Part 8

When the ducklings no longer require heat, which will be in a very few days, I remove them at once, either to the brooding-house or to the vacated yards above mentioned, when by this time the oats will be high enough to furnish them with green food. The business is managed in this way as long as there are eggs to hatch. I use the eggs for incubating long after I cease putting them out; for, if there is but one-third fertile, it is more profitable to hatch them than to market them, as the prices on young ducklings after the middle of October usually rule some three or four cents higher per pound than during August and September.

During the spring and summer months, when things are under full headway, there is naturally great care and responsibility. It will not do to make too many mistakes or neglect necessary duties. The young birds must be fed regularly and given the differently prepared foods according to age,--water supplied, grass and corn fodder cut and distributed according to need. Lamps to trim and replenish, eight thousand eggs to turn twice each day; a new hatch of ducklings coming off nearly every day; the machine to be filled with nicely washed eggs; one to two thousand pounds of ducklings dressed and packed for market daily; cleaning and disinfecting yards; entertaining visitors, who flock here by dozens,--furnish all the occupation we need. Indeed, were it not for the immense profits attending the business, we might consider it rather more than we ought to do.

I disinfect my duck yards with rye about Sept. 1. When, in this climate, frost has destroyed all green vegetable life, then rye is in its prime. If sowed September 1, in duck yards, it will attain a height of eighteen inches, and if sowed thickly will crop many tons to the acre. When corn-fodder is gone, we use green clover, then turnip, cabbage and green rye in turn and then just before a snow storm we cut a large quantity of the frozen rye and pile it up in the shade, where, of course, it will neither heat or thaw. Should we get out before the snow is gone, we always have surplus of clover-rowen cured for the purpose.

This, together with refuse cabbage and boiled turnips, small potatoes, etc., makes a fine winter diet on which breeding ducks will always thrive if the other ingredients are properly mixed,--a diet upon which, combined with housing and plenty of exercise, the birds are bound to contribute a good quota of strong fertile eggs. I mention this particularly here, because the mortality among young birds will depend largely upon the strength and vitality of the eggs from which they come.

Natural Duck-Culture.

Doubtless some of my readers are getting impatient and saying to themselves, "Why do you not give us some ideas how to do this business in the natural way? Many of us wish to begin small. Every one has not the conveniences to use or the means to command incubators." I am coming to that. I have a vivid recollection of using hens to incubate with some twenty years ago; and the persistent obstinacy of the perverse birds, the large proportion of valuable eggs spoiled and broken, as well as the time consumed in caring for them, are still fresh in my memory. It was wholesome discipline for me. It will be the same to the reader, and enable him to appreciate a good incubator later on.

A good, quiet hen, who attends closely to her business, will always hatch as large a proportion of her eggs as a good incubator; but there are so many with dispositions quite the opposite of this that it leaves the odds largely in favor of the machine. Success with hens depends quite as much with the operator as with machines. He must begin right and hold out to the end. As ducks seldom make good incubators, he will have to rely upon hens to do that business for him. The best breeds for that purpose I have found to be the Brahma or Plymouth Rock. A cross of these birds makes a good quiet sitter.

The birds must be got out early so that they will begin laying in the fall and be ready to incubate by the time you want them. It is well to have a room for the purpose and have the sitters by themselves. The nests should be in rows around the room, the feeding and water-troughs in the centre, with the dust-bath at one end. The nest boxes should be some fourteen inches square and about a foot high. Each one should be furnished with a slide so that the bird can be confined when necessary. If the slide is planed, all the better, as the date of the sitter can then be marked on it. The first thing is to prepare the nests. There is quite a knack in this; indeed, success largely depends upon this one thing.

The best material for this is soft hay or straw, cut six or eight inches long, placed upon a soil bottom. The sides of this nest should be packed hard, the bottom smooth and slightly concaved, not too much, as the tendency then would be to break the eggs if they crowded towards the centre. There should be plenty of room in the nest for the bird's feet and legs and the eggs too, so that she can turn at will without danger of breaking them. A piece of tarred paper five or six inches square, should be placed on the soil in the bottom of the nest; the whole covered with a half inch of finely cut straw. A few porcelain eggs should be placed in the nest, and when a hen shows a strong desire to incubate she should be placed upon the nest and the slide closed, giving the bird all the air she needs.

This removal should be made after dark as the birds are always more gentle then. It is well to set a number of hens at once, if they can be had, for reasons that will shortly appear. If the birds take kindly to the porcelain eggs they can be removed the next evening and replaced with ducks' eggs. As they are much larger than hen's eggs, nine or ten will be enough in cold weather and eleven or twelve in warm; proportioned, of course, something to the size of the bird. I always take the birds from their nests at a certain time every day; they will learn to expect it. This should be done during the warmest part of the day.

Handle Your Hens Carefully.

Now is the time to exercise caution. Take your birds off carefully several at a time. If one should fly in your face, break her eggs and spatter the contents over your person, and you should feel like wringing her neck, don't do it; you would only be so much out. Take things easy, don't get mad; she may do better next time, if not, replace her with one that will. When taking your birds off in cold weather cover the eggs at once with a circular piece of heavy paper previously prepared, and they will not cool perceptibly during the fifteen minutes the birds are off. Be sure and return each bird to her own nest, for if you have an uneasy sitter, though she may spoil her own eggs, she should have no opportunity to spoil those of others.

Besides, if you do not, hens that have been sitting but a day or two may be placed upon eggs just ready to hatch when she will not take kindly to the young birds as they hatch, and a great mortality is sure to follow. If you should be running 100 sitters, the more you can take off at a time the sooner you will get through. Have a sponge and warm water handy as you will have more or less broken eggs. The rest should be washed clean at once and returned to the nest. When hatching out be sure and remove the little ducklings, as fast as they come out, to a warm place to dry off, as owing to their long necks and peculiar shape the mother hen will unconsciously crush many more of them than she would of chicks. In fact, they should never see the hen after being taken away, as they can be grown to much better advantage, and with far less mortality, in brooders.

And just here is the great economy of setting six or eight hens at the same time; the young ducklings can be all put together in one brooder and cared for with less trouble and with less mortality than that resulting from one hen with her brood. The ducklings should be confined in yards, the same care and feed given them as already recommended for artificially hatched birds. Allusion has already been made to the proverbial timidity of the Pekin duck. This sometimes causes trouble to the grower when the birds are confined together in large numbers. When six or eight weeks old, and even after they are full grown, they often get frightened, or gallied as it were, in dark nights. Being unable to see, one bird will touch another, he will spring away and come in contact with several more.

In an instant the whole are in the most violent commotion, whirling and treading each other down. It will be a perfect stampede and will sometimes be kept up the entire night. After a night of such dissipation many of the birds will appear completely jaded out, and some of them unable to rise. Of course, this must be stopped at once or the grower may bid farewell to all fattening or laying on the part of the birds. Hanging lanterns in the yards at stated distances will usually restore order. It will not be needed when there is a moon. See that there are no sharp projections in either yards or breeding-pens, as both old and young birds are often lamed for life by simply coming in contact with them in the night.

Too much care cannot be exercised on this point, as the bones of the birds are so small and their bodies so frail. As has been intimated before, ducks are not subject to so many diseases as hens,--while they are entirely free from lice or body parasites of any kind. Indeed, I never saw a louse on a duck in all my experience. Still, it cannot be denied that good sanitary conditions, together with plenty of pure air and water, will not only greatly increase the egg-production, but facilitate the growth and improve the properties of the duckling.

Ducklings when confined to yards are sometimes troubled with sore eyes. The adjacent parts become inflamed, the head slightly swelled. This is caused by feeding sloppy food, and from filthy quarters. The feathers around the eyes become filled with the food, the dust adheres to them. The eye is naturally inflamed. Washing out thoroughly and bathing the eye with a little sweet oil will usually effect a cure.

Diarrhoea.

Young ducklings are sometimes afflicted with diarrhoea. This disease is caused more by overheating brooders and the exhausted condition of the mother bird than from improper food. Do not overfeed or overheat the ducklings. Feed bread or cracker crumbs, moistened with boiled milk, into which a little powdered chalk has been dusted.

Abnormal Livers.

This disease is the most dangerous to which young ducks are subject. It is seldom prevalent except during the warm weather, and usually in young birds of from two to six weeks of age. The livers of the young birds enlarge to such an extent as to force up their backs,--a deformity which will cling to them through life. It is caused by a complete stagnation of the digestive organs, and often makes its appearance after a heavy rain, or long wet spell, when the yards are invariably wet, sloppy and offensive. The young birds will, while in constant contact with this mud, absorb more or less of it, clogging the digestive organs, and deranging their appetites. Remove the birds to some dry, shady place, feed sparingly, and give a little of the "Douglas mixture" in the drinking water.

Ducklings must be Carefully Yarded While Young.

A great mortality often occurs to young ducklings when allowed free range during warm weather, from devouring injurious insects. Bees, wasps, hornets, bugs of all descriptions, are eagerly swallowed alive but not always with impunity, and the birds often pay the penalty with their lives. Always confine them, even when designed for breeding purposes, until they are six weeks old, when they can be allowed their liberty.

The most of the diseases to which ducks and fowls are subject can usually be traced to some infraction of conditions, and of course are always more or less under the control of the careful operator. Two young men called here a short time ago wishing to know what was the trouble with their fowls. Hitherto they had occupied a cold building, so open that the snow sifted through on them, and they had never to their recollection had a diseased fowl. Within a year they had put up a nice, warm building with a glass front, and their fowls had been diseased ever since. They had shut their birds in a building that would run up to 100 degrees during the day and that would go down nearly to zero at night, subjecting their fowls to thermal changes, under which neither animal or vegetable life could possibly live, and then expect them to thrive.

The amateur poulterer should understand in the beginning that it is far easier to anticipate disease in poultry than to cure it. Where fowls are kept in large numbers, their health and well-being can only be insured by extreme care and cleanliness, together with a free use of disinfectants. Buildings should be kept dry, clean and sweet, and not too warm. The greater the variety of food the better, so long as it is healthy and nutritious; while gravel, sand, shell and granulated charcoal should be kept by them during confinement in winter.

I am often asked by parties, "Why do so many would-be poulterers fail if it is a legitimate business and fairly profitable?" I reply, I am not prepared to concede the point that the proportional number of failures in the poultry business is greater than among other vocations in life. Hundreds of men fail every year in mercantile, manufacturing and brokerage pursuits. People do not decry any legitimate business from this cause, because they know there are hundreds who are not only getting a livelihood, but are amassing fortunes at them. There are hundreds, yes thousands, of farms on the market in New England today, for less than the value of the buildings, because their owners have made failures of them. Do men denounce agriculture? No! Because they know that from time immemorial men have not only secured an honest living, but have gained a competence from tilling the soil. You simply say that it is the men. Why not be equally frank with the poultry business?

They say the whole thing is contrary to nature, and you can't improve upon nature. Can't we? That is just what man is placed upon this sublunary sphere for, and he must begin by improving himself. With the present opportunities for obtaining information, no one has a right to remain ignorant because he begins by making a failure of himself; and when a man has failed in the poultry business or elsewhere, it is simply want of that indomitable pluck, energy, and perseverence, which are the requisites of success everywhere, coupled with a disinclination to sacrifice his comfort and ease, or conform his life to his business requirements.

Again, we hear that artificially grown fowls are stunted and small, the flesh tasteless and insipid, and many other things which have no shadow of truth in them. I append the testimonials of some of the largest poultry dealers both in Boston and New York cities, who cheerfully and voluntarily testify to the superiority of our artificially-grown birds. These firms are square and honest dealers, and we heartily recommend them to any who stand in need of their services.

I have endeavored in this little book to impart what little knowledge I possess on this important subject to the reader. If he can learn wisdom by my experience and avoid the errors into which I fell, it is all I ask. The business, as I have learned its details, has become more profitable each year; while the experience of the past season has been highly satisfactory, as the demand has been greater than ever before.

FORMULAS FOR FEEDING DUCKS.

For Breeding Birds.

(Old and young, during the Fall.)

We turn them out to pasture, when we can, in lots of 200.

Feed three parts wheat-bran; one part low grade flour; one part corn meal; five per cent. of beef-scrap; three per cent. of grit, and all the green feed they will eat, in the shape of corn-fodder, cut fine, clover or oat-fodder. Feed this mixture twice a day, all they will eat.

For Laying Birds.

Equal parts of wheat-bran and corn meal; ten per cent. beef-scrap; twenty per cent. of low grade flour; ten per cent. of boiled turnips or potatoes; fifteen per cent. of clover-rowen, green rye or refuse cabbage, chopped fine; three per cent. of grit. Feed twice a day, all they will eat, with a lunch of corn and oats at noon. Keep grit and ground oyster shells constantly by them. We never cook the food for our ducks, but mix it with cold water.

For Feeding at Different Stages of Growth.

The first four days, feed four parts wheat-bran; one part corn-meal; one part low grade flour; five per cent. fine grit. Feed four times a day, what they will eat clean.

When from four days to four weeks old, feed four parts wheat-bran; one part corn-meal; one part low-grade flour; three per cent. fine grit; five per cent. of fine ground beef-scrap, soaked. Finely cut green clover, rye or cabbage. Feed four times a day.

When from four to eight weeks old, feed three parts wheat-bran; one part corn-meal; one part low-grade flour; five per cent. of fine grit; five per cent. of beef-scrap. Mix in green food. One per cent. fine oyster shells. Feed four times a day.

When from six to eight weeks old, feed equal parts corn-meal; wheat-bran and fifteen per cent. low grade flour; ten per cent. of beef-scrap; ten per cent. of green food; three per cent. of grit. Feed three times a day.

When from eight to ten weeks old, feed one half corn-meal; equal parts of wheat-bran and low grade flour; ten per cent. of beef-scrap; three per cent. of grit. Oyster shells and less green food. Feed three times a day. They should now be ready for market.

Note.--The above ingredients should be made into a mash, and should be crumbly, not pasty. Proportions by measure, not weight.

QUESTION BUREAU.

QUESTION 1.--Why do my ducks not lay? I feed them all the corn they will eat.

ANSWER.--Ducks will not lay on hard grain alone. They should have a mash composed of equal parts wheat-bran, corn-meal, and twenty per cent. low grade flour, with about one-quarter green food and vegetables; ten per cent. of beef-scrap, with grit and oyster shells.

QUESTION 2.--My ducklings are weak in the legs, cannot stand, and soon die. What is the matter?

ANSWER.--Your trouble is too highly concentrated food and too much of it. Feed on mash composed largely of wheat-bran, low-grade flour and about fifteen per cent. of corn-meal. Mix in plenty of green food, as green rye, clover, corn-fodder, etc. Ten per cent. of ground beef-scrap, or other animal food; five per cent. of coarse sand. This diet is absolutely necessary to properly develop the bird and form flesh, bone and feathers. Feed sparingly. This is essential, as it invites exercise, which is much needed during close confinement in inclement weather.

QUESTION 3.--My ducklings are troubled with sore eyes and do not seem to thrive, what can I do for them?

ANSWER.--This disease savors of filthy quarters, and yet it is not always attributed to that. Improper assimilation of food through want of grit and other ingredients will have a tendency in the same direction. A gummy secretion exudes from the eyes, hardening up among the feathers around them, seriously retarding the growth and development of the bird. Feed sparingly of light food with plenty of grit, and sprinkle a little ginger in their food. Remove the bird to clean quarters and a few days will usually effect a cure.

QUESTION 4.--I am losing my ducklings from diarrhoea. Have but twenty left out of eighty, and they are not ten days old. Please counsel me?

ANSWER.--This disease may have several causes, though I am convinced that the food has but little to do with it. It may originate through the degenerate condition of the parent bird, and consequent want of vitality in the egg from which the little bird comes out in no shape to live; or from the extremes of heat and cold to which the eggs have been subjected during the process of incubation; or from the same cause after the little duckling has been placed in the brooder. I am convinced that with a careful selection of the proper ingredients in feeding the old bird, and a reasonable control of the heat in the incubator and brooder (if they are good ones), there need be but little apprehension from this disease.

QUESTION 5.--My breeding birds have the gapes. They stretch their necks and gape, eat nothing, and die in a few days. Can you diagnose the case and help me?

ANSWER.--This is undoubtedly a lung trouble, for on dissecting the birds, I have always found the lungs not only highly inflamed but nearly gone. For years I had supposed this disease incurable, and incidental to bird and clime, but later experience has convinced me that it is not only largely under control but easily anticipated. First, I never knew a case in summer or early spring, when the birds were not confined to buildings but had free and open range, and only when confined during inclement weather, so that it is more or less a denizen of foul air and filthy quarters.

I would much rather have my breeding houses freeze a little than to have them filled with foetid air, and the birds breathe over and over again the ammonia arising from their own excrements. It is one thing for the birds to be confined over their own ordure, their nostrils but a few inches from it, but quite another with the attendant in the walk with his nose six feet away. He may think his buildings quite clean and free from noxious gases, but could his ducks speak they would tell him a different story. This disease, if taken in the early stages, can usually be cured. Isolate the bird with the first appearance of trouble, in a warm, dry place. Feed on food formula for little ducklings. Mix a little cayenne pepper in the food, a little Douglas Mixture in the drinking water, and a large proportion of the affected birds may be saved. Keep your breeding birds dry and clean when confined.

QUESTION 6.--I turned my ducklings out in a grass plot today and have lost nearly one-third of them. What is the cause?

ANSWER.--This may result from two causes. Ducklings from two to four weeks old are ravenous birds and will devour all manner of insects within their reach, which they do not stop to kill. Bees, wasps, hornets and beetles of all descriptions are acceptable, and the little birds, themselves, often pay the penalty with their lives. Again, at that age, they are extremely sensitive to the heat of the sun, and they must have shade. Years ago, we sometimes lost twenty birds out of a hundred in thirty minutes, before we knew the cause.

QUESTION 7.--How many birds should constitute a breeding-yard?

ANSWER.--Twenty-five is enough unless the birds have free range, then fifty may run together with safety.

QUESTION 8.--How shall I proportion the sexes for the best results?

ANSWER.--Five ducks to one drake. Later in the season, six or eight ducks to one drake.

QUESTION 9.--How can I distinguish the sexes?

ANSWER.--It is easy for the expert to detect the sex of the bird when very young. The drake has a longer bill, neck and body, with a more upright carriage. At two months old the duck may be distinguished by her coarse quack, the drake by a fine, rasping noise, and later on by the curled feathers in his tail.

QUESTION 10.--How soon will a young duck begin laying?

ANSWER.--At about five months old, often at four and a half months old. At present, September 1st, we are getting some three dozen eggs per day from our young birds, and we are trying to hold them back all we can by light feeding.

QUESTION 11.--Which will lay first, old or young birds?