140 



OUR DOMESTIC BIRDS 



While the fence for ducks need not be either high or strong, 

 there must be no holes in it that a duck, having put its head 

 through, could by pressure enlarge enough to let its body pass. 

 A piece of wire netting that has begun to rust a little may be as 

 good as ever for fowls for a long time, but if used for a duck 

 fence it will be most unsatisfactory, because the ducks will soon 

 make many holes in it. If wire netting alone is used, it should 

 be fastened to the ground with pegs every three or four feet. 



Feeding. The feeding of ducks differs from the feeding of 

 hens in that ducks need mostly soft food, and that, if the keeper 



wishes to force growth or egg 

 production, they may be fed 

 much larger proportions of such 

 concentrated foods as beef scraps 

 and meat meals. As has been 

 stated, in its natural state the 

 duck gets the greater part of its 

 food from the water. This is all 

 soft food, and the bird swallows 

 a great deal of water with it. It 

 does not, therefore, need a large 

 crop in which to soak its food 

 before it passes into the gizzard. 

 So the crop of the duck is small merely an enlargement of 

 the gullet. Some of the old books on poultry say that the duck 

 has no crop, but you can see by looking at a duck that has just 

 had a full meal that the food it has taken remains in the passage, 

 sometimes filling it right up to the throat. 



With a mash (just the same as is given to hens) morning and 

 evening, a cabbage to pick at, plenty of drinking water, and a 

 supply of oyster shell always before them, ducks will do very 

 well. If they have no cabbage, about one third (by bulk) of 

 the mash should be cut clover or alfalfa. When the days are 

 long, it is a good plan to give them a little cracked corn or whole 



FIG. 130. Pekin duckling six 

 weeks old 



