BEGINNING WITH 5TOCK OR LGGS. 



27 



them have access to water. A single flock on a farm may be given the run of a small field. 

 Where they must be confined make the smaller yards square rather than of parallelogram form r 

 and make them as large as your land will permit. A quarter of an acre of grassy yard makes a 

 nice yard for a flock of breeding ducks of the numbers we are discussing, but If you have the 

 room you may be able to give a considerably larger yard at very little extra expense for fencing. 



Beginning With Stock or Eggs. 



One of our most successful duck growers and most judicious advisers of new poultrymen 

 says that for those who begin in the fall he thinks it better to buy breeding stock, but tho>e 

 who begin toward spring may find it more satisfactory to start with eggs. From one considera- 

 tion I would always advise the beginner to buy some breeding stock though not beginning until 

 late in the spring. By handling only a few breeding ducks, and only for a part of the season, 

 he gets some knowledge of them and experience which is of value to him when his young ducks 

 come to their first breeding season. His chances of handling them properly and with satisfac- 

 tory results are very much better if he has had some experience along that line than if all his 

 knowledge of ducks is what he gained while growing them. It may not be advisable to buy 

 breeding ducks enough at the prices which must be paid in the spring to hatch a large lot of 

 ducklings, but I certainly think it will pay anyone not familiar with the nature and habits of 

 ducks to buy at least a trio of them, though also buying eggs to hatch. 



What Kind of Stock. 



In buying stock ducks buy good ones. That is, ducks that are good for market purposes. 

 They should 1>e of good size, for to be profitable ducklings must make pretty nearly five pounds 

 on the average at ten weeks, and such ducklings cannot be produced from small ducks. W. 

 R. Curtiss & Co., who for years have bred Pekin ducks for all purposes very successfully gave 

 the following statement of their meihods of mating in FAUM-I'OULTRY a few years ago: 



" We select females of good fair size, we like to have them weigh at maturity eight pounds 



Brooder House and Runs for Ducklings. 



