SUCCESSFUL POULTRY KEEPING 



SUCCESSFUL DUCK GROWING 



THE PROFITABLE IMPERIAL PEKIN DUCK — ACCOUNT OF A VISIT TO MR. JAMES 

 RANKIN'S FAMOUS MAPLEWOOD DUCK FARM— VALUABLE POINTERS ON INCUBATION, 

 BREEDING STOCK, BROODING AND OTHER MATTERS OF INTEREST TO POULTRYMEN 



P. T. WOODS, M. D. 



''E do not know of anything that gives us more 

 genuine satisfaction than a good long talk with 

 a thoroughly practical and successful poultry- 

 man who has had many years of experience 

 and who was one of the pioneers in the business. 

 Therefore, when recently we found ourselves 

 en route for South Easton, Mass., on a particu- 

 larly fine day, we anticipated much pleasure and profit from 

 our proposed visit to Mr. James Rankin who has been aptly 

 named by the poultry fraternity the "Faither of the Pekin Duck 

 Industry in America." Our pleasant expectations were agree- 

 ably fulfilled and we will now endeavor to tell our readers soine- 

 thing about all that we saw and learned at this great modern 

 duck ranch and home of the justly famous Imperial Pekin 

 Duck. 



We were met at the Easton railroad station by Mr. Ran- 

 kin's son-in-law and after a delightful drive over some fine 

 country roads arrived at Maplewood Farm, one of the largest 

 and best equipped duck' ranches in the country. One of the 

 first things we noticed as we approached Maplewood was the 

 excellence of the location and layout as well as the fine con- 

 struction and stability of the farm and duck buildings. While 

 Pekin Ducks are the chief products it cannot be considered 

 an exclusively duck farm since other farming interests are also 

 well established and conducted. But the Imperial Pekin is 

 there in all its glory and standard excellence and is unquestion- 

 ably the farm crop of greatest importance, all other features 

 being subservient to it. 



On our arrival Mr. Rankin met us at the door of the in- 

 cubator cellar, and being particularly interested, we were at 

 once conducted into that department to. view 190 newly hatched 

 ducks that had just been excluded from 200 eggs left in the 

 machine at the final test. Mr. James. Rankin is well known 

 in the poultry world ^nd his name' is always associated with 

 the Pekin Duck Industry. About forty years ago, he made 

 his first start with ducks and ten years later he came promi- 

 nently before the poultry public as an incubator investor and 

 manufacturer, and an advocate of artificial hatching and rearing 

 of both chicks and ducks. The Monarch Incubator was devel- 

 oped and manufactured by Mr. Rankin on his home farm, and for 



over a quarter of a century proved itself to be one of the most 

 successful hot water tank incubators ever invented. During 

 recent years owing to pressure of other business and because 

 of the high cost of construction, and so necessarily high selling 

 price, it was decided to abandon the manufacture of these 

 machines and take them off the market. Nineteen of these 

 Monarchs of 600-egg capacity each, are now in use on the farm 

 and bringing off remarkable hatches of strong, vigorous duck- 

 lings, besides two 300-egg capacity machines of a more modem 

 make which Mr. Rankin considers quite equal in operation 

 and results to his own invention. This gives Maplewood Farm 

 in its two incubator cellars a total machine capacity capable 

 of setting 12,000 duck eggs at one time. 



SAVING EGGS FOR HATCHING 



Naturally one of the first things we talked about was arti- 

 ficial incubation, a subject in which the writer is much interested 

 and one on which Mr. Rankin is well qualified to talk authori- 

 tatively. 



He firmly believes in keeping eggs cool when saving them 

 for hatching and recommends that they be kept at a tempera- 

 ture of between 40 and 50 degrees Fahrenheit. As low as 35 

 degrees will not injure the eggs and at 40 to 45 degrees they 

 can be safely kept for three or four weeks before setting them. 

 Eggs lose vitality rapidly when exposed to a temperature above 

 75 degrees and are seldom fit for hatching when kept for more 

 than three or fovlr days at this temperature. This information 

 coming as it does from forty years experience of a very active, 

 capable and observing man should prove valuable to all poultry 

 keepers who save eggs for incubation. Only well formed, 

 medium-sized eggs with sound shells are used for hatching. 

 As a rule the fresher the eggs the better for incubating pur- 

 poses, but entirely satisfactory results have been obtained 

 from one month old eggs, when they have been properly kept. 

 While keeping the eggs they are not disturbed to handle or 

 turn theni.^They are placed in boxes, baskets or cases and 

 allowed to remain until needed for sitting. This plan has been 

 found to give the best results. 



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