142 OUR DOMESTIC BIRDS 



Growing ducklings. For a poultry keeper who has only a 

 little room it is much easier to grow a few ducks than to grow 

 an equal number of chickens. There are two reasons for this : 

 One is that the ducklings stand close confinement better and 

 are not so sensitive to unsanitary conditions ; the other is that 

 ducks of the improved breeds grow much more quickly than 

 chickens and are grown up before the novelty of caring for them 

 wears off and the keeper tires of giving the close attention that 

 young poultry need when grown under such conditions. 



The ducks of the improved breeds are mostly non-sitters. 

 Unless one has common ducks, Muscovy Ducks, Rouen Ducks 

 with some wild Mallard blood, or Mallards not long domesticated, 

 he is not likely to have a duck " go broody," and so small lots 

 of duck eggs are usually hatched under hens. As duck eggs are 

 larger than hen eggs, a smaller number is given to the hen. 

 Eleven medium-sized duck eggs are given to a hen that would 

 cover thirteen hen eggs. If the eggs are large, it is better to 

 give such a hen only nine. 



The development of a fertile duck egg that has a white or 

 slightly tinted shell can be seen very plainly when the egg is 

 held before a light, much earlier than the development of a hen 

 egg. If the shell is green and quite dark in color, the develop- 

 ment of the germ may not show any better than in a brown- 

 shelled hen egg. The period of incubation is about four weeks. 

 Eggs are sometimes picked as early as the twenty-fifth day, but 

 usually on the twenty-sixth day. As stated in Chapter II, the 

 duckling usually waits quite a long time after chipping the shell 

 before it completes the process and emerges. 



In a little duckling we find the most striking resemblance to 

 a reptile that is to be seen among domestic birds. It has a long, 

 soft body, a long neck, short legs, and a wriggling movement, 

 and sometimes, when it is wriggling through a small hole, it looks 

 very snakelike. While they are very small, ducklings are the 

 most interesting of young birds. They will go to the water as 



