by these fire traps.

Again, those brooders are always rated for higher than their actual capacity. Ignorant parties buy them, fill them up according to instructions, when a sad mortality is sure to follow from overcrowding and consequent overheating. This is especially the case with chicks. Ducklings never smother each other from overcrowding, but, of course, will not thrive when too closely packed. These 150-duck brooders can be run at an expense of two cents per day for oil. In extreme cold weather artificial heat should be kept up in these brooders for three weeks; in warm weather, a week is sufficient. The same brooders can be used over and over as fast as the new hatches come out. When brooders are removed, closed boxes can be used instead.

When the operator does business large enough to require the use of five or six brooders, it would be cheaper for him to put in a heater at once, as the original cost of the heater would be less than that of the brooders. Years ago, when the question of heaters was first agitated, the cost was enormous, and the consumption of coal in proportion. Large hot-house boilers were used, often at a cost of several hundred dollars before the thing was ready for use. Now a good heating system can be arranged for a building one hundred feet long at an expense not exceeding $100. This, of course, would be much less than a complement of brooders for the same building.

Advantages of the Heating System.

The heating system has several marked advantages over the brooders. One is, that during the extreme cold of winter the building is always warm enough for the little birds, while with nothing but brooders it would often freeze around them, necessitating feeding inside the brooders, which would not be as healthy for the ducklings. Again there would be a great saving of labor, as a self-regulating heater would require no more care than a single brooder, while the oil consumed in the brooders would fully equal the cost of coal required for the heater.

There is one point here which the beginner should always take into consideration in the selection of a heater, and that is, be sure and get one that will give you the greatest amount of heat for the fuel consumed. The patent steam and water heaters now upon the market are too numerous to mention. But there is a vast difference in the economy of these heaters.

When contemplating the purchase of a heater, several years ago, I called upon a party who was running a newly-purchased heater. He seemed very much pleased with it, and said it ran admirably,--warmed his buildings nicely, and only cost about one dollar per day for coal. I made up my mind then and there that I should run my brooders a while longer. But on interrogating another party using one of a different pattern, he assured me that his heaters warmed both brooders and buildings in good shape at a cost of fifteen cents per day. This was presenting the matter in a new phase. The difference in cost of running these heaters one year would purchase two. I am now running three heaters called the "Bramhall-Deane Heater" and am heating two brooding houses (one 250 feet long, the other 175 feet long), at half the cost per day. Either steam or water may be used. I prefer water for both safety and economy.

For instance, should the fire go out accidentally the heat would cease at once where steam was used, while water would hold its heat for hours, and would continue to circulate just so long as the water in the boiler was hotter than that in the pipes. I do not know but there are other heaters in the market just as economical as the "Bramhall-Deane," but I know of several prominent poultry men who are changing their heating principle, not because they are dissatisfied with the work done by that now in use, but solely on account of the expense attending it.

Figure 12 represents our brooding-house as it appears outside. Its dimensions have already been given. It is boarded in with closely-fitting hemlock boards, the whole being covered on the outside with the heaviest quality of "Paroid" Roofing.

This roofing is manufactured by F. W. Bird & Son, East Walpole, Mass. We have more than an acre under roofing, a large proportion of which is covered with Paroid. We find it strong, pliable, insusceptible to either heat or cold and to all appearances will be more durable than anything we have ever used. I have many buildings covered with this roofing. In applying it, begin at the eaves, lapping it 1-1/2 inches. It is so heavy that it does not require wooden strips to hold it down, simply nails and tin caps, which should be about an inch apart. A coat of the liquid, which goes with it, will glaze it over in good shape. For a flat roof, it is far better than shingles at less than half the cost.

Interior Arrangement of Brooding-House.

As the construction of this building has been already noticed, I will proceed to describe its interior arrangement for a brooding-house. In the first place, as in the breeding-house, there should be a walk three feet wide the entire length of the building on the back side. Next to the walk, and parallel with it, the brooder box should run. This box will be thirty inches wide, and like the walk, the entire length of the building. In my building the brooding arrangement is very simple, being a box with two sides resting on the ground, eight inches high in the clear, the ground being utilized as the bottom of brooder.

This brooding-box consists of two parts. The sides, seven inches wide, are nailed securely, and constitute the sides of the pipe-stand. The cover is portable, with cleats nailed across the top to strengthen it, and with strips an inch wide nailed underneath, in front and in back, to keep it in position. These strips are supposed to rest on the seven-inch strips in the sides, and, when the cover is on, make a tight brooder.

Figure 13 represents the interior of brooding-house, with these covers on the brooders and ready for use. Also, with two of the covers removed showing the heating pipes. These consist of a two-inch flow and return, running parallel with each other the entire length of the building, and lying ten inches apart from centre to centre. These pipes rest upon cross boards, whose length corresponds with the width of the brooder, and to which the sides are nailed; two-inch holes are cut out in the top of these boards into which the pipes are laid, the upper surface of which comes flush with the top of the boards, so that when the cover of brooders is in position it rests equally on pipes and boards.

The distance between these boards corresponds with the width of pens outside of brooder, and constitute partitions for the same. The partitions are simply inch boards, twelve or fourteen inches wide, fitting into ground in front of building to keep them upright and in position. The front of the brooder leading into the pens is cut out in centre of brooder four feet long and four inches deep to allow the free passage of the ducklings. These openings in the first four pens are fringed with woolen cloth, cut up every four inches, to keep the brooder warmer in cold weather. The remaining brooders are not fringed, for reasons which will appear hereafter. The heater can be located in the end of building most convenient to the operator.

The bottom of the pens should consist of sand which, when it becomes wet, and before it becomes offensive, should be covered with fine sawdust. This is a good absorbent and disinfectant as well. The inside of the four brooders next the heater should be filled up with hay chaff to within four inches of the pipes, the distance being gradually increased as you near the other end of the building, until the whole eight inches in height will be required, using simply sawdust enough to disinfect the bottom of brooder. This is my present brooding arrangement, with the exception of a common door handle screwed on each brooder cover to facilitate handling. It may not suit every one; some may want it more ornamental, more expensive; others may wish to simplify it still more. But such as it is, it is now all ready for use, with heat applied.

But those little ducklings, who have been waiting all this time in the machine, are getting both hungry and impatient, and require immediate attention. The food which has already been prepared consists of a formula composed of four parts wheat-bran, one part corn-meal with enough of low grade flour to connect the mass without making it sticky or pasty, in fact, it should be crumbly so that the little birds can eat it readily. About five per cent. of fine, sharp grit should be mixed into their first feed, after that, one or two per cent. is all sufficient. This grit should be increased in size as the birds grow older.

About the third day, a little fine beef-scrap should be introduced, soaking it a little before mixing. When a few days old, a little green rye, if obtainable, should be given them, or as a substitute, finely chopped cabbage or lettuce. When the birds are two weeks old, one part corn-meal to three parts bran should be used. This food should be scattered upon the feeding-troughs, which are simply one-half inch boards, nine or ten inches wide, by three or four feet long, with laths nailed on the sides and ends. Small water-cans, inverted in tin saucers, so that the ducklings can drink readily without getting wet, should stand convenient to the food.

How to Remove the Ducklings Without Injury.

To facilitate the removal of ducklings from the machine, I have a square basket some two and one-half feet long, by fifteen inches wide and one foot high, with close covers, hinged in the centre. In order to secure the ducklings, usually all that is necessary is to open one door of machine, hold this basket under it and make a little chuckling noise, and strange to say, the little fellows will run out over the pipes, over the glass door, down into the basket in dozens as fast as their little legs and wings can carry them. This basket will hold 100 ducklings conveniently. When full, it should be carried to the brooding-house and carefully inverted over the feeding-boards.

The little birds will begin eating at once. This process can be repeated until the machine is emptied. There will be some of the later-hatched ones that should be allowed to remain in the machine ten or twelve hours longer, as they can be cared for better there. These can be readily detected, as they are not as active as the others, and perhaps not completely dried off. The ducklings should be put out, if possible, during the middle of the day, and while the sun shines through the windows, as they can be fed in the sun and put under the brooder later in the day.

In event of there being no sun, it will not do to feed under the brooding-box, as it is too dark. I then take a one-half inch board, four feet long (to correspond with the length of opening in front of brooder) and six inches wide. I nail two pieces of the same width and height, one foot long, on to each end of this board, forming a parallelogram four feet long and one foot wide, minus one side. This is set up in front of the opening in brooder, and being of the same length, forms a little pen in front of brooder one foot wide, in which the feeding-trough can be placed with drinking fount.

The ducklings can then run out and in and feed when they wish. This board will only be needed for a day or two, when it can be taken up and reserved for the next brood. The ducklings should be fed once in two hours, scattering a little food on the troughs. Be sure that they eat clean before more is given. At the end of a week the regular feed should be four meals each day.

How to Feed.

When I can get stale baker's bread I use that in connection with, and instead of, bran. It can be profitably mixed with milk, not too sour, when it can be had for a cent a quart. But do not give milk as drink,--the young birds will smear themselves all over with it, their beaks and eyes will be stuck up, the down will come off their little bodies in large patches, and they will be a constant aggravation. I was once called upon to visit an establishment, the owner of which complained that his ducklings did not grow, and he was very anxious for me to locate the trouble. I found six to eight hundred ducklings there of all ages, and, strange to say, nearly of one size; and one lot of nearly three hundred ducklings eight weeks old would not average one pound each, when they should have weighed four pounds.

Such a sight I never saw before, and hope never to see again. Of all the miserable, squalid, contemptible looking objects, those ducklings took the lead. This man had not only mixed their food with milk, but had kept it by them in open troughs, and the birds had bathed in it and spattered it over each other until there was hardly a feather left on their emaciated bodies; and yet this man did not know what ailed his ducks.

Is it strange that some people fail in the poultry business?

When in full operation, we run twenty-one large machines, and as it requires twenty-seven days to close up each hatch, of course we have a hatch come off nearly every day. Now as each hatch is supposed to occupy two brooder-pens with the corresponding yards, in the course of five or six weeks that brooding-house will be filled with its complement of 3,000 ducklings. These will be of all ages, from the little puff-balls just from the machine, to the half-grown bird of six weeks old. The brooding pipes are supposed to radiate the same amount of heat at the extreme end of the building as they do next the heater, consequently the brooders are of the same temperature in all their parts. Not so the building.

As the heater radiates a great deal of heat, the end in which this is located is always 12 or 15 degrees warmer than the other and is thus better adapted to the comfort of the newly hatched ducklings than the other, so I always put the birds fresh from the machine next the heater, while the older ones are passed down the building. This is a very simple process. One end of the partition board is lifted up a little, food scattered in a trough in the empty pen adjoining, the ducklings will rush under in a moment, then the board is dropped. The same process is continued until all are moved and the building filled.

The building just described we term our nursery, and has a capacity of about 2,500 birds. When full, the older birds are probably about two weeks old, and of course these older ones must be removed to make room for successive hatches of younger birds. For this purpose, we constructed a building 125 feet long, 32 feet wide, which we style our double brooding house. It runs east and west with a walk four feet wide through the centre, with brooding-pens on each side. This building has the same capacity of a single building 250 feet long, and accommodates about 5,000 birds. On the south side of this walk our brooder boxes are arranged.

At one end of the building is a heater, from which an inch-and-a-half flow and return pipe runs under the brooder boxes the entire length of the building and furnishes heat for the little birds. The brooder-boxes are located twenty inches from the side of the walk. The ducklings are fed and watered in this space, and are not allowed in it except for that purpose. To effect this, the covers of the brooding-boxes, which are six feet long by two feet wide, are cut in the centre the entire length, and hinged with a perpendicular lip, which when closed, meets an upright board below, some two inches high, shutting brooders tight, excluding ducklings from feeding apartment, so that it is always sweet and clean.

By this arrangement, the ducklings are all fed and watered from the walk, thus reducing the labor to a minimum, while there is no danger of crushing the little birds under foot or under the troughs. The attendant is not hampered in his movements, but can work as quickly as he likes. All he has to do is to distribute the food and water, throwing the covers back as he goes, when the ducklings, which are always waiting, rush in and soon fill themselves. Twenty minutes is all that is required for them to eat and drink.

A person of good judgment can easily determine about how much the birds will consume, though it is well for him to pass along the walk, giving a little more food where their wants are not satisfied, or taking up what is left over, shutting the covers down when the birds are through.

As this building is well piped, distributing water at both ends, as well as at the mixing-box and heater, it makes the feeding almost a pastime, the work is done so easily. This building is just what we have been looking for. There are none on the place that pleases us so well. Its many advantages over a single building must be evident to all. The increased facility for doing the work, as well as its economy in housing many more birds for the money invested, are not the least.

When planning this building, we had some misgiving about running it east and west as the lay of the land required, thinking that the exposure on the north side during the inclement weather of the early spring, would confine the young birds to the building and they would suffer for want of exercise, but we were agreeably disappointed as we found that they thrived equally as well, if not better, on the north side as on the south, proving what I have always known in duck culture, that the extreme heat of summer is more debilitating to young birds than the cold of winter, and that early hatched birds will always be of larger size and more robust physique than late ones.

That is why I have always made it a point to select my early hatched birds for breeding purposes. I have never known any too good for that. I insert cuts of this double building, with the older ducklings on the north side and the younger ones on the south. Were I to build another, I should duplicate it in every respect.

Regulation of Heat in Brooders.

Now, as the birds grow larger, they naturally need less heat, and we must contrive to fix it so they do not get so much. As stated before, no fringe is used beyond the first four brooders,--the space in front being left open; and not only that, but we gradually raise the back of the cover next the walk until it opens an inch or more the entire length of the pen. Those ducklings, before they reach the other end of this brooding-house, will weigh (if well cared for) over a pound each.

The brooder will not then be large enough to hold them, neither do they require the heat, in fact it would be injurious at this age; so before the birds reach the extreme end of the building I shut them off from the brooders entirely by placing a board in front of the opening. The young birds will always thrive better out of doors than in; and when two weeks old I always let them out during the sunny days of April, by opening the slides in front.

At this stage of growth when the birds are from two to four weeks old, especially with the early hatches when confined as they usually are during the inclement weather in winter, unless extreme care is taken, a sad mortality is sure to follow.