174 



GENESEE FARMER. 



July. 



Rearing Poultry. 



[Concluded from page 156.] 



Ducks. — The old ducks, if they have not access 

 to creeks or rivers, where they will find food 

 adapted to their nature, should have animal food 

 mixed with their grain or meal, and if it be ex- 

 pected of them to lay well, attention must be 

 paid to their being regularly fed night and mor 

 ing. This attention not only insures plenty of 

 eggs, but attaches them to their homes. 



It is best to set the duck eggs under hens, as 

 ducks are but indifferent setters and nurses. — 

 Thirteen duck eggs arc as many as a hen can 

 conveniently cover. One drake to five ducks 

 is about the right number for breeding purposes. 



As the ducks are being hatched they should be 

 taken from the hen and placed in a basket, as 

 recommended for young chickens. Boil a piece 

 of fresh meat of some kind, chop it very fine, 

 and mix it up with corn meal dough, made with 

 boiled milk, as for the chickens, and feed the 

 young ducks. When the hen has hatched all 

 out, place her and her young brood under a coop, 

 where they must be regularly fed three times a 

 day as above directed. They should be kept 

 with the hen until they begin to get feathers on 

 the sides of their bodies, when they may be turn- 

 ed into the poultry yard with the other fowls, but 

 you should always recollect if you expect them 

 to become fine large fowls, you must feed them 

 well, not omitting to give them occasional meals 

 in which animal food is mixed, and that they 

 should be kept dry. Water is the proper ele- 

 ment of wild ducks; nature has provided them 

 with oleagenous substance that nearly renders 

 them impervious to water — not so with the tame 

 or domesticated duck when young. On being 

 exposed to wet, their feathers become ruffled ; 

 perhaps this is owing to their not being able in 

 a farm-yard to obtain that kind of food which ena- 

 bles the wild duck to secrete that peculiar oil 

 which protects their feathers from wet. Be the 

 cause what it may, the fact is obvious that young 

 tame ducks, in the early stages of their existence, 

 are injured by becoming wet, and that disease 

 and death is the consequence. Therefore they 

 should be kept in their coops for some weeks 

 of a morning, until the dew is exhaled by the 

 sun — and hence their coops, while being made 

 water-tight, should be so arranged that they can 

 be kept in them when it may be necessary to 

 screen them from rain or dews. Fresh clean 

 water should always be before them to drink, 

 but never to dabble in. As they attain age and 

 become feathered, they may have access to ponds 

 or running streams— not' before. Their food 

 then may be advantageously made of boiled po- 

 tatoes and corn meal, homony and corn. While 

 growing, they should at all times be plentifully 

 fed, as stinting them while in that state invaria- 

 bly stunts their growth. 



As tame ducks are promiscuous layers and 

 will drop their eggs anywhere, they should be 

 kept in the duck house of a morning until they 

 shall have laid their eggs. 



Young Turkeys. — These are delicate and 

 chilly bodies, and require the utmost attention 

 to raise them. For many weeks after being 

 hatched they require to be kept dry and warm 

 and to be fed with stimulating, nutritious food. 

 As soon as hatched they must be taken from the 

 mother and given a grain of black pepper, then 

 be put into a basket with wool or cotton, and 

 lightly covered with the same material. If the 

 weather be cold the basket should be placed suf- 

 ficiently near the fire to keep them measurably 

 warm. In a few hours after being hatched and 

 thus treated, they must be fed with hard boiled 

 eggs, chopped fine. This food may be advan- 

 tageously continued for a few days. After the 

 third day it might be well to mix with the eggs 

 little crumbs of pone bread or stale white bread, 

 moistened to a proper consistence with the curd 

 of sour milk, off of which the whey has been 

 strained, and with which the tops of the wild 

 onion or chives, chopped fine, must be mixed. 

 This kind of food, with occasional messes of 

 boiled wheat, millet, or rice, should be continued 

 for about eight weeks, never omitting to season 

 them with the tops of the wild onion or chives, 

 as above directed. 



The hen turkey when first given her brood, 

 should be placed in a dry, warm apartment, be 

 regularly fed and watered thrice a day. The 

 young ones should be fed oftener, be given water 

 regularly, which should be placed in a shallow 

 vessel, so that they cannot wet themselves, as 

 wet is fatal to them. Irra few days, say three 

 or four, a pen should be prepared out of doors 

 for the old hen turkey, which should be so made 

 at top as to turn rain and afford shade, as both 

 sun and rain are injurious when the chicks are 

 quite young. It is best, too, to have a separate 

 coop in which to feed the young ones, as, other- 

 wise, the old hen wonld be sure to appropriate 

 the largest share of food for herself at the expense 

 of her brood. 



As the young turkeys get older and stronger, 

 and their digestive organs become strengthened, 

 say in about eight weeks, the old hen may be let 

 out of the coop, and the young fed on cabbage 

 leaves or lettuce chopped fine, mixed with small 

 homony or boiled potatoes ; but, even at this stage 

 of their growth, the chopped wild onions and 

 chives should not be omitted, as they still require 

 the stimulating effects of these herbs to give tone 

 to there stomach, and diffuse a warmth through 

 their systems. 



Those who desire to have fine, well grown 

 birds, must recollect that to insure this result, 

 the turkey must be well fed during its entire stage 

 of growing; they should recollect also, that the 

 turkey, though domesticated, is of a wild, roving 



