MANAGEMENT OF DUCKS 



141 



wheat about noon. The water supply should always be replen- 

 ished just before feeding, for as soon as a duck has taken a few 

 mouthfuls of food of any kind, it wants a drink of water. 



Laying habits. With the exception of the ducks of the 

 Indian Runner type, which lay some eggs at other seasons, as 

 hens do, ducks usually lay very persistently for about six months, 

 and then stop entirely for about six months. Occasionally ducks 

 of other breeds lay a few eggs in the autumn, but this trait has 

 not been developed 

 in them as it has in 

 the Indian Runner. 

 If they are com- 

 fortably housed and 

 well fed, Pekin and 

 Rouen Ducks usu- 

 ally begin to lay in 

 January. If they are 

 allowed to expose 

 themselves to rough 

 weather, and are fed 

 indifferently, they 

 may not begin to 

 lay until March or 

 April. When they 

 do begin, they usu- 

 ally lay much more steadily than hens until hot weather comes, 

 and then gradually decrease their production until by midsummer 

 they have stopped altogether. 



The eggs are usually laid very early in the morning. Ducks 

 often lay before daylight and almost always lay before eight 

 o'clock. When a duck lays in a nest, she is very likely to cover the 

 egg with the nest material when she leaves it. A duck will often 

 make a nest and remain on it an hour or more and then go and 

 drop her egg somewhere else and pay no further attention to it. 



FIG. 131. Pekin drake four months old, weighing 

 nine pounds 



