106 



THE GAME BREEDER 



and black ducks for five or six years. I 

 started with a pair of each kind that I 

 trapped on our shooting ground. Each 

 year I have trapped from -twenty-five to 

 as high as ninety-six ducks (in 1916). 

 I have a permit to do this from our 

 Game Department. 



By adding new blood each season my 

 birds do not in-breed by mating with 

 birds from the same nest, a thing which 

 no wild bird will do in their wild state 

 or where they have their liberty. 



I hatched about 2,500 ducklings last' 

 season and brought over 2,000 to matur- 



ity, using a mammoth incubator, 1,800 

 egg size, and chicken brooders. I have 

 very small losses. Some of my hatches 

 produced over seventy-five per cent of 

 the eggs put into the machine last sea- 

 son. 



So far this season my ducks have not 

 laid extra well and I have not set any 

 eggs to this date (May 28), as I have 

 been kept busy filling orders for eggs. 



I only kept 200 breeders and sixty of 

 these are black ducks. ^ I have also a 

 few blue and green-winged teal, wid- 

 geon, pin-tails, and wild Canada geese.. 



GAME BREEDING IN MAINE. 



Richard E. Bullock. 



We have one thousand ring-neck 

 pheasant eggs hatching today, June 11, a 

 few hundred more are incubating and we 

 have more eggs to set. We also have a 

 few birds out on the rides which are 

 doing nicely. The bad weather, how- 

 ever, is staying right with us and if it 

 does not hold up by the end of this week 

 it may go hard with some of the little 

 birds. 



We are, also, going into the rearing 

 of mallards and I have just finished a 

 pen 700 feet long and 300 feet wide. 

 Half of this is in a pond and I think 

 the place is one of the best ior the work 

 that I ever saw. We have quite a fev/ 

 mallards and some little fellows and 

 more hatching every day. Our birds are 

 all clear wild stock. 



We find that the best food for rear- 

 ing young wild mallards is stale bread 

 cut into slices and dried. When feed- 

 ing, we put -a few slices in a pail and 

 pour over it some hot water and let it 

 soak for fifteen or twenty minutes. 

 Then if it is too hot we add enough cold 

 water to make it just warm. We then 



sprinkle in about one-third of clean sand 

 and this is very much needed and also 

 a little bone meal is very good. The mash 

 should not be too thick or too thin, so 

 that when it is put in a low pan a little 

 of the water will be left on top. If 

 the growing ducks are fed this way you 

 need not give them any water until J hey 

 are two or three weeks old. Never give 

 cold water; always make it warm and 

 give the first water just at night or on 

 a rainy day. Put a rock or something 

 in the pan to keep the yoiing birds from 

 getting their tails wet, for once their 

 tails iget wet and they get on their 

 backs, if help is not there, it is all up 

 wth them. Cold water and hot sun are 

 sure death to little mallards. 



The best pen is made out of boards on 

 good green grass. For twenty little 

 ducks a peri 10x8 feet is recommended ; 

 and when the little fellows get the grass 

 worn down move it to a clean place. 



Always keep a small pile of sand or 

 gravel in the pen and feed on it. 



I have always had the best of luck in 

 raising young ducks this way and I have 

 reared them by the thousands. 



