148 MRS. BASLEY'S WESTERN POULTRY BOOK 



eggs take twenty-eight days to hatch. They require more airing 

 and cooling than the chicken eggs, and I have found it best to 

 sprinkle the eggs or moisten them thoroughly with warm water 

 and not to put water into the machine ; I also do this when hatching 

 with hens. By this plan I did not have ducks drowned in the shell 

 which is usually due to having the water in the incubator and not 

 airing the eggs enough. 



The proper airing depends greatly upon the weather, so no set 

 rule can be given, but I generally aired them the first week, after 

 .the first four days, for ten minutes ; the next week for fifteen min- 

 utes a day, and after that for twenty minutes, whilst the last week 

 up to the twenty-fifth day I aired them for a full half hour. It de- 

 pends upon the heat of the weather. I have had the eggs left out 

 accidentally for three or four hours and had a good hatch. I think 

 that the principal cause of poor hatches is improper care and feed- 

 ing of the breeders. Breeding ducks should have an abundance 

 of green food daily. 



Muscovy ducks are most excellent incubators. They are used 

 as incubators both in France and especially in Australia. In these 

 and possibly in other countries they hatch turkey eggs, duck eggs 

 and even chicken eggs. In some places in Australia five hundred 

 Muscovys are kept for sitting on duck eggs, as it has been found 

 that they hatch out a much larger per cent of eggs and with com- 

 paratively little trouble to their owners than either hens or incu- 

 bators. 



Muscovy duck eggs take thirty-five days to hatch, consequently 

 they make very patient and steady sitters on eggs and will hatch 

 duck, turkey or goose eggs without difficulty. In using Mus- 

 covys you will probably need one Muscovy duck on an average to 

 every thirty youngsters you wish to raise. Actually, they will hatch 

 and raise a great many more, but it is as well to give a low esti- 

 mate. The Muscovys on this coast only need an open shed with 

 straw ; you can keep the flock together. They will not interfere, 

 but each female will build her own nest. They make their nests 

 on the ground by hollowing out a hole with their bodies and lining 

 it with straw. When the ducks are about to sit, they pull feathers 

 from their own breast and with these line the top of the nest, so 

 that one may always know when a Muscovy duck is ready to sit. 

 A Muscovy duck will cover from twenty to twenty-five duck eggs 

 and will brood from forty to fifty little ducklings. When the Mus- 

 covy duck leaves her nest to eat, which .she will once or twice a day, 

 she covers up the eggs with the feathers and down. Towards the 

 end of the hatch she will often stay off the nest a full hour without 

 injury to the eggs- 



Muscovy ducks make excellent mothers, or you may say brood- 

 ers for turkeys, ducks or chickens, on account of their large wings 

 and very warm bodies. 



