242 POULTRI-CRAFT. 
all will have laid by eight o’clock. (Ducks generally lay at night or very 
early in the morning). In cold weather eggs should be gathered as early as 
possible to prevent their becoming chilled. Soiled eggs should be washed at 
once, and in cold weather should be wiped dry after being washed. The 
eggs should be kept in a cool place. (See § 229). 
363. Feeding Breeding Ducks. — Ducks are fed mostly on mixtures of 
mill stuffs wet with cold water. Very few large duck growers cook the food, 
though some scald it in winter. Cooked food can be used if convenient, but 
unless the food must be cooked for other stock, there is no object in cooking 
it for the ducks. The common experience of breeders is that they do just as 
well on raw food. Many feed the ducks no whole grain at all. Their 
digestive apparatus is not suited to a diet composed largely of whole grain; 
still they appreciate a little of it occasionally. Zhere must always be water 
near the feeding troughs at feeding times, and except in freezing weather, 
the ducks should have drinking water always accessible. Ducks are greedy, 
dirty feeders. They will consume a larger proportion of coarse bulky food 
than hens will; yet they are not as heavy feeders as is commonly supposed. * 
In general it is both economy and good feeding to give ducks fed a pretty 
good meal of grain stuffs morning and evening; all the green food they 
will eat during the day. Where ducks are kept in rather close confine- 
ment, the most common error in feeding is giving grain food too often, 
and not providing green stuff in abundance. Ducks need grit, shell, and 
charcoal. 
Ducks ranging as many small flocks do, often find food which imparts a 
strong flavor to eggs and flesh. If the eggs are used only for hatching this is 
immaterial ; if some of them are wanted for cooking, the ducks must be kept 
from the objectionable food. The rations given below are from well known 
duck growers. They present less variety than the rations given for hens 
and chickens (146), but the ingredients used are mostly such as may be 
obtained anywhere. 
(1). Ration for Breeding Ducks.—(Hatiocx).— Four pails corn meal, 2 pails 
bran, 1 of middlings, 1 of oats, 1 of wheat, mixed with 2 bu. chopped grass or greens or 
chopped clover used when greens cannot be had. : 
‘ 
(2). Rations for Breeding Ducks.—(Ranxin).— During the fall feed to both old , 
and young stock 3 parts wheat bran, 1 part Quaker oat feed, 1 part corn meal, 5 per 
* NoTE.— It is often said, even by those who should know better, that it is impossible 
to satisfy the appetite of a duck. Such statements lead people to think it much more 
expensive to feed ducks than to feed other fowls. A flock of grown ducks will not eat 
more than an equal number of average chickens; nor does it require more food to grow 
a duck than to grow a chicken of the same weight. 
