46 



THE GAME BREEDER 



when placed against wire end of the 8-foot 

 run, the hen can see young quail at all times. 



Fig. 8. f'ireless brooder, 2 feet by 2 feet 

 by 8 inches high with a small slide door in 

 one side and a glass window in the opposite 

 side. By driving the birds into the brooder 

 and closing the door you can take them safely 

 anywhere after ten days. 

 • The brooder filler is made of eider-down 

 and canvas. The top is made of heavy canvas 

 with a good wide hem around the outside to 

 receive the eyelet holes which fit over L 

 screws in the brooder. One inch strips of 

 eider-down are sewed at one inch intervals 

 so as to hang down vertically. On the end 

 next to the window a free space is left so 

 that the birds will have nothing to bother 

 them when entering. (Am sending a sample 

 • of eider-down. I do not know what it will 

 cost as I bought mine where they were selling 

 out for 50 cents per yard.) 



A ^-inch wire mesh screen is made to fit 

 the inside of the brooder and rests on top 



of brooder cloth. This is very necessary to 

 keep the birds from getting on top of cloth 

 or escaping when top is removed. 



I have 33 quail in one of the eight foot 

 runs at the present time that have never 

 had a mother other than the brooder. 

 They are four months old and have full 

 plumage. My pen record shows that Dy 

 not letting them get broody the hen 

 quails have averaged 54j^ eggs each. 



Last year they commenced to lay 

 April 14 ; this year March 28. Under no 

 conditions should young quail be put in 

 pens or on ground that has been used by 

 other fowl. 



Keep it before the breeders that good 

 equipment and cleanliness is all there is 

 to it. I find the hand rearing of quail 

 so easy that, "It is a joke." 



MALLARD BREEDING IN IOWA. 



W. R. HiNDE. 



As to my breeding wild mallard 

 ducks, I will say that we have had the 

 stock for about six years. We got them 

 first from a man living near Wall Lake, 

 which is a great shooting ground in 

 season. He got the eggs from the wild 

 nests and kept a nice flock for a good 

 many years. 



The first year we had one drake and 

 two ducks and we kept them in an in- 

 closed yard. The drake would mate with 

 only one diick that year, but since we 

 have them more domesticated, and they 

 run at large, we have no trouble with 

 infertile eggs from any one duck as they 

 adopt the same habits as our common 

 chickens in the breeding season. 

 . They have never been crossed with 

 any other variety of ducks and are iden- 

 tically the same as the mallards that I 

 shoot in the wild state. 

 . On. account of the Iowa game laws, 

 making no provision for game breeders, 

 we only raised a few birds for our own 

 tise until last year, when an amendment 

 was passed allowing a breeder protec- 

 tion by paying a license of $2.00. Now 

 we are raising more and we expect to 

 Increase our flock each year as long as 

 j^',is practicable. 



I think the passing of this law will 

 do a great deal toward increasing the 

 game in Iowa, as I received letters from 

 all over the State last spring in regard 

 to my ducks and eggs. They were from 

 people who were interested in wild game, 

 but who were unable to raise or pur- 

 chase it heretofore on account of such 

 stringent laws. 



I find from my own experience that 

 as soon as a person starts raising wild 

 game that he has a great deal more re- 

 spect for wild life in general, and in 

 most cases if there were no game laws, 

 the wild game would need have no fear 

 of being exterminated at the hand of 

 game breeders. Furthermore, if all 

 hunters were game breeders, a game hog 

 would be a thing of history, instead of 

 such a pronounced reality. I am very 

 much interested in the work o,f The 

 Game Conservation Society and The 

 Game Breeder. I wish this magazine 

 could reach every hunter in the country. 

 If it could there would soon be a de- 

 mand all over the United States for com- 

 mon sense laws which would tend to 

 inake every man a friend and protector 

 of lOur feathered friends. 



