Feeding Methods Safe for All 



CHAPTER IX 



There is a knack about the handling of ducks which has to 

 be learned. It is fortunate that it can be learned quite readily 

 from the literature. Much of it lies in knowing just where ducks 

 differ from hens, in their requirements. The love of ducks for 

 the water is well known, and the very fact that they fall in the 

 ''Water Fowl" class affirms it. 



Still, it is very difficult to some to realize that ducks always 

 need drinking water before they need feed; and, on the other 

 hand, it is difficult to realize that ducks can be raised virtually 

 as land birds, with no water but that which a tub may hold ; and 

 that, if they have good grass range, they will not seem to suffer 

 material immediate deterioration. It is, of course, much harder 

 work to raise yarded ducks without running water, since they 

 love to play in water, will waste much that is provided for them, 

 and cannot be neglected in this matter. If they are without 

 ■drinking water a single half hour, they become uneasy, noisy, and 

 obtrusive of their sufferings. In small quarters, ducks are said 

 to be, in general, the most easily managed of all domestic fowls ; 

 (some say, the most profitable, also.) I saw an instance of this, 

 as far as it relates to housing, which was a revelation as to the 

 easy adaptability of ducks to the conditions which they must 

 needs meet. The duck shelter to which I refer was just a one- 

 room, dirt-floor, double-pitch arrangement, the upper half of 

 the usual siding being replaced by wire netting. The floor 

 measurement may have been ten by twelve feet. Through the 

 center, lengthwise, nearly the whole length, ran an alley. At one 



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