FANCIERS’ 
JOURNAL AND POULTRY EXCHANGE. 275 



PouttRy Department: 

AYLESBURY DUCKS. 

Tuuse ducks are noted for hardiness and early develop- 
ment to maturity. The plumage of pure specimens is invari- 
ably of a pure white. The drake differs from the duck only in 
size, and having curled tail feathers. The legs are of a bright 
orange color, while the beak should have a pale pinkish or 
shell-like appearance, which is obtained or preserved by 
allowing them frequent access to pure running water, having 
a gravel bed, in which they delight to sport and dip their 
beaks, thus keeping them clean and polished, while the birds 
are more healthy and vigorous. Unnecessary exposure to 
the sun, and impure water, produces a dull yellow color of 
the beak, which in England is considered a disqualification. 
In America, where the atmosphere is hotter and dryer, and 
less uniform, it is next to impossible to keep the bills pale 
and clear, excepting with the most careful provision of suf- 
ficient shade, water, and gravel. The young especially should 
in hot weather be let out for a couple of hours early in the 
morning before the heat of the sun becomes powerful. This 
is the best time for cleaning and littering the coops, which 
should be large and well ventilated, to produce and maintain 
the most desirable condition of health and plumage. For 
exhibition birds, these precautions, with quiet and undis- 
turbed conditions, are necessary, though equally applicable 
to the welfare of the stock which we wish to fatten for 
market, with the exception of less frequent access to baths. 
_Many choice fowls are spoiled by ignorant attendants. 



At maturity seven pounds is a fair average weight; they 
sometimes reach a weight of ten pounds. Caution should 
be maintained in reference to breeding and exhibition stock, 
as over-feeding, producing excessive fatness, causes sterility. 
The 
best food to produce weight, without fat, is barley furnished 
with plenty of green cooling food, of which they are very 
fond. They are very prolific and early layers, and will lay 
u larger number of egg in the course of a year than any 
other breed having equal care. It is also said that a duck 
two or three years old will lay better than a yearling. The 
eggs vary in color from a white to a green or creamy shade, 
and are set?under hens. 
Several broods of ducklings may be intrusted to the care 
of one mother, if protected from drafts of air, as they do 
not require hovering like chickens in moderately warm 
weather. They should be fed regularly three times a day, 
the earliest food being hard-boiled eggs chopped fine and 
mixed with boiled rice or bread crumbs, and later in the 
season give them such grains and other food as you prepare 
for mature birds. They should have pure drinking water 
constantly before them, and prefer to eat their grain and 
raw vegetables from the same trough, in which gravel also 
should be placed to assist digestion and in cleaning their 
bills, which is quite necessary, Keep the apartments well 
ventilated, but inaccessible to rats, cats, and weasels. It is 
advisable to keep for breeding purposes about one drake to 
two ducks. Autumn is the best season to purchase them to 
begin with. If early birds, they will commence laying in 
February, or earlier, with proper care and favorable seasons. 
Let the drake be unrelated to the ducks, and change the 
blood every third or fourth year. 
— s3osm + 

(For Fanciers’ Journal.) 
CARE OF SITTING HENS. 
THE proper care of sitting hens is a matter of no small 
importance to the breeder of fine poultry. 
The loss of a few dozens of eggs, more or less, is a matter 
of little consequences to him who breeds dunghills, and values 
his eggs at from 10 to 25 cents per dozen, and, indeed, it will 
not pay him to take extra care of the sitting hens; but when 
we pay from $3 to $6 per sitting for eggs, or value our own 
at these prices, it becomes an important question how we 
may obtain the most and best chicks possible from them. 
Many of the failures in the hatching of eggs, which are 
charged to the dishonesty of the seller, or to the carelessness 
of express companies in their transportation, is really due 
to the want of proper care on the part of the buyer. If 
laying hens have access to the sitters, the eggs are not only 
apt to become broken, but the layer will sometimes take the 
nest while the sitter is off feeding, and when she returns, 
finding her nest occupied, she will, perhaps, take some 
vacant one, leaving her eggs to become chilled, and entirely 
ruined. an 
Neighbors have frequently got eggs from me of the same 
kind which I was setting, and from which I got ten or 
twelve chickens to the setting of thirteen, and they would 
often either fail entirely, or would get two or three feeble 
chicks. At the same time they were perfectly sure that it 
was not the fault of the hen, as, they affirmed, she sat finely, 
while at the same time, perhaps, they paid little attention 
to her, making only an occasional visit to the nest, at which 
times she appeared to be all right. 
