\ KOWWB r-'v^ MAKE DUCKS PAY \ [iHr •^SJ^^' ALBERT R. MANN LIBRARY New York State Colleges OF Agriculture and Home Economics AT Cornell University the gift of Paul Pomeroy Ives 2d IN MEMORY OF Paul Pomeroy Ives Cornell University Library SF 505.H82 How we make ducks pay .An illustrated gui 3 1924 003 127 952 Cornell University Library The original of tiiis book is in tine Cornell University Library. There are no known copyright restrictions in the United States on the use of the text. http://www.archive.org/details/cu31924003127952 HOW WE MAKE DUCKS PAY AMERICAN PEKIN DUCKLING One of our birds, a female, ten weeks old, saved for a breeder and with some of her fat trained off by running around the range. The parallelogram shape of body which is aimed at in breedings is here in evidence. This is one of several poses which a duck assumes. She is in repose. At feeding time, and when they are waddling, the necks of both ducks and drakes are elongated and the body is tipped upwards, the whole poise being different from what this picture shows. Many birds are so fat at killing age that their bellies rest on the ground when they are standing in repose like this bird. AVhen such birds walk, they have to make an effort to pull their bellies off the ground, and roll from side to side in their walk, like a sailor ashore. HOW WE MAKE DUCKS PAY Actual^ Successful Experience Not Doubtful Theory An Illustrated Guide to the Profitable Breeding of Our Modern Pekin All-White Mammoth Ducklings PLAIN AND THOROUGH LESSONS FOR BEGINNERS AND OTHERS EVERYWHERE WHO WRITE FOR THE DETAILS AND SECRETS OF OUR WATERLESS METHOD How TO Shelter, How to Get Plenty of Fertile Eggs, How to Hatch Them, How to Brood the Young, How to Feed at Different Ages, How to Fatten, How to Kill, How to Pick, How to Pack AND Ship, How to Market, How to Buy Breeding Stock, How to Select and Mate for Size and Stamina, How to Make Money, What to Do and What Not to Do, Many Questions and Answers 146 PEARL STREET, BOSTON, MASS. AMERICAN PEKIN DUCK COMPANY 1906 E 6499 COPYRIGHT, 1906, by THK AMERICAN PEKIN DUCK COMPANY Infringement Notice : The copyright protection given this work includes both text and illus- trations, from cover to cover. The reproduction in any form of any part of the reading matter, or any picture, is expressly prohibited. of Murray and Emery Company Boston CONTENTS Page Introduction 9 I. Ducks for Business 11 II. Shelter, Ventilation 23 III. Care of Breeding Stock 29 IV. Sex, Pairing, Breeding 39 V. The Egg 47 VI. Youngest Ducklings 55 VII. Fattening 69 VIII. Killing, Picking, Shipping 7.i IX. Markets 91 X. Question Box 109 UNDER THIS SHELTER ROOF TO GET OUT OF SUX AND RAIN LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS Page American Pekin duckling {Frontispiece) Under this shelter roof to get out of sun and rain 7 Here come the little ones out of the nursery for an airing 14 Ducklings five weeks old in yards of second nursery house 18 Feeding time for ducklings in the yards of the fattening sheds .... 20 First nurserj' yards 22 Exterior of brooder house 24 Interior of brooder house 26 On grass 30 Food-mixing machine 34 Drake, showing curl feather 40 How to handle live birds 44 Where the)- lay their eggs 48 Incubator cellar, showing machines which hatch the eggs into ducklings 52 Egg-testing lamp 53 Fertile egg, seventh day 53 Ducklings two weeks old 56 Water fountains and food boards 58 Thousands of youngsters 60 Ducklings in the sun at mid-day 64 Double brooder house 66 Winter scene, brooder house 68 Ready for feeding 70 Meal time 72 Fattening yards 74 Sticking knife 75 Knife used in picking 77 Duck picker at work 78 Read}' for shipping 82 Warm house, and yards 88 Pen of ducklings on dirt run a week previous to killing 90 Parallelogram body, depth of keel and plumpness 112 Fattening shed and pens 118 Shelter roof for ducks on the range 121 INTRODUCTION The breeding of our modern large Pekin duckling is an industry whose possibilities a few of us have known for a long time, and demonstrated to the best of our ability. We believe many will be interested in our methods. We know thousands will see a light in these pages which will astonish them, as our own work has astonished us. The strength of ducks as a business deserves telhng, — the whole truth and nothing but the truth. It is difficult for us to work day by day and at the same time teach the business to beginners and others in a convincing and satisfactory manner, without a book like this. The answering of hundreds of letters weekly from those asking for advice and breeding stock is a tedious, incomplete and poor method of telling the hows and whys. We offer this instruction book to the American people and all nations in the hope that we are doing this branch of the great poultry industry a real and lasting service. We know the country is just getting awakened to the idea. The aim in writing it has been to give the details, and all the details, with the fullness, clearness and simplicity which a man or woman investigating a new subject de- mands. We give them in the order in which the subject naturally presents itself. We have tried to keep out as much as possible from this work our own enthusiasm over the duck business, intending to present the facts calmly and soberly so that the strength of the proposition would follow as a matter of course, without exaggeration. At the same time, we would not undervalue a proper amount of enthusiasm. He who would make the most out of ducks must feel a lively interest in the work, — that it is paying work, — work which will reward him surely and amply, as it has rewarded us. We would advise the beginner, if he decides to take hold, not to go ahead in a hstless, doubting, skeptical way. HOW WE MAKE DUCKS PAT but confidently, knowing that he is able, and can do what others have done. There are no difficulties in the duck business which need appal the most timid, nor can great financial loss overtake one who observes common prudence. In this beginning, we must acknowledge the obhga- tions which the modern duck industry owes to Mr. James Rankin for his life-time of labor in it. Looking back serenely upon a past fruitful with good works, — and enjoy- ing a fortune which he, as well as others, has made in the breeding of ducks, — but now beyond the age of three- score years and ten, this pioneer is giving the standard up to others to be carried. He has always been our friend; we wish him continued life, health and prosperity in full measure. 10 CHAPTER ONE DUCKS FOR BUSINESS The Pekin is queen. — Other varieties and their character- istics, briefly summarized. — Duck raising worth all one's time and attention, because it is profitable in proportion to the number raised. — Our ducks have web feet, but not the desire to swim. — Pond not needed. — Ducklings ready for market in only ten weeks. — Cost of raising them six to ten cents a pound, including labor. — Profit of fifty cents a duckling to be figured. — Ducks have no lice, no diseases, and haiuks will not carry off the young. — Food they eat is the cheapest fed to any live-stock. The white Pekin is the queen of all ducks. This breed was brought to America from China, where they are raised now, and highly esteemed. The first specimens of Pekins were imported fifty years ago. In this com- paratively short period, a great deal has been done to improve the size and breeding qualities of this variety. Other varieties of tame ducks are the white Aylesbury, Indian Runner, white Muscovy, colored Muscovy, colored Rouen, black East India, black Cayuga, blue Swedish, Crested White, gray Call, white Call. Everything written in this book applies to the white Pekin strain which we have developed. These teachings do not apply to the other above-named varieties. Com- mercially, we believe in the Pekin only. The other varieties may be bred for show-room or for amusement, but as to their money-making qualities we are in doubt. We have no doubts as to our Pekins. They are easily raised in great numbers and are in active demand in the markets, and sold at a large profit. America leads in the development of the Pekin. The duck breeders in England are few and far between. They II HOW WE MAKE DUCKS PAT have experimented most with the Aylesburys. The Pekins mature more quickly than the Aylesburys and their feathers come out more easily when picking. The Indian Runner duck is smaller than the Pekin and has dark pin- feathers. It is not so salable as the Pekin ; side by side in the markets the Pekin will beat it in looks, size and price. The Indian Runner is a good layer but this does not offset the other points mentioned. Muscovy ducks are fighters and hard to handle. Gray and white Call ducks are bantams bred for the show-room but never for profit. The black East India is another bantam variety, seldom weighing more than two pounds. The other above-named varieties are rare. In disposition, as well as size, quick maturity and fecundity, the Pekin is exceptional. Pekins do not quarrel. They are easily driven and handled. Duck raising should be entered into not for amuse- ment or for a pastime, but to make money. It is worth all of one's time and attention and will richly reward the earnest, methodical worker. The main thing is to know how to do the work and then do it. We have tried to make this book so simple and plain that there can be no question as to procedure. There are breeders of ducks now in many parts of the country who have been working with poor stock, and largely by guesswork, and what they could learn by experience. Comment on duck raising as given in the periodical press from time to time is for the most part absurd, written by inexperienced experi- menters groping in the dark. Many of these experi- menters are breeding the common, or puddle ducks, or the light-weight ducks of colored plumage, all of inferior size and fed on lake or sea-shore fish until the flesh tastes more or less fishy. Our strain is as different from the common ducks as day is from night. Our birds are what we have made famous as the cross-bred, white-feathered Boston duck- lings, fattened on grain and beef scraps, weighing five to six pounds when marketed at ten weeks of age. We have 12 DUCKS FOR BUSINESS shipped this breeding stock to beginners as well as experi- enced breeders, and we find that a profitable success is made with them. We do not ask anybody to try what we have not done ourselves. Ducks have been a gold mine for us. We have done it as the ordinary breeder would do it, with common, plain work, shipping to an every-day market. For ten years we have been of the opinion that the advan- tages of this business for the good of all should be made known, and we are ready to do our best in this line now. We ask a hearing by calm, sober, common-sense people. We stand behind all statements we make, and guarantee that they are the simple truth. Perhaps the most surprising point, to the average reader, is that our ducks are raised without water. Don't think you must have a pond or brook on your place. A farm which is good for nothing from the farmer's stand- point is just the place for ducks. The manure will make the most sterile fields productive enough for the green stuff and vegetables that may be grown. Our ducks have web feet but we have bred out of them the desire to swim and bathe. The advantages of no swimming water were made manifest to us quickly. We know the methods and flocks of a few duck breeders who use water and we never could find that the ducks were better in any way. Perhaps you have a brook or pond. A brook is handy, perhaps, in that it will reduce the work of water- ing. But the ducks will not get any larger or fatter because of it. They will drink from a brook or pond, thereby lessening the work of their caretaker. Anybody raising ducks with a pond on his place will find that some ducks will lay eggs in the water. Unless the water is shallow and the eggs easily reached, this will be a source of annoyance and loss. As ducks lay at night, or early in the morning, this trouble can be overcome by shutting the birds up at night and not letting them into the water until about 9 a. m. 13 '(:, ^^h- o o Pi W m •A O o CO W C H o o H w DUCKS FOR BUSINESS If you have a spring or brook with a fall so that water can be diverted and made to run through the duck house or houses, t! at may be worth trying. Most beginners without instruction think that ducks must have swimming water to thrive and, lacking a pond or brook, will dig a rainhole without inlet or outlet. This quickly gets muddy and slimy and becomes an abomina- tion, a menace to both ducks and owner. We have heard of duck raisers on the coast of Dela- ware, who have had trouble in the following way: The tides would force the stagnant marsh water back into the duck ranges and when the ducks got into this brackish water it was bad for them. Some actually would be poisoned and die. Look out for this stagnant, foul- smelhng marsh water if you breed ducks on the sea-coast. The rice-fields of the South are ideal for ducks. They will pick up plenty of free nourishment there. Ducks are g;iod also to go over harvest fields to pick up the left- behind grain. This is a suggestion for large farmers who breed ducks. Our ducklings are not raised as a small breeder raises chickens. An incubator is the device which multiplies the money-making possibilities. In the first place, these modern ducks will not reproduce their young by nest- building and setting. They have been bred to lay eggs, and not to set on them. If you wish to start small and without an incubator, you have got to take a common, old-fashioned hen and set her on the duck eggs to hatch them out. On account of the incubators we save great expense by carrying only comparatively few breeding birds from one year to the next. You see, from each duck we get eggs enough to raise three-score ducklings that year. Every duck worth five dollars to ten dollars reproduces young worth three hundred dollars to six hundred doMars (if saved for breeders). If killed and sold at market they are worth three-score times the market price of the one duck which started the big family. These figures are not dreamed. We are doing it right along. 15 HOW WE MAKE DUCKS PAT A duck reproducing at that rate must be good to start, and must have inteUigent care and feed. Ducklings are on your hands only ten weeks. Then they vanish to market and you get your money for them, and their room also. This goes on day after day, raising, kiUing, shipping. There is no let-up until you get ready, and the markets take them all the time, as they do chickens. Prices for ducklings are highest in the East in April and May. It is not necessary to get these high prices all the year to make the business a success. We have taken the markets as they have come every month of the year, knowing all the while we were making a good profit, even when prices were at times one-half to one-third lower than at others. We know by experience the cost of raising ducklings (food and labor including expert pickers making from twenty dollars to thirty dollars a week), to be from SIX TO TEN CENTS A POUND, depending on the fluctuating prices of grain. Others say the same, including the gov- ernment reports from experimenters; so the reader does not have to take our word alone for this fundamental expense. It costs, therefore, from thirty to sixty cents to get the duckling up to the market and into the market. The selhng price is fifty cents more than this. For many years after learning the business by hard knocks, we have figured confidently on making half-a-doUar profit on every duckling, — that is what actually happens. That is what it will do for you, starting with our stock and following our instructions. There is no legerdemain about it. Nor is it ridiculously easy — do not believe that. Anybody can start with half a dozen ducks and drakes and not have a busy working day, exactly the way a few hens may be kept by a man working eight hours daily at something else. You can demonstrate that they are money makers with a few of them. To get an income of twenty dollars a week you must send to market forty ducklings a week ; to i6 DUCKS FOR BUSINESS make your farm produce a profit of one hundred dollars a week, you must send to market two hundred ducklings a week. The cost of from six to ten cents a pound to bring a duckling to killing age, according to the location of the plant and according to the prices of grain, includes labor as well as food. Figuring food alone, five cents a pound would cover the cost. Ol course a duckling does not eat so much when it is small and newly hatched as it does when it has reached the killing age. If you keep a duck from killing age on for breeding it will cost you about twenty-five cents a month in feed and labor to carry the duck. This is why good breeding stock sells for much higher prices than the killed ducklings. The labor charge is cut down in proportion to the increase in the number of ducks kept. The care of thirty thousand ducks may be divided among six men. Bearing in mind what we have said about cost it may be estimated accurately that a duckling of market age, weighing five pounds to six pounds, will cost to produce from thirty to sixty cents. The wholesale selling price is at least twelve cents a pound, depending on the market and the season. Twelve cents is the lowest we have ever known it here, and thirty cents the highest. This means that each duck will be sold for sixty cents to one dollar and fifty cents. A duck which has cost the high price to produce will sell for the high market price; for this is the way the market runs. This means that a profit of at least fifty cents a duck is going to be made. Everything which we ever read on ducks con- firms our own experience in the matter of profits, and it will be found invariably that the breeder shipping ducks to market, even on a small or large scale, makes this profit. The amount of profit depends on the number of ducks handled. What we say about the cost, selling price and profits is positively and absolutely true. We hold no brief to boom 17 P c o w o a K O DUCKS FOR BUSINESS the duck industry. We insist respectfully and most earnestly that we have made, and are now making, the profits which we say are in ducks, selling to market only; and what we have done and are doing, others have done and are doing. Our statements will find ready corrob- oration from any duck breeder who is really breeding ducks, that is to say, who is actually turning them out and shipping them to market, and not playing with a small flock for fun, or secondary to other work. In speaking of these profits, we do not estimate the sale of breeding stock. If you keep what you raise until they are of breeding age, and then sell them to your neighbors, or to anybody, by advertising or exhibition, you will make more. Nor do we take account of the sale of duck eggs. Duck eggs are salable on account of their large size and good cooking qualities, and many are in the markets, but the big duck raiser has a better use for most of his eggs than the table; he has his incubator in mind. He wants them for seed. Our ducks have no lice or other vermin. They are not bothered by hawks. They have no diseases. Good, strong points, those three. Lice are a terrible nuisance in general poultry raising and have dissipated many a dream of profits. When we say that our ducks have no vermin on their bodies of any kind, we mean just that, and we say it emphatically. Why it is exactly, we do not know. One would imagine that a louse would live on any animal. Still, there are others (rabbits, for instance) which have no vermin. Hawks are an ever-present pest in many parts of our country. They will not touch the youngest duckling. By no disease, we do not wish to give the impression that ducks resist all ill-treatment. Fed improperly, they will have diarrhoea. Kept in the sun constantly when little and given no shade, they will be sun-struck. Given a chance when very young to eat certain bugs, they will be killed. Allowed to become crowded and panic- stricken, they will get lame and otherwise injured. 19 ' o w CO O g S w H H < W H O m a < H K H w O g o fi O W IS O Q M W DUCKS FOR BUSINESS Starved, they will die like any animal. But these matters are absolutely under the control of the breeder, with very simple and sure arrangements. There will be no losses from what is commonly known as disease. No medicines or pills or drugs of any kind are of any use in the duck business. The beautiful white feathers picked from the ducklings before marketing are worth good money, forty-five to fifty cents a pound. Every twelve ducks will give a pound. Generally this revenue will pay the picking. The following food is given (See further chapters in this book for details.): Rolled oats, bread-crumbs, bran, corn-meal, flour (low-grade), beef scraps, green stuff, vegetables, grit, ground oyster shells. The rolled oats cost in New England ^3.25 to ^5 a barrel (one hundred and eighty pounds). This is the most expensive item in the ration. They are fed only to the youngest ducklings and to them only a brief period. The bread-crumbs are made from stale bread given away (or sold for little) by bakers. Bought in quantities it costs only twenty-five dollars a ton. The bran (also called shorts) is the outside shell or wrapper of wheat. It costs only twenty dollars a ton but in the West near the flour mills it is much cheaper. The corn-meal is common yellow Indian meal which has been ground (not cracked). It costs from ^i to $1.25 per one hundred pounds in the East; in the West it is cheaper. The low-grade flour costs twenty-eight dollars a ton in the East ; cheaper in the West. The beef scraps cost fc.50 per one hundred pounds. They form a small per cent of the ration, at a certain time. By green stuff is meant anything growing, like common grass, oats, clover, rye, millet, etc. The vegetables are cheap on the average farm, and are a fine duck food. Turnips and carrots are easily raised and turned into duck meat. The grit may be ordinary sand or gravel for a certain 21 HOW WE MAKE DUCKS PAT period in the life of the ducks, after which the cheapest granite grit is bought. Fancy grits costing as much or more than grain are not used. The ground oyster shells essential to the egg formation are the widely known common and cheap kind. The part which water plays in duck raising is an important one. It adds volume to the food and it makes the food cost less because it makes the same amount of food more filling. Ducklings are given a vast amount of water to drink between meals, also, and this fattens them. Water fattens ducks more than any other poultry — they absorb a lot of it in the course of a day. Does the reader know of anything raised on such a cheap and simple ration as ducks, as above described.? No expensive grains are needed. That is where the profits come in. The producing cost is low but the selling price is high. Even when sold to middlemen, the price is from three to five times the cost of the food. FIRST NURSERY YARDS The little ones are seen poking in the dirt and running around enjoying themselves. Wire netting eighteen inches high separates each pen. The birds do not fly at any age, nor jump from one pen to another over the netting. 22 CHAPTER TWO SHELTER, VENTILATION No buildings necessary to make a start with ducks on the average place. — Progress in the hiisiness means buildings. — Simple structures, all vjith dirt, not hoard, floors. — Kind of buildings needed depends on where you live, whether in warm South or cold North. — Run the first incubator in cellar of house or back room. — Dimensions of lumber for house construction. — Pens m the nursery should not he more than three feet wide. — Some things about ventilation important to remember. Until one gets a large plant in operation, buildings for ducks are a secondary matter. The average home place with a little land is big enough to make a start. Quite a business in ducks can be done on limited ground. (See our free booklet for one instance.) We know of duck plants where double the number of breeders are kept to produce less than half the number of ducklings we market yearly. We produce from sixty to seventy-five ducklings to each breeding duck a year, while the breeders above referred to do only about thirty. We relate this as proof of what a strain of Pekins will do when it has been built up by selection, and attention to the details of the breeding. It is a waste of energy, time and money to keep fifteen hundred birds producing eggs when half that number will do as well. Every house has a cellar or back room where the first incubator may be run. The few breeding ducks may be housed in the woodshed or small building or shack of any kind. Not even wire netting eighteen inches or two feet wide is needed to confine them; boards fifteen inches wide will serve. Use carriage house, barn or outhouse. The mature breeders can stand any amount of exposure in our 23 EXTERIOR OF BROODER HOUSE The hot wattT heater (coal fcir fuel) is in that end of the house nearest the eye. The brick chimney leads straight tip from the heater pit. Note the ventilators at regular intervals in the roof. Never build a tight house for ducks but always provide for ventilation. The small structure in the foreground is a simple shelter for ducks outdoors to protet t them from the sun and the rain. The posts are three feet high. The ducks know enough t<.> gf> under the shade without urging, whenever their well- being demands that they should. SHELTER, VENTILATION winter, but they should have the chance of getting in under where it is dry, and where they can squat on dry leaves or other bedding so as to keep their feet warm. If a freezing night comes and you have your breeding ducks in a very cold shelter, better get them into the barn or other fairly warm place where their eggs will not freeze. After April, in the North;- they can lay anywhere safely without danger of frozen eggs. If you are in the South, or any Stat>>*Kbere the climate is warmer than ours, you should handle your ducks, as far as shelter is concerned, as you observe poultry raisers do whom you know. Understand, the pictures and descrip- tions of buildings which you see in this book apply to cold New England. Duck breeders here put up expensive, substantial buildings, some with hot-water heaters, burn- ing coal, and the fact that they can do this, covering their farms with such structures, is proof of a substantial kind that there is money in the duck business. When the youngest ducklings come out of your incuba- tor, they need a brooder, or foster mother wooden device. If there is anybody who reads this book who does not know what a brooder is, the picture of it will tell, and the machine, vs^ith the directions that go with it, will be under- stood at once. Brooders are used both indoors and out- doors. An outdoor brooder, however, should not be put out in very cold weather, just because it is labelled for out- doors. Protect it all you can in such weather by putting it in a shed or under cover somewhere. The little ones are managed in a small portable brooder in the same manner as described in the chapter of this book headed " Youngest Ducklings." What is written there applies to your little ones, only we describe them there as having a big house over their heads, whereas your brooder is a small house in itself. Progress in the duck business means buildings. There are single brooder houses, double brooder houses, cold houses, fattening sheds, incubator cellar, killing and shipping house, grain storehouse, and so on. 25 INTERIOR OF BROODER HOUSE This is the nursery for youngest ducklings. The pens are three feet wide. Cross boards are set halfway in the pens, as pictured, so that the httle ones will not wander far from the hover. The board tops of the hovers are seen. (The milk cm is on top of one section.) The hot water pipes are directly underneath the board tops. The pipes (bent) are for the purpose of carrying water from a centnd pressure supply so as to save labor when filling the small drinking fountains u^ed for the youngest birds. The timbering of the l.>rc)oder house is well illustrated in this picture. A'^ shown, the roof is double uneven, with the long side facing the sunnv. or south side, and the narrow rr.of facing the north. A house of this construction is made any length, to suit the number of ducklings which it is desired to handle. SHELTER, VENTILATION Ducks should always be on the ground. Do not have floors in any duck houses. The ordinary brooder house is built with an uneven double root (not single roof). That is, the back roof is half as long as the front roof. It is high at the back to give walking space for the attendant; this form of con- struction gives headroom there. Erect the house so that the long side of roof will face the sun, that is, the south. For a house under one hundred and fifty feet long (sixteen feet wide) use lumber of the following dimensions: Studs two by three inches, plates two by four, sills two by six, rafters two by five, collar beams one by six. For a house thirty feet wide and over one hundred and fifty feet long, use studs two by four, sills three by five, rafters two by six, collar beams one by six, and for plates two two-by-fours spiked together. In a house thirty feet wide or over use collar beams two by five. A house of this v/idth should have posts to hold up the roof. Lay the sills of all houses on posts, or brick or stone piers. Set the piers about five feet apart. In houses built with even double roof, the walk is down the middle, under the ridgepole, and not down the back. Such a house has pens on each side of the walk. Good, substantial duck buildings can be erected cheaply provided that roofing paper be used instead of shingles. There is a great difference in roofing papers, however. Many have to be painted frequently in order to keep them efficient, and the cost of this paint, with labor of applying, will soon amount to more than if shingles had been used at first. The pens in the nursery house should not be more than three feet wide. Some recommend that they be four, five or even six feet wide. Not more than fifty little duck- lings should be put into a pen, and fifty will go into a three-foot pen all right. Those who have built wider pens have found it not wise to put more than fifty into the pen. They will crowd together anyway, and more than fifty in a bunch may make trouble by walking over one 27 HOW WE MAKE DUCKS PAY another. The stronger ones will tramp over the weaker ones and hurt them. No lanterns are used in the nursery at night to keep the ducklings from crowding, because the little ones are under the brooder covers, shut in the dark- ness, where the lantern light could not penetrate anyway. In a house with pens only three feet wide, of course the ducklings should not be kept longer than three weeks. After that age they should be transferred to more roomy quarters. Ventilation. Ducks need fresh air, and in building the houses provision should be made for ventilation. Tight houses are not to be built. It you have a tight house full of ducks, and keep them there three or four days and nights in bad weather, the inside of the house will grow very warm, and ammonia from the manure will rise, making your own eyes and the eyes of the ducks smart. Every one-hundred-foot house should have two ven- tilators through the roof, and also should have windows at the back to be opened when needed. These windows should be managed according to the weather. Early in the morning, when you go into a house filled with ducks, you will see the hot air and ammonia fumes going off from the ventilators. If no provision whatever is made for ventilation, and a large number of ducks are kept in a house, the air will get so bad that some ducks actually will go blind from the irrita- tion of their eyes by the ammonia rising from the manure. When the weather in the spring begins to get warmer so that there is no danger of the eggs freezing, take out the windows entirely, so that the air will circulate freely from that time on, all through the house. Nail laths or wire netting over the windows to prevent the ducks from getting out at night, and also to prevent cats and other animals from getting in. You must manage the windows so that the eggs will not freeze. Be governed by the time of year and the weather. 28 CHAPTER THREE CARE OF BREEDING STOCK Twenty-five ducks and five drakes should be put in each pen. — Pens separated by boards inside the house and by in re netting outdoors. — Growing food is the same they had wihile at killing age. — Fed twice a day and given plenty of water. — Whole corn in the ration to strengthen the layers. — Bedding the pens for winter. — How to pre- pare the vegetable food. — Ducks are fond of worms, and root after them greedily. — Lanterns necessary at night. — Ducks enjoy snow. — Breeders lay better in winter if let outdoors daily. — Price tells whether stock offered for sale for breeding is young and good or old and played out. Ducks and drakes which we sell you for breeding, and ducks and drakes which after the first year you save for breeding stock, should be handled as this chapter advises. If in winter, house them. Thirty head should be put in each pen: twenty-five ducks and five drakes. Allow ten square feet for each bird. That is to say, the thirty birds should have a space of three hundred square feet. A pen containing three hundred square feet would be twenty feet by fifteen feet in size, or ten feet by thirty feet. This is the space inside the house. Each outside yard for a pen of that inside size should have from thirteen hundred to two thousand square feet. If the pen is fifteen feet wide then outside the house it should be close to one hundred and thirty feet long. An outside yard ten feet wide and twenty feet long is not long enough. Yards for thirty head should be fifteen feet wide and ninety feet long. The pens are separated from each other by wire netting which should be two feet wide. Eighteen inches is not 29 ^^ ..*^t '"» m^.