198 



GLEA2JINGS IN BEE CULTURE 



cause a steadier course can be maintained by the 

 use of the new compass, and therefore changes in 

 speed to regain headway would be greatly reduced. 



" The gyro compass is not yet wholly satisfactory, 

 mechanicallj'," the report confesses; "but when the 

 remaining defects have been corrected, and it is 

 capable of standing up to its work for long periods, 



its installation on all capital ships will result in great- 

 er coal economy and in more satisfactory handling 

 of ships." 



"This last-named advantage," the report concludes, 

 " would be especially gained when warships are 

 steaming in squadron or were engaged in formations 

 or evolutions." 



Poultry Department 



INDIAN RUNNER DUCKS; WHY THEY DON'T 

 LAY^ AND WHY THE DUCKLINGS DIE. 



Mr. Root : — Will you please tell me why my In- 

 dian Runner ducks are not laying? They have not 

 laid in almost three months. Can they be picked! 

 My little ducks all die. What do you feed themt 



Parish, Fla., Dec. 26. Mrs. H. L. Gillett. 



My good friend, I don't know that I am 

 exactly comiDetent to answer your inquiry. 

 All the Indian Runner ducks I have ever 

 kept have always laid more or less. I 

 have had no experience in picking ducks; 

 but I understand through the poultry jour- 

 nals that where you want to get eggs you 

 must not take off the feathers. The ducks 

 can not very well furnish a crop of feathers 

 and a crop of eggs at one and the same 

 time. I feel sure your trouble about the 

 ducks not laying is in the feed. Ducks 

 must have either soft food or else grain 

 soaked in water. I have explained several 

 times that I feed all my corn and other 

 grain in a tub half filled with water. This 

 accomplishes two things. It gives the ducks 

 the moistened food as they need it, and wa- 

 ter with their food, and at the same time it 

 prevents rats or other vermin from helping 

 themselves to the gxain. Our laying ducks 

 are fed mostly on corn and a little wheat 

 with the corn; but as they seem to prefer 

 the corn, that is the principal part of their 

 diet. Now, I would vaiy this diet were it 

 not for the fact that they go out in the 

 canal every day from eight o'clock in the 

 morning until about four in the afternoon ; 

 and in the canal they get a great variety of 

 animal food and vegetable food along the 

 banks. We have always fed our ducklings 

 and little chickens bread and milk for the 

 first tlu-ee or four days, or say a week, and 

 this milk has furnished the needed animal 

 food. A very important thing for little 

 ducks, and I think little chickens also, is to 

 give them green vegetable food; and as 

 they seem to prefer lettuce to any thing 

 else, I would try to have some lettuce leaves 

 ready for them when they are two or three 

 days old. The bread and milk, of course, 

 gives them a certain amount of animal 

 food; but when we take a hatch off the in- 

 cubator there are more or less infertile 

 eggs, and eggs at the close of the hatch that 

 are only partly developed. These are all 

 boiled, and I give the little brood say an 



egg a day, cutting it up fine at first to teach 

 them to eat it. I should have said that the 

 lettuce is also cut up in little bits until they 

 get an appetite for it. After both ducks 

 and cliickens have learned to eat lettuce you 

 will find that they will leave any other food 

 when the lettuce is offered them. Some have 

 objected that bread and milk is a rather 

 expensive diet, especially where there are 

 very many chickens. 



Now, here is something I want to tell you 

 all. I have had it in mind for some time. 

 One of our bakers here in Bradentown has 

 considerable stale bread; and especially is 

 this true Monday morning. With the agree- 

 ment that I take it off his hands, he lets me 

 have it at the very low price of a cent a 

 loaf. On one occasion, when he had had 

 bad luck with his yeast or his " rising," 

 there were over a hundred loaves that I got 

 for a cent apiece. Now, the poultry jour- 

 nals advise that the bread and milk be made 

 by first toasting the bread or dicing it in an 

 oven until it is hard and brittle. When 

 you are ready to feed them, pour a little 

 boiling water on it, which quickly softens 

 up the bread. Then mix it up with milk. 

 This baking is especially important when 

 the bread is veiy old, because the strong 

 heat kills all sorts of germs that might have 

 been deleterious to the chicks. After the 

 chicks or ducklings are a week or ten days 

 old we mix in gradually a little bran and 

 middlings, and finally their mash is bran and 

 middlings alone, perhaps adding some In- 

 dian meal. On one occasion, when I was 

 obliged to be absent, I left some little ducks 

 in Mrs. Root's care; and as she had not 

 paid very much attention to my duck ex- 

 periments she gave them chick food as you 

 do chicks; and before I got around home 

 several of them had died. Now, this fact 

 should be kept in mind — that ducks can 

 not digest their food unless they have water 

 with it. You will notice they first take a 

 bite of food and then a drink of water, and 

 so on alternately. When they are given dry 

 grain some distance away, I have seen them 

 run hurriedly a good many rods to get a 

 drink of water, and then come back again 

 after their grain. Running water, if pos- 

 sible, should be provided close by where 

 they get their food. They can then help 



