1J;0 POULTRY FEEDING AXD FATrENING 



■meal until we get even parts of l)ran and meal. At 

 two weeks of age the}' -will Ije getting half and half 

 of bran and meal and five per cent of heef scrap. 



"We often feed 3'oung ducks five weeks old as higli 

 as twentj'-five per cent of beef scrap. I do not know 

 that I would advise that alwavs, Imt one must be 

 guided b}- the condition of the market. One objection 

 to feeding so much Ix^ef scrap is that it tends to niako 

 many pinfeathers. You can take a j'oung duck at ten 

 weeks old that has had no animal food and he will 

 not show pinfeathers at all, while the same jjird having 

 had animal food would sliow a great manjr pinfeathers 

 at ten weeks and at eleven weeks he would be too pin- 

 feathery to dress. Ten weeks is the usual age at which 

 they are dressed, but it depends largely upon what you 

 feed them whether they are fit to Ije dressed at that age 

 or not. The cost of caring for them and the cost of 

 gTains and meat foods decide the question whether it 

 is best to dress them early or market them at a later 

 date. I think that generally the quicker you can get 

 rid of them the Ixjttcr it is. 



"We kill at ten weeks. The common way of fat- 

 tening would be to cut ofl: the Ijran at eight weeks. We 

 do not change the food from the time we liegin to give 

 them ecjual parts of J^ran and meal right up to the 

 killing time, and so do not have the bother of getting 

 the separate foods mixed. Crcen food we do not give 

 at all to the young ducks, unless we intend them for 

 breeders, and then wc give them a moderate amount 

 of green food. You can get quicker growth with beef 

 scrap than to add green food. We usually kill at ten 

 weeks, liecause at that time they ]iick better. Beef 

 scraps start the pinfeathers; the bird that has had very 

 little beef scraps will pick at twelve or thirteen weeks 

 very nicely, Imt at ten or ehn-en weeks the pinfeathers 

 start quite freely if the ducks have been fed with beef 



