TIIEIFTY GROWTH 15 



to chicks to drink because the}' get it all over them- 

 selves, which makes them an3'thiug but pretty birds. We 

 prefer to give it in soft food. We begin to add about 

 five per ccut beef scrap on the fifth day and from that 

 wo gradually increase the beef sup})ly until at tw(j 

 weeks they should be getting about ten per cent. If 

 they do not seem to be thriving we take away most of 

 the beef and give them grain almost altogether. 



Of late our tendency has been to feed more bran. 

 We never exceed the proportion of half meal and half 

 bran. Some breeders give at the end of ten weeks eighty 

 per cent of meal, but we like bran better. Ducks and 

 geese detect a very slight change in food and at any 

 abrupt change they will refuse to eat. I think ducks 

 are even more particular than geese. The tlieory with 

 hens is that they should have as constant change of foo-l 

 as it is possible to give them, but this theory will not 

 work on ducks. 



We carr}' them right straight through on this feed, 

 not exceeding one-half bran and one-lialf meal, and 

 some beef scrap. One can mature bii-ds more quickly 

 by giving more beef scrap. Of course it is a question 

 whether one can afford to pay so much for beef scrap 

 when one could get tlie same results with bran in a 

 little longer time. One can get fairly good results with 

 nothing but bran and moal. 



If raising for breeding birds, 3'ou can mature them 

 and get as good a frame on bran and meal, but it will 

 take two months longer. A bird hatched in March 

 would be pretty well developed in 8eptemljer if fed 

 stimulating food, but it would be November before it 

 was developed if fed no stimulants. We believe in an 

 abundance of green food for breeding birds. In all 

 waterfowls the white-meated ones aj'C the desirable 

 birds. A large jjroportion of Ijran will give a white- 

 meated bird either in ducks or fowls. 



