449, QUEENSLAND AGRICULTURAL JOURNAL. [1 Dxc., 1897. 
“The same food that is good to raise chicks on will raise ducks. It must 
be quite soft at first, and a little water must be placed so they ean get a dip 
with each mouthful. Young ducks cannot swallow unless they have water 
with each bite. A duck does not swallow its food like any other creature I 
know of; it seems to get the food down by a number of spasmodic jerks. 
There does not seem to be any action of the muscles of the throat in swallowing, 
and they choke very easily unless the food is soft, and they have water. 
“In hatching duck-eggs they require just the same heat as a hen’s egg. 
They start more slowly than hens’ eggs, and cannot be tested with any cer- 
tainty until the fourth or fifth day; then, if perfectly clean, the germs will 
show quite plainly. 
“They will generally chip the shell thirty-six to forty-eight hours before 
they get ready to come out, and should be turned with opeuing up, and left lie 
still until they get ready to come out. It is well to examine and see if they 
have broken through the lining of the shell, as often it is so tough that they 
cannot break it even after the shell is broken through, and would smother for 
want of air. Open a very small hole to give them air, and that is all that 
should be done until the duckling is trying to get out. Then if it is turning 
round and round and not able to break the shell as it goes, help it by taking 
off the top shell. There is no danger of bleeding after they have begun to turn 
around, but until they do they will bleed; and although a little bleeding will not 
kill, it weakens them more or less. After they are out let them alone in the 
incubator until they are quite dry, then remove to a brooder that is 100 
degrees, and let them remain for twenty-four hours. After they have been fed 
once or twice they require about the same heat as young chicks. Run the 
brooder down to 90 degrees by the time they are a week old. After the 
feathers appear on the breast all they need is a dry place to gather in at night. 
mec do not need artificial heat unless it is cold weather; then it is best to 
ave it.” 
The idea somehow or other got adrift some years ago that duck-eggs 
require more moisture than hens’ eggs, in the main, on account of being a water 
fowl. Mr. Rankin’s attention being called to this, he replied :— 
“Ttis a mistaken idea that duck-eggs require more moisture than hens’ eggs. 
They require the same heat and the same amount of moisture, and precisely the 
same treatment in every respect. They usually pip forty-eight hours before they 
get ready to come out, and in the meantime are absorbing the yolk. Too much 
moisture in your machine is disastrous, as your duckling will pip and show his 
bill one-quarter inch out of the hole he has made from sheer pressure from the 
inside. He cannot get his bill back, because the shell is closely packed with 
the bird, and he cannot work his bill either way to break away the shell, so that 
he is sure to die without help. Duck-eggs should be evaporated, like hens’ 
eggs, the first week of the hatch, as the embryo duck will enlarge so much the 
last week of incubation that the shell will be densely packed, and that usually 
means dead ducks. You cannot get too much moisture the last part of the 
hatch, but during the first part the eggs should be slightly evaporated. The 
ducklings with us begin to pip the 25th day; on the 27th they begin to come 
out, and in six hours they are usually out—a squirming mass. But whenever 
we see one with his bill through we always break the shell away on each side, 
to give him a chance to get out.— Garden and Field. 
