244 THE HANDBOOK FOE PRACTICAL FARMERS 



management, laying two hundred eggs per bird per year. As 

 Runners lay a larger egg than a hen and which markets at the 

 same or higher price, the Runner duck should be raised more 

 extensively. 



Young ducklings do not require as much heat nor for so long 

 as chicks, but they must have dry quarters and plenty of ventila- 

 tion. They should not be allowed to swim until they get their 

 breast feathers and then only those which are to be kept for 

 breeders. Plenty of drinking water and shade must be provided. 

 Bread crumbs, hard boiled eggs with tender greens are good for 

 the first few days. Duck food should be largely soft food. To 

 market Pekins at ten weeks of age, feed a mash four times a 

 day made of about ten per cent meat scrap, forty per cent corn 

 meal, fifty per cent bran and middlings. Feed this up to the last 

 two weeks. Then finish on a mash containing about 15 per cent 

 meat scrap, seventy-five per cent corn meal and ten per cent 

 bran. The Runners may be fed in much the same way as the 

 Pekins. A regular hen mash with a feeding once a day of hard 

 grains may be used for the mature birds for egg production. 



GEESE 



Geese depend upon grass and good pasturage for the greater 

 part of their food. Because of this fact more geese might well 

 be raised. In breeding mate one gander to two or three geese 

 and do this in the fall. In the spring prepare secretive nests in 

 out-of-the-way places for the geese to lay and incubate their 

 eggs. Hens may be used to incubate the first eggs and the geese 

 to hatch the later clutches. Keep the young away from the water 

 as in the case of the duckling. The gosling may be fed in the 

 same way as the duckling. When- about eight weeks old they 

 may be fattened for market, weighing then about twelve to fif- 

 teen pounds, or kept until fall. Fatten as for ducks, having 

 plenty of green food, grit and water accessible. Feed the 

 mature geese grain night and morning. In plucking geese a 

 good method is to scald, wrap in a burlap bag for five minutes 

 and repeat. 



TURKEYS 



Turkeys seem to do best in the more sparsely settled sections 

 where they can have unlimited range over fields and woods 

 without troubling neighbors. The mature turkeys should be kept 

 in dry, well-ventilated but draft-free houses. Except during the 

 winter^ let the turkeys range freely, feeding a little wheat, barley 



