WATERFOWL 237 



drainage. We have never kept our ducks in a marsh,, 

 or let them swim in water; but we think it would be 

 an advantage to give the breeding ducks a marshy 

 range if convenient. Pekin ducks never wander far 

 from their night quarters, even when they have 

 unlimited range. The ducks lay their eggs in the 

 night, or very early in the morning. As a regular 

 thing we gather them about 8 o'clock, but if the 

 weather is extremely cold, we get them just as soon as 

 it is light, to prevent any from freezing. We supply 

 no nests for the ducks to lay in. They prefer to make 

 their own nests in the different corners of the pen. 

 The pens should be large enough to accommodate the 

 number of birds put into them without crowding. We 

 allow eight square feet to each bird, say forty 

 ducks to a pen twenty-four by fifteen feet. 



In the early part of the season when the prices 

 are very high, we begin to market our ducklings when 

 they are nine weeks old. Later on, as the price drops,, 

 we let them go till they are ten or eleven weeks old. In 

 the hight of the season, we market on an average nine 

 hundred ducks per week. It takes four men to dress 

 that number. We usually begin to market the birds 

 the last week in March, and continue until Thanks- 

 giving time. 



On a large plant one must expect a greater per- 

 centage of mortality among the young stock than 

 where only a few hundred are raised. Our loss is 

 estimated at fifteen per cent right through the season. 

 The average annual tgg production is from 130 to 140. 

 The duck, when she begins laying her eggs in the latter 

 part of the winter, is somewhat different from a hen. 

 When she begins she will lay one egg and then rest 

 two or three days, then lay a few more, and then start 

 in for good, and never stop until she has laid her last 

 egg in the fall. — [John Weber, Norfolk County, Mass. 



