230 The Hen at Work 



After hatching; if they are with hens, there is 

 nothing to do but provide food and water. With 

 incubators there is little difference in treatment 

 from that of chickens. They need about the same 

 heat, ninety-five degrees at first, but soon the 

 curtain should be raised and the heat reduced. 

 A temperature of eighty-five the second week 

 is enough. Baby ducks are hardiei: and easier to 

 raise than chickens. 



Feed.^ — If ducklings are in one flock with the 

 chicks they may safely eat the same food, but as 

 they can stand a more hearty diet and will grow 

 faster on it, a separate feeding plan for them will 

 pay well for the slight extra work. The very first 

 feedings should be rolled oats, and scraps of bread, 

 moistened lightly with water. They should be 

 fed about what they will eat in five minutes, five 

 times a day. After the third day, they can handle 

 a mash of three parts bran, one part com meal, one 

 part middlings, with about one part in ten of beef 

 scrap. At the end of the week, the com ration 

 may be doubled, and at the end of two weeks it 

 may be increased again, making the com meal 

 equal to the bran. ■ 



When a month old, two parts bran, two parts 



