114 



THE GENESEE FARMER. 



DUCKS AMD THEER MANAGEMENT. 



C. N. Bement, an acknowledged authority on 

 poultry matters, writes: 



Any calculation as to the return to he expected 

 by those who keep ducks turns entirely on the pos- 

 session of a suitable locality. They are most likely 

 to be kept with profit, when access is allowed them 

 to an adjoining marsh or water meadow, where 



MALLARD OR WILD DUCK. 



they are able in a great measure to provide for 

 themselves; for if wholly dependent on the breeder 

 for their living, they have such ravenous, insatiable 

 appetites, that they would soon, to use an emphatic 

 phrase, "eat their l^eads off." No description of 

 poultry, in fact, will devour .so much or feed so 

 grossly. 



But certain moderate limits are necessary for 

 their excursions, for otherwise they will gradually 

 learn to absent themselves altogether, and acquire 

 semi-wild babits, so that when they are required 

 to be put up for feeding, or immediate sale, they 

 are found wanting. Ducks, too early allowed 

 their liberty on large pieces of water, are exposed 

 to so many enemies, both by land and water, that 

 few reach maturity ; and even if some are thus fortu- 

 nate, they are ever after indisposed to return to 

 the discipline and regular habits of the farm-yard. 

 They may be kept in health in small enclosures, by 

 a good system of management, though we fear not 

 with profit — which is the point to which all our 

 advice must tend. 



A drake and two or three ducks will cost but 

 little to maintain, and will do incalculable and un- 

 known service by the destruction of slugs, snails, 

 worms, and the larvae of gnats and other annoying 

 insects. The only trouble they will give, is, that 

 if there be much extent of water or shrubbery 

 about their home, they will lay and set abroad, 

 unless they are got up every night and confined, 

 which should always be done; otherwise they will 

 drop their eggs carelessly here and there, or incu- 

 bate in places where their eggs will be sucked by 

 carrion crows or skunks, and half their progeny 

 destroyed by weazels or rats. In the neighbor- 

 hood of large pieces of water, or wide-spreading 

 marshes, this will be either impossible or attended 

 with more waste of time than the ducks are worth. 



Ducks are much more prolific than they have 

 credit for, and, even for eggs, can be made a profit- 

 able bird, if well fed and properly managed. Any 

 common duck so treated, if not old, will yield in a 

 season one hundred or more large, rich, delicious 

 eggs. When they lay, it is daily or nightly, and if 

 kept from setting (which is easily done by chang- 



ing their nests frequently), they will lay with little 

 interruption from March until August. But the 

 trouble is, a duck lays only when eggs are most 

 abundant, while hens' eggs may be procured at all 

 seasons. 



A single drake is sufficient for six to eight ducks. 

 If well fed in winter, and lodged in a comfortable, 

 dry place, they begin to lay the latter part of 

 March or first of April. They must then be closely 

 looked after, for they are very careless and deposit 

 their eggs wherever they happen to be — in the 

 water, in the shady and secluded places, even after 

 having concealed them from the person who has 

 charge of them ; they hatch them secretly, and 

 some fine morning bring their young brood to the 

 house to ask for food without requiring further trou- 

 ble. It is prudent, when the spring is at hand, to 

 give them food three or four times a day, but, little 

 at a time, but always in places where it is wished 

 they should lay, and in placing their nests wheie 

 they once have lain. 



Where they are kept in considerable numbers, 

 they should have accommodations of their own. 

 The duck-house must be secure at night against 

 prowling animals, such as foxes, skunks, weazles 

 and minks. The walls and root should be low and 

 thickly thatched with straw, for warmth in win- 

 ter, with the necessary openness for ventilation, 

 and ingress and egress of the ducks. The con- 

 struction of a piece of rustic work like the above 

 figure (which we take •from "Brown's Poultry- 

 Yard), after selecting the situation, can easily 

 be made by any person accustomed to the use 

 of the saw and the ax. All that is required is a 

 little taste, having your plan well digested before 

 commencing, so as to require no alterations. Join 

 four pieces of saplings in an oblong shape for the 

 sills; confine them at the ground, erect at the mid- 

 dle of the two ends a forked or crotched post, of 

 suitable height, in order to make the sides quite 

 steep ; join these with a ridge-pole ; rough-board it 

 from the apex downward by the sills to the ground; 



A DUCK IIOUSE. 



then cover it with bark, roughly cut in pieces a 

 foot square, laid on and confined in the same man- 

 ner as ordinary shingles; fix the back end in the 

 same way, and the front can be latticed with small 

 poles with the bark on, arranged diamond fashion, 

 as shown in the sketch— a part to be made with 

 hinges for a door. 



Something like this, placed on a bank, or small 



