ARTIFICIAL INCUBATING AND BROODING 



DRESSING AND MARKETING DUCKS 



Ducks should be dry picked for the eastern markets. In 

 handling (as catching them for the pickers), they should be 

 caught and lifted by the neck; there is great danger of break- 

 ing a leg -when they are caught by the legs, On large duck 

 ranches the picking is done by professional pickers, who are 

 paid so much per head for killing and dressing. The ducks 

 are selected by the owner (or foreman) and cooped ready to 

 hand in large boxes in the picking room. The picker grasps 

 one by the neck, inserts the killing knife in its mouth and sticks 

 up through the roof of the mouth, into the brain. The picking 

 begins immediately, while the muscles are relaxed, and before 

 the death struggle is over the picking is done. The "down" 

 is then rubbed off with the fingers and ball of the thimib, which 

 are kept damp by dipping now and then into a pan of water. 

 Such pin-feathers as are started are then shaved off with a keen- 

 edged knife, usually a broad-bladed shoe knife. The tip joint 

 of the wings is not picked, and a ring of feathers is left upon the 

 upper part of the neck, next to the head. 



chunk of ice of twenty-five or thirty pounds weight is placed 

 on top, a thickness of burlap spread over all and secured by 

 driving the top hoop down over and nailing on, the address tag 

 tied to the burlap, the weight of the package marked on the side 

 and it is ready for the expressman. 



There is good money in raising ducks for market. The 

 ranks of the duck growers are continually extending, but the 

 consumptive demand is also constantly extending, and the -de- 

 mand keeps ahead of the supply. The consuming public recog- 

 nizes the high quality of the improved duck, and it is only neces- 

 sary to keep up the quality to have the demand steadily increase. 



In the height of the season, which is June, there are about 

 twenty men employed, eight or ten being pickers, eight others 

 on the general work of feeding, watering, etc., and two on gen- 

 eral farm work, teaming grain and supplies from the railway 

 three miles distant, etc. After the five or six months of stren- 

 uous life is past there comes a time of comparative leisure 

 when a well earned^vacation can be taken. In the fall months 

 buildings are built or repaired, the yard ground ploughed up 



68— TYPICAL ENGLISH AYLESBURY DUCKS 



After being picked and pinned the birds are tossed into a 

 tank or barrel of cold water and left to cool for a couple of hours. 

 The packer takes the cooled ducks from the tank, washes the 

 blood from the mouth and head, ties the wings close to the body 

 and packs them in cases or barrels for shipment. They should 

 not be packed till thoroughly cold or until all animal heat is 

 out, and if the birds are to go a journey of several hours they 

 should be packed in cracked ice to keep them in good condi- 

 tion. Mr. Rankin, at the time of my -visit, was shipping his 

 ducks to Boston dealers, and as it is only an hour's ride there 

 was no need to ice them; most shippers, however, have to ship 

 the night before in order to have the birds at the dealers' stands 

 in the morning, and the birds are always iced. The Messrs. 

 Weber put a layer of ducks in the bottom of a clean barrel, 

 then a thin layer of cracked ice, then more ducks, firmly packed 

 in, and more ice, and so on. When the barrel is even full a 



and sown to rye, both to sweeten it and furnish fodder for the 

 cows and green food for next spring's ducks, and in the winter 

 the duck-raiser can "live on easy street.'' 



Messrs. Weber Bros, breed from two-year-old ducks only, 

 all the eggs from ducks in their pullet-year being used for hatch- 

 ing market ducks. An item of increased cost which must be 

 considered is the over-crowding of the birds. They now put 150 

 to 175 youngsters into the pens in the cold houses and as many 

 as 200 birds in each flock in the pens in the fattening sheds, 

 and one of the brothers told us that in small flocks the duck- 

 lings would grow to marketable size and condition a full week 

 sooner than where they were so crowded. House room and 

 yard room are items in the expense account, but there is a week's 

 additional food and labor cost to counterbalance it. Is it econo- 

 my to crowd the birds? 



An item of considerable income is the feathers, of which 



90 



