RAISING DUCKS. 223 



ning; the feathers are then loose and are picked easily 

 and without injury. This will considerably increase the 

 yield of feathers, and will prevent a useless loss; other- 

 wise the loose feathers from twenty ducks will be found 

 spread over their whole range. 



It by no means follows because ducks are a water-fowl 

 that much water is required to raise them. Yet this is 

 a very common impression, and multitudes of farmers 

 and villagers deny themselves the enjoyment and profit 

 of a flock of ducks because they have no pond or stream 

 near the house. It is true that adult ducks will get a 

 good deal of their living out of a water privilege, if they 

 have one. It is not true that water to swim in is essen- 

 tial to their profitable keeping. They want some range 

 and grass and good fresh water to drink every day. 

 Ordinarily, ducks can be profitably raised wherever hens 

 can be. They make a pleasing variety in the poultry- 

 yard, and all who have room for them can enjoy them. 

 The first thing in raising ducks is to get them out of 

 the shell, and for incubation we decidedly prefer hens 

 to ducks. They sit more steadily, and take much better 

 care of the young. The wetting of the ducks' eggs daily 

 in the List two weeks of incubation is even more neces- 

 sary than for hens' eggs. This is sometimes done by 

 sprinkling water upon them, but we think it better to 

 take them from the nest and put them in a basin of 

 tepid water about blood-warm. This moistens the whole 

 shell without chilling the embryo life within. The 

 ducklings out of the shell may be allowed to remain 

 upon the nest with the hen for a day. The hen may 

 then be put upon a grass-plat, under a coop, where the 

 ducklings can go in and out at pleasure. Or if the hen 

 is allowed liberty, the ducklings should be confhied in a 

 small pen from which they cannot escape. A dozen in 

 a pen ten feet square is enough for the first two weeks. 

 For water they only want a shallow pan so shallow 



