440 QUEENSLAND AGRICULTURAL JOURNAL. [1 Derc., 1897. 
GENERAL MANAGEMENT. 
Earth is the best floor for a duck-house, and this should be heavily bedded 
with soft hay. In Hammonton and on Long Island they use salt hay, as it is 
much softer than the ordinary arricle. 
Five drakes and twenty-five ducks can be run together with a good chance 
for fertile eggs, 
Rankin says the time for marketing young ducks depends altogether upon 
the breed. A Pekin will mature at nine or ten weeks as much as a Rouen will 
at twelve. Ducklings should be partly feathered out before marketed, but do 
not allow the second crop of feathers to start, as they will be full of pin 
feathers and somewhat off condition—indeed, no heavier than they would have 
‘been if killed two weeks before. 
Ducks are very peculiar about laying. They will often lay an egg and 
consider several days before they produce another, but when once fairly at it 
will produce an egg almost every day. ‘The first eggs are rarely fertile. 
Ducks make very good incubators, but remarkably poor mothers, and con- 
‘trive to get rid of a large share of their progeny unless confined and closely 
watched. 
They are good for breeding purposes till they are six or eight years 
old. 
Rankin says:—“ The best food we have ever found for young ducklings 
is one part hard boiled egg (we use infertile ones) and three parts stale bread 
crumbs, the first three or four days; after that equal parts of wheat bran, 
cornmeal, boiled potatoes, with a little beef scraps thrown in.” The Long 
Island breeders add about a pint of coarse sand to the mash for grit 
purposes. 
A duck-raiser, giving his experience in the Rural New Yorker, says ducks 
are easily hatched, and if properly managed are easily raised—much more 
so than chickens or turkeys. Probably the worst thing for ducklings is the 
first thing they usually receive, and that is, unlimited range and water to 
swim in. ‘The little things are, in a measure, nude, and should be kept in 
ens with dry soil floors or stone pavement that can be washed down daily. 
No kind of poultry will succeed on bare boards. All the water they need is 
best furnished by burying an old pot in the ground and laying a round piece 
‘of board on top of the water, with room for the ducks to stick their heads 
in and fish out the corn that is put in the water. This amuses them and 
‘does no harm, while if allowed to go to ponds or streams they are very liable 
to fall a prey to vermin in some shape, or to get their bodies wet and 
chilled from remaining too long in the water. 
Ducks are enormous eaters. They feed not only incessantly all day, but 
if it is moonlight they will up and at it again every hour or two before 
morning. We know of no statistics to show how many pounds of corn it 
requires to make a pound of duck, but we do not know that ducks are rapid 
growers, and, if penned and judiciously fed enough to make the most rapid 
growth, will return a handsome profit for the food consumed. 
To be bred successfully, says an English authority, ducks must have water 
which they can swim about in, and also have a reasonable amount of liberty. 
Those who live near running streams, or have a lake or pond in close proximity 
_to them, have the matter settled favourably, though perhaps a little more may 
require to be done with a stream if it be but a shallow one 
Mr. Rankin, however, says that, contrary to the general acceptation of the 
thing, it is not necessary for ducks, either old or young, to have access to a pond 
or brook, as simply giving them all the water they need to drink is all-sufficient. 
Indeed, they thrive better and grow quicker confined in yards, with just 
enough water to drink. Shade is one of the essentials to duck-growing in 
warm weather, also plenty of green food and vegetables. Ducks are gross 
feeders, but not particular as to quality. 
