Vol. LXXI. No. 4182. NEW YORK, DECEMBER 21, 1912. weekly, ti.oo per year 
DUCK CULTURE. 
A Reviving Industry with Good Prospects. 
VALUE OF DUCKS.—The interest in duck culture 
is reviving, and this is as it should be, for there is 
no branch of the poultry business which can show 
greater possibilities either in the field of market 
poultry or market eggs. You can grow one hundred 
pounds of meat as cheaply, as to the cost of food 
consumed, in the form of Pekin ducks as in any 
animal; while a flock of Indian Runner ducks on 
a farm will produce more value in eggs at less cost 
than any other fowl. There are four general ways 
of utilizing the duck; as an exclusive market poultry 
business, as a plant for the production of market 
eggs, as market poultry in connection with other 
farming, and by keeping a small flock for the pro¬ 
duction of eggs as a side line. As it is the height 
of folly to go into the duck business on a large scale 
before mastering the details in a small way, we will 
devote ourselves mainly to considering the duck as 
a side line and leave the large business for later 
papers. 
STYLE OF HOUSE.—Ducks do not seem to re¬ 
quire the large amount of fresh air by which hens 
are so greatly benefited, but practical ventilation is 
necessary. This is secured by means of small holes, 
say eight by 10 inches for every 25 birds, always open, 
located near the floor, on one side of the building, 
opposite the wind. During cold weather there should 
be no windows, or doors left open which are more 
than two feet above the floor, as openings in the 
upper part of the building allow the warm air to 
escape. Always build with a cement floor, both as 
a help toward securing a dry house, and toward 
keeping rats in check. The walls and ceiling should 
be stuffed with straw, hay, leaves, or some dry litter. 
Matched ceiling, put on up and down, or cove siding 
on the outside, with resawed fence boards, or any 
half-inch stuff, on the inside of the studding, with 
the four-inch space filled with straw and with straw 
overhead, makes an ideal construction for a duck 
house. It is the only construction which will give 
you a warm dry house, and is almost necessary in 
this climate if you are to get any quantity of hatch- 
able eggs during January. As the ducks stay on the 
floor, roosts and dropping boards are eliminated and 
the nests and feeding arrangements may be of the 
most simple construction. Open boxes a foot square, 
one for every three ducks, kept well supplied with dry, 
clean, cut straw, answer for nests and should be placed 
on the floor. In a continuous house there should 
be an alley along the west or north side, about four 
feet wide, which allows for a feed trough a foot 
wide and four inches deep on the floor and separated 
from the pen by a partition, 30 inches high, of slats, 
through which the ducks eat. It is well to use part 
of this space for a water trough, three feet long by 
six inches deep and six inches wide, of wood or 
galvanized iron, so placed that the near side of the 
water will be six or eight inches from the partition. 
This will somewhat limit the water-throwing ability 
of the ducks. If you do not want to devote this 
proportion of your floor space to an alley, you can 
keep the ducks out of the feed and water troughs 
by sprrounding them with pickets; arranging so that 
they can just nicely reach the water. There should 
be boxes, four inches wide and four inches deep, 
fastened to the wall, with the top one foot above 
the floor, from which the ducks can get sand and 
oyster shells. 
LAYING BIRDS.—In selecting your layers, you 
should have in mind the object for which you are 
keeping them. If you aim to set as many of the 
eggs as possible and raise the ducks for market, you 
should select large vigorous Pekins and especially 
those with long deep keels. They should have been 
hatched the first part of June, and should have been 
grown without forcing, on as extended a range as 
possible; bearing in mind that they will exercise 
more, and accumulate more strength and vigor, if 
they have a creek, or pond, in which they can swim, 
bathe, and hunt, for tidbits. The ducks should weigh 
from eight to 10 pounds and the drakes about one 
pound more. You will have one drake for from five 
to seven ducks, and winter not over 30 in one flock, 
giving them from six to seven square feet of floor 
space each. 
EGGS FOR HATCHING.—If you have a suitable 
place in which to care for the ducklings in February, 
you can begin feeding the breeders for egg production 
the first of December, when, if they are properly 
handled, they will begin to lay by the twentieth, and 
you will have one lot of eggs to set by the middle 
of January. If your aim is to hatch as many duck¬ 
lings as possible, do not begin to force the breeders 
for eggs more than five or six weeks before you want 
the eggs to set. The food of the breeders, up to 
the time you begin to force them for eggs, should 
be very coarse and bulky, with very little animal 
protein. Make one-half of it green stuff, or the second 
cutting of Alfalfa hay, cut up, and the other half four 
parts of bran to one of cornmeal and one of wheat 
middlings, leaving them to get their animal food out 
of the creek or pond, but if they have no water in 
which to work, give them about five per cent of beef 
scraps, which will be sufficient animal matter. 
MARKET EGGS.—If you are working for market 
eggs, you will select a different type of duck, and 
probably a white egg strain of Indian Runner, in 
place of the Pekins. If you do use the Pekins, your 
breeders need not weigh over five pounds, and you 
will find that they will lay more eggs than the larger 
ones, and of practically the same size, while the cost 
of the food for maintaining the animal economy will 
be decidedly less; moreover you can cut down on the 
floor space as much as a foot per duck. The same 
general idea applies to the Indian Runners; select the 
lighter breeders if you are in it for egg production 
alone, while if you are raising market poultry, every 
extra ounce on the breeders will come back to you 
many times during the season on the young birds 
sold. If you are trying to produce the greatest pos¬ 
sible number of eggs, you will select, for layers, birds 
which were hatched the first of May, then by shorten¬ 
ing their ration, and using coarse food, prevent their 
laying till about the first of November, after which 
they can be pushed as hard as you please without 
any danger of their moulting. 
GENERAL MANAGEMENT.—After you start 
feeding for egg production, the ducks will be handled 
practically the same, whether the eggs are to be 
A FLOCK OF PEKIN BREEDING DUCKS ON A PENNSYLVANIA FARM. Fig. 520. 
