POULTR?Y-CRAFT. 243 
cent beef scraps, 5 per cent grit, and all the green stuff they will eat* in the shape of 
corn fodder cut fine, clover or oat fodder, etc. Feed this mixture twice a day, all they 
will eat. 
For laying birds— 5 parts wheat bran, 5 parts corn meal, 4 parts Quaker oat feed, 2 
parts boiled potatoes or turnips, 3 parts of clover rowen, 1 of grit; add green rye or 
refuse clover cut fine. Feed twice a day all they will eat, with a lunch of corn and oats 
at noon. 
(3). Ration for Breeding Ducks on Grass Range.—(Pottarp).— Feed night 
and morning what they will eat of a mixture of 3 parts Indian meal, 3 parts wheat bran. 
1 part low grade flour, 1 part beef scraps; the whole salted slightly, and thoroughly 
mixed, not too wet, with cold water. Never cook the food except in winter, when it 
may be mixed with hot water. Jz winter give a liberal allowance of boiled turnips 
mashed in with the grain, say one-third turnips every other morning, and give cabbage 
or any other green food obtainable at noon. 
(4). Rations for Breeding Ducks.—(Weser Bros. )— In fall keep on grass range, 
and feed light. From the middle of November, when put in laying houses, until 
December 15th, feed equal parts shorts and ground oats, to which add five per cent beef 
scraps; give this twice a day, morning and evening; give green food at noon. After 
December 15th give full laying ration: equal parts corn meal and shorts, with ten per 
cent beef scraps added. If green food is not available add one-fifth cooked vegetables to 
the mash. Give raw vegetables at noon two or three times a week. 
HATCHING AND REARING. 
364, Which Method ?— In duck growing on a large scale, only artificial 
methods of hatching and brooding are used; small growers frequently use 
hens. (Ducks are rarely used to incubate their own eggs. The Pekins are 
non-sitters). If one has the hens, it may pay better to hatch with them when 
not more than a few hundred ducks are reared; but to get or keep hens 
expressly to hatch ducklings, would be very poor policy. In any case when 
more than two or three hundred ducks are to be hatched, artificial methods 
should be used. 
365. Hatching in Incubators.—The artificial method as described in 
Chapter XI., ©€ 253—259, applies to duck eggs, except in the few points noted 
below : — 
The period of incubation for duck eggs is twenty-eight days. 
They require more ventilation than hen eggs, because the egg is larger, and 
therefore more difficult to dry down, and because it has to be dried down to an 
air space proportionately larger than in the hen egg, (see Fig. 79). A larger 
air space is needed to give the larger head and bill of the duckling room to 
work. 
Operators advise cooling duck eggs longer than hen eggs. 
* Note.— If the food contains too much green stuff, the ducks eat the grain and as much green food as they want, 
leaving the remainder in the troughs. 
