No. 4.] DUCKS AND GEESE. 163 



hours, then go and drop her egg away from it. For this reason it 

 is the usual practice to keep ducks that are not confined to small 

 yards in the house untU about eight o'clock in the morning, by which 

 hour, as a rule, all will have laid that are going to lay that day. 

 A goose, having made a nest, will usually lay in it, but does not 

 like to be interfered with when at her nest. 



Ducks are polygamous in mating. It is usual to mate one drake 

 with five ducks early in the season, and when the weather is warm 

 take some of the males away, leaving one drake to eight or ten 

 ducks. Geese, if allowed to do so, would often pair. Young 

 ganders frequently will mate with only one goose. An old gander 

 will mate with two or three more. The males and females mated 

 together show strong attachment for each other, so much so that 

 when a mating is broken up and the birds in it mated with others 

 they often fail to breed the first season. 



Where large numbers of ducks are grown, hatching is usually by 

 the artificial method. For small numbers either incubators or hens 

 may be used. Ducks of the large improved breeds very rarely go 

 broody. So if the natural method of hatching is used the duck 

 grower has to depend upon hen mothers. In the early days of duck 

 farming on Long Island, where the industry began in this country, 

 all the hatching was done with hens. In those days 5,000 ducks was 

 considered a large number. After the introduction of machine 

 hatching the industry grew amazingly. Before that it had been 

 given quite an impetus by the introduction of the Pekin duck, 

 which suited the growers better than anything they had previously 

 known, and still suits them better than anything else that has been 

 tried. As these men are in the business for a living it is perhaps 

 not necessary to say that they try everything. 



The White Pekin duck is practically the only duck grown espe- 

 cially for market in America. The Rouen duck at maturity is really 

 a better table duck but its dark plumage makes it undesirable for 

 growing to be dressed as a green duck. The Indian Runner duck 

 is the best layer of the duck family. It has been extensively boomed 

 as superior to the hen for egg production, but the claims made for it 

 are based on exceptional performances. It is too small to meet the 

 general demand for a market duck. 



Even when coming to maturity early in the fall ducks (with the 

 exception of the Indian Runner) rarely begin to lay until mid- 

 winter or after. In fact they will not lay until near spring unless 

 well housed and fed stimulating food. If left to follow their own 

 inclination neither ducks nor geese seek shelter from cold. The duck 

 grower who wants his ducks to lay early houses them at night and 

 during storms, and gives them access only to yards somewhat shel- 

 tered from the coldest winds. While the composition of mashes used 

 by different duck growers varies, the differences in ingredients are 



