THE GAME BREEDER 



11 



MALLARD BREEDING IN MICHIGAN. 



By A. B. Dusette. 



Your December number of The Game 

 Breeder makes me want to say some- 

 thing even if some of our big breeders 

 and dealers may say the little fellow 

 writes for notoriety and to save expense 

 in advertising. For my part I can say 

 I have grown to maturity 2,500 duck- 

 mallards in a single season and sold every 

 bird before I had even a classified ad- 

 vertisement in any magazine. I am still 

 in the game only not so large ; but I have 

 the stock birds that I can guarantee are 

 the very best to be had; they are not 

 only ornaments but they will lay and 

 produce birds the same as our best 

 marshes produce. Our state game de- 

 partment does not allow me to capture 

 or trap wild birds for market or sale. My 

 experience has been that I have had a 

 hard time and no end to expense getting 

 what breeders I have and it has taken 

 me five years to get them tame enough 

 so they will lay enough eggs to pay for 

 their keep, but at the present time they 

 will lay at least 30 eggs each and their 

 offspring is as pure as the trapped birds 

 and more profitable to the breeder, as 

 they are the second generation and are 

 naturally more contented in confinement 

 or as I keep them which I will explain. 

 This may help some of our brothers that 

 have poor flyers. All my birds are wing 

 clipped from the 1st to the 15th of Sep- 

 tember or just before the open season. 

 They do not get their new feathers until 

 the next July or August ; this gives them 

 from four to six weeks with full wing 

 to teach their young the knack of flying. 

 I, of course, keep one feeding place which 

 is enclosed with fine netting, same as fish 

 nets are made of. Every pair bring their 

 young in this yard to feed. When it is 

 time to clip their wings I merely close the 

 gate or entrance. This way of freedom 

 for a part of the season keeps their wild 

 instinct alive. I have birds that were 

 trapped six years ago and no one can tell 

 them from birds taken two years ago. I 

 have one black drake that went south 



in the fall of 1916; he returned last spring 

 and stayed with the bunch all summer 

 and went south again this fall. I am sure 

 he will return again in the spring of 1918, 

 as he is wise enough to keep a safe dis- 

 tance from any one with a gun. I, of 

 course, lose some birds each season. Last 

 September or the last of August a few 

 parties, not sportsmen, killed some 25 

 birds for me. I at once offered $25 

 reward for proof of the party. No one 

 claimed the reward but I lost no more 

 birds until after the season opened. Then 

 there was better duck shooting around 

 our city than there was in our big pub- 

 lic shooting grounds in Saginaw Bay. I 

 am convinced if our gun clubs and or- 

 ganized sportsmen would stock their 

 shooting grounds, protect and feed their 

 stock and keep all breeders clipped, as 

 I do, they would have all kinds of 

 cheap sport and tons of the very best 

 food. I do not think, however, the kind 

 of stock that is now being used for 

 some of the big shoots will be very satis- 

 factory as I doubt if such birds could get 

 off the water and even if they could they 

 are no comparison with the pure bred 

 mallard which I believe will come into 

 its own as soon as a few of our higher 

 class sportsmen learn the difference. As 

 Mr. Hoffman says of our advertisers, I 

 say they should take a good look at a 

 pure-bred bird, then eat a few and then 

 they would realize the difference between 

 a mallard and the near mallard or puddle 

 duck. This difference can be seen more 

 plainly if the young are allowed to fly at 

 will to their marshes or creeks and get 

 their natural feed. Don't worry, they will 

 return if you care for them and you of- 

 fer rewards for any one shooting out of 

 season. Regarding the name advertisers 

 should use there is only the tame mallard 

 or puddle duck and pure bred wild mal- 

 lards and at the present time the demand 

 seems to be for the former, outside of 

 a few breeders. When they get the prices 

 of pure-bred mallards and black ducks 



