DUCKS AND GEESE 



Land Required. For a duck plant of the size in- 

 dicated 10 acres of land should be ample. This, 

 however, means that no effort would be made to 

 grow any of the feed for the ducks or ducklings with 

 the exception of green feed. In some cases where 

 the lay of the land is unusually favorable so that the 

 plant can be laid out to the very best advantage, a 

 smaller amount of ground than this might be suflS- 

 cient but it is not well to figure on less than 10 acres. 



Number of Breeders Required. With the usual 

 methods of management and with good success, one 

 may estimate that 40 young ducks can be marketed 

 each year from each breeding female. This is a good 

 average although in some good years duck raisers 

 will do a little better than this. On the other hand 

 in poor years they will not do so well. For a plant 

 having an output of 30,000 market ducks there 

 would therefore be needed in the neighborhood of 

 800 breeding ducks in addition to 100 drakes. 



Housing Required for Breeders. In figuring on 

 the amount of housing required for this number of 

 breeding ducks, it is necessary to figure on 2^ to 3 

 square feet of floor space per bird, 3 square feet 

 being better than 2^. This would require a housing 

 space 20 feet deep by 120 feet long. However 

 ducks are not usually housed in one building of this 

 size, and in fact it is better not to do so since the 

 smaller the flock of breeders kept together the bet- 

 ter they will do. In no case should a duck raiser 

 run more than 400 ducks in a flock and it is very 



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