114 POULTRY BREEDING 
It is much safer to help a duck out of the shell than it is 
a chicken, but this should not be attempted until it is 
found that the duckling can not free itself. Duck eggs 
hatch in incubators fully as well as the eggs of hens, and 
once a duckling is out of the shell it is quite safe to count 
on raising it to market age. Young ducks are very hardy 
and are not troubled with any of the many diseases that 
afflict young chickens. Sometimes young ducks will con- 
tract sore eyes, but washing them with warm water and 
anointing them with vaseline will usually overcome the 
trouble at once. Young ducks are voracious eaters, but 
they should not be fed too much until a week old, after 
which their feed supply should be governed by the quan- 
tity they will eat. When we consider that a Pekin duck- 
ling will grow to 5 pounds in 70 days, if properly fed, we 
readily understand that they must consume a large quan- 
tity of feed early in life. 
On the great duck-farms the pipe system of brooding 
is used almost altogether. Ducklings thrive under this 
system, as they are hardier than young chicks and do 
not require such careful attention as to temperature. One 
of the most extensive duck breeders, who lives about 80 
miles from New York, says it costs him about 60 cents 
to bring a 10 weeks duck into market. This covers labor, 
feeds, cost of marketing and other expenses. Such a 
duck will be sold in New York for about $1. As this 
duck-farmer raised and sold about 40,000 green ducks in 
one year it will be seen that the business is a very profit- 
able one. The incubators on this farm had a capacity of 
24,000 duck eges, and the average hatches were about 
50 per cent, so that about 12.000 ducklings were hatched 
every four weeks for about three months. 
Following are two different methods of feeding young 
