RANKIN'S DUCK BOOK 



essential thing is that ducks will not produce their proper 

 quota of fertile eggs on hard food alone. 



The natural food of the duck is principally vegetable and 

 animal, and is obtained in brooks, puddles, swales, and con- 

 sists of flag, grass roots, small fish, pollywogs, etc. Unlike 

 the hen, the duck has no crop, — the passage or duct leading 

 from the throat to gizzard direct, is very small compared to 

 the size of the bird. Consequently it does not assimilate or 

 thrive on hard food.- I was continually receiving letters from 

 amateurs during the months of March and April, complaining 

 that their ducks did not lay, at the same time saying that 

 they gave them all the corn they would eat. I wrote back 

 suggesting soft food, giving ingredients and proportions. In 

 an incredibly short space of time a postal would come to 

 hand saying, "Thanks, my ducks are all laying." Success 

 or failure in the poultry business often date their origin 

 from just such trivial things as the above. So insignificant 

 in themselves as to be entirely overlooked by the novice who, 

 if he is persevering, will eventually discover both cause and 

 remedy ; but only through years of costly experiment and 

 a loss of valuable time which he can never recall. 



How to Feed Breeding Ducks for Eggs. 



There should be quite a distinction between feeding 

 ducks to obtain a supply of eggs and feeding them for mar- 

 ket, as in one case the object is to lay on fat and the other 

 is to furnish the most available supply of egg material. As 

 before hinted, soft food is much more readily utilized in a 

 duck's organization than a hen's. We made a habit of turn- 

 ing out our breeding ducks to pasture during the moulting 

 season, housing them in the fall according to the nature of 

 the season, say, from the middle of November to the first 

 of December. We fed soft food morning and evening com- 

 posed largely of bran with a little meal, keeping them pur- 

 posely short to induce them to forage for themselves, but 

 when the birds were housed this was all changed. 



They were then fed on equal parts of corn meal, wheat- 

 bran and low-grade flour, with about twelve or fifteen per 

 cent, of animal food. One fourth of this food should be 

 composed of vegetables cooked — say, small potatoes, turnips, 

 etc., with all the green rye and refuse cabbage they will eat. 

 We fed this compound morning and evening with a little 

 corn, wheat and oats at noon. Feed all the birds will eat 

 clean and no more. The birds, young and old, may be ex- 

 pected to lay in three weeks from the time they are housed. 

 This part of the thing seems to be under perfect control. 



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