BROODING AND REARING YOUNG STOCK 



are sand as the ducklings will help themselves. If 

 the land in the yards is not sand, however, it is 

 necessary to continue to furnish this material. 



Grading and Sorting the Ducklings. As the 

 ducklings are moved from pen to pen through this 

 house as well as the other houses, they are con- 

 stantly graded for size and thriftiness, the smaller, 

 less thrifty individuals being left with younger lots. 

 Some ducklings do not grow as quickly as others, 

 and these if left with ducklings larger than them- 

 selves will not get their share of the feed and will 

 not do as well. In this connection it should be noted 

 that when young ducks are not fairly clean it is a 

 good indication that they are not doing as well as 

 they should. 



Cleaning and Bedding the Pens. Careful atten- 

 tion must be given to keeping the pens and the duck- 

 lings themselves clean if they are to do well. There- 

 fore the pens must be cleaned out as often as may be 

 necessary to accomplish this purpose. The judg- 

 ment of the brooder man must decide how often this 

 is necessary but it will be at least once a week. When 

 cleaning the pens the old bedding is thrown out 

 from the front pens through the windows and from 

 the back pens through the door provided in the rear 

 wall for this purpose. Bedding the pens must be 

 done more frequently, usually about every other 

 day. Fresh bedding will help to absorb the drop- 

 pings and will keep the pens from becoming sloppy 

 or sticky. For bedding, straw, meadow hay, swale 



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