POULTRY RAISING 89 



and then turn it over and remove the rest, taking all 

 large feathers off. They are then laid on a shelf for a 

 finisher, which generally gets 3 cents each. They clean 

 them up. Then they go in tubs of cold water and later 

 in a barrel of ice water, from which they are packed 

 in barrels and heavily iced and shipped to market. 



As soon as your breeders are done laying, about 

 July I, they should be sent to market alive. You will 

 never get more profit out of them as a rule. 



You can also make a fine profit selling duck eggs for 

 hatching at $8 per hundred. A duck plant can make a 

 fine profit if handled right, as sickness and lice are not 

 known in the duck business. Duck eggs do not hatch 

 near as well as hen eggs in incubators, as a rule, but 

 you have no loss after they are hatched. 



I have carefully experimented with processed oats for 

 ducks during 1907, and find them a wonderful feed for 

 young ducks. After they are two weeks old give all they 

 will eat twice daily, say 10 a. m., also 3 p. m., and you 

 will find them the greatest growing feed ever fed to a 

 duck, and it also greatly reduces the feed bill, and your 

 young will be ready for market fully one week sooner. 

 They are also a fine feed for old ducks, and will greatly 

 increase the egg yield. Give the old breeders all they 

 will possibly take noons. And if your old ducks do not 

 run on grass, give them all the processed oats they will 

 take twice daily, about 11 a. m. and 3 p. m., and it will 

 not only produce a larger number of eggs, but very fer- 

 tile eggs as well. Always select your largest, finest 

 ducks for breeders. 



In case your young ducks are in very small yards and 

 do not get sufficient exercise, and begin to go back or 

 have bowel trouble on Spratt's Chick feed, why, then, 

 you can mix bran with it, also stale bread, soaked in 

 water, say equal parts of each, and feed every other 

 feeding on this until you change their feed, after two 

 weeks of age, and you should have no further trouble. 



