DUCK DOLLARS 29 
birds should have a space of 300 square feet. A pen 
containing 300 square feet would be twenty feet by fif- Thtety in 
teen feet in size, or ten feet by thirty feet. ‘This is the Bach Pet 
space inside the house. Each outside yard for a pen of that inside size 
should have from 1,300 to 2,000 square feet. If the pen is fifteen feet wide, 
then outside the house it should be close to 130 feet long. An outside 
yard ten feet wide and twenty feet long is not long enough. Yards for 
thirty head should be fifteen feet wide and ninety feet long. 
The pens are separated from each other by wire netting which should 
be two feet wide. Eighteen inches is not wide enough for these big 
ducks, especially when snow covers the ground. The proper size of 
wire netting is No. 19, two-inch mesh or three-inch mesh. The next 
finer size of wire, No. 20, is not stiff enough. 
In building these outside pens with the twenty-four-inch wire netting, 
drive the wood stakes first, then tack the wire netting on with galvanized 
iron staples. Do not drive the staples clear home. Drive 
them down three-quarters of the way so that when you 
wish you can pull out these staples with a cotton hook. 
A very handy tool in handling the wire netting and staples is a hammer 
and staple puller combined. Do not nail the wire netting tight to the 
stakes and later pull up stakes and wire netting together and roll them 
into a bale. You will find this awkward and clumsy work. A roll of 
wire netting and stakes, ninety feet long, is hard to manage. The staples 
should be pulled out and saved and the netting rolled up separately. The 
stakes should be loosened with a sledge hammer and pulled up and out 
of the way. This is done before you plow up or spade up the yards 
previously to sowing them down to rye or other green stuff. 
A good time in northern latitudes to plow up the yards is in 
August and the rye is then sown. In many places in the West winter 
wheat should be sown instead of rye. In the South 
wheat should be sown. Wheat should also be sown in 
California. In this matter of sowing green stuff you will 
be guided by what you see around you in your state. 
Inside this house where the breeders are kept use board partitions 
two feet high, not wire partitions. These board partitions will prevent 
the wind from blowing in drafts. 
Either wooden troughs or wooden pails may be used for giving the 
birds water in and out of this house. A galvanized iron pail specially 
made so as to have a wide base is the best. The ducks : 
‘ : : : The Kind of 
would tip over the ordinary pail whose base is narrower Tr - 
than its top. The ducks do not climb into the pails. roug 
They do not try to take a bath. They use them only to drink from. 
When giving them water, always provide a vessel deep 
How to 
Build Fence 
Plow up 
the Yards 
enough so that the water will reach above the nostrils Depth of 
: : : -. Trough 
and give the birds an opportunity to clean out their 
Necessary 
nostrils in the water. 
Two food boards are enough for a pen of thirty head, each board 
being five feet long and twelve inches wide, with a three-inch strip nailed 
around the edges. Two gallons of water should be given at a time for a 
pen holding thirty birds. 
