PO UL TR T- CRAFT. 243 



cent beef scraps, 5 per cent grit, and all the green stuff they will eat* in the shape of 

 corn fodder cut fine, clover or oat fodder, etc. Feed this mixture twice a day, all they 

 will eat. 



For laying birds 5 parts wheat bran, 5 parts corn meal, 4 parts Quaker oat feed, 2 

 parts boiled potatoes or turnips, 3 parts of clover rowen, i of grit; add green rye or 

 refuse clover cut fine. Feed twice a day all they will eat, with a lunch of corn and oats 

 at noon. 



(3). Ration for Breeding Ducks on Grass Range (POLLARD). Feed night 

 and morning what they will eat of a mixture of 3 parts Indian meal, 3 parts wheat bran, 

 i part low grade flour, i part beef scraps ; the whole salted slightly, and thoroughly 

 mixed, not too wet, with cold water. Never cook the food except in winter, when it 

 may be mixed with hot water. In -winter give a liberal allowance of boiled turnips 

 mashed in with the grain, say one-third turnips every other morning, and give cabbage 

 or any other green food obtainable at noon. 



(4). Rations for Breeding Ducks. (WEBER BROS.) In fall keep on grass range, 

 and feed light. From the middle of November, when put in laying houses, until 

 December i5th, feed equal parts shorts and ground oats, to which add five per cent beef 

 scraps; give this twice a day, morning and evening; give green food at noon. After 

 December I5th give full laying ration : equal parts corn meal and shorts, with ten per 

 cent beef scraps added. If green food is not available add one-fifth cooked vegetables to 

 the mash. Give raw vegetables at noon two or three times a week. 



HATCHING AND REARING. 



364. Which Method ? In duck growing on a large scale, only artificial 

 methods of hatching and brooding are used ; small growers frequently use 

 hens. (Ducks are rarely used to incubate their own eggs. The Pekins are 

 non-sitters) . If one has the hens, it may pay better to hatch with them when 

 not more than a few hundred ducks are reared ; but to get or keep hens 

 expressly to hatch ducklings, would be very poor policy. In any case when 

 more than two or three hundred ducks are to be hatched, artificial methods 

 should be used. 



365. Hatching in Incubators. The artificial method as described in 

 Chapter XL, f f 253 259, applies to duck eggs, except in the few points noted 

 below : 



The period of incubation for duck eggs is twenty-eight days. 



They require more ventilation than hen eggs, because the egg is larger, and 

 therefore more difficult to dry down, and because it has to be dried down to an 

 air space proportionately larger than in the hen egg, (see Fig. 79). A larger 

 air space is needed to give the larger head and bill of the duckling room to 

 work. 



Operators advise cooling duck eggs longer than hen eggs. 



* NOTE. If the food contains too much green stuff, the ducks eat the grain and as much green food as they want, 

 leaving the remainder in the troughs. 



