HATCHING, FEEDING AND MARKETING DUCKS 



THE GREAT GAIN IN USING INCUBATORS— FEEDING FOR QUICK GROWTH— PICK- 

 ING, PACKING AND SHIPPING TO MARKET— SOME ITEMS FROM EXPERIENCE OF 

 SUCCESSFUL BREEDERS— THE EARLY DUCKLINGS SHOULD HAVE BROODER HEAT 



A. F. HUNTER 



I HE development of the modern incubator has made 

 possible the enormous growth of the^ market 

 .duck business. It is but a comparatively short 

 time since very few ducks were sold in the city 

 ^markets, and these ducks were hatched under 

 hens and reared on free range, usually with a 

 brook or small pond as a feeding ground. Fancy 

 hatching twenty, thirty, or forty thousand duck- 

 ling under hens ! It is easily seen that the great duck ranches 

 would be impossible without the aid of the modern incubators. 

 No inconsiderable part of the great gain made by duck- 

 meat in popular favor is due to the fact that the ducklings are 

 hatched in incubators and rais- 

 ed in brooders, and because they 

 never go out of the compara- 

 tively small pens of the brooder 

 houses and fattening sheds 

 until they are killed for market. 

 We had a talk with three or 

 four different marketmen re- 

 cently upon this point, and 

 asked them if they received any 

 free range ducks now. Only 

 one said that he had a few sent 

 in from a farm up the state 

 recently, and that he had quite 

 a time selling them. They were 

 small, lean and tough; would 

 Ibe mighty poor eating unless 

 parboiled for two or three hours 

 ■before roasting, and he had to 

 .sell them to a cheap boarding 

 house keeper for a little more 

 than half what first-class dvicks 

 •were worth. Probably the ship- 

 per of those " puddle ducks " 

 cannot understand that his pro- 

 duct is very inferior to the 

 quickly grown, tender and 

 toothsome duck raised in con- 

 finement. 



On the large duck ranches 

 one man usually has charge of the incubators. Mr. Rankin 

 takes care of the incubators on his farm, and has a general 

 oversight of all the work. On the Messrs. Weber's duck farm 

 one of the brothers runs the incubators and feeds the duck- 

 lings in one of the brooder houses. On the McCoi-mick- 

 McFetridge farm Mr. McFetridge handles the incubators, and 

 finds time to oversee the work of all departments, but he has 

 the incubator work so planned that he never wastes a minute 

 in thinking what he must do next. He has forty-eight 360-egg 

 incubators, which gives him twelve to set each week — when they 

 are running full blast . As the eggs come in from the laying houses 

 they are washedand placed in empty trays on the floor under 

 the machines next to be ''set." These machines are filled on 

 Tuesdays and Fridays,— six at a time. The eggs set on Tues- 

 day are tested on the following Monday, and those set on 

 Friday are tested on the following Thursday, and the ma- 



chines are emptied on Wednesdays and Saturdays. The 

 machines should be left to dry out for a few days, those that 

 are emptied on Saturday dry out till the following Tuesday 

 and those that are emptied on Wednesday are empty till the 

 following Friday. By having things thus systematized the 

 work goes on with clock-like regularity, a most important aid 

 to "getting things done." 



Duck eggs can be tested in four or five days, the dark spot 

 which is the embryo being clearly seen as the egg is held up to 

 the tester. On breaking the egg, this dark germ spot can be 

 determined after one day's incubating, and is then about as 

 large as a large pin-head. It practically doubles in size with 



66— FIVE-WEEKS-OLD DUCKLINGS THAT SHOW RESULTS OF SCIENTIFIC FEEDING 



each day of incubation, and on the sixth day is spread over a 

 space as large as a quarter. The infertile eggs remain perfectly 

 clear and should be taken out and boiled for the newly hatched 

 ducklings, or may be used for human food; the dead germs 

 should be removed from the incubator as soon as they are 

 detected, as they will soon vitiate the air in the machine, which 

 the living embryos have to breathe. When a duck egg inside 

 the incubator shows a discoloration of the shell remove it at 

 once, as that is a dead germ. 



A duckling does not break the shell directly after it is 

 pipped, but will lie quiet for twenty-four to forty-eight hours. 

 At this time there should be plenty of moisture in the egg cham- 

 ber, so much that it will condense and run down the glass of 

 the door; if the membrane around the orifice of the shell dries 

 the duckling may become attached to it and be unable to work 

 his way out. When the hatch is well over the operator can take 



