Part 7

The duck raisers on Long Island use large quantities of fish for their breeding stock. This is known as the "fish diet," and is considered as being very valuable to induce egg production. Where fish are cheap they form an excellent substitute for beef scraps in the rations for breeding ducks or ducks not intended for market, but under no circumstances should fish be fed to stock that will be marketed. Fish makes the flavor of the flesh strong and ducks fed on fish will not have ready sales in the market. The fish are cooked by boiling in iron camp kettles until well done, and then mixed, bones and all, in the rations as given above for breeding ducks. When fish is used the beef scraps are omitted.

HOW MUCH TO FEED.

The amount of feed needed each day for young ducks varies as much as does their growth. Their growth averages a half pound a week, and to make this increase of weight each week requires an additional quantity of food over the preceding one. The rule is, feed each meal what they will eat up clean with a relish, and do not allow them to linger over the feed trough. It is better they should have not enough than too much, as they will be in a much better condition to relish the next meal. One thing is considered to be of as much importance as the feed, and that is removing the feed left over and thoroughly cleaning the troughs after each meal. This is scrupulously attended to by successful duck raisers.

One raiser gives, as a generous allowance for one day's ration for one hundred laying ducks, the following: For the morning meal, 35 quarts of the mash, and for the evening meal 40 quarts, making a total of 75 quarts for the day's portion, or three-fourths of a quart to each duck a day. Another raiser allows 400 quarts, fed in halves, twice a day, to six hundred breeding or laying ducks, averaging two-thirds of a quart to each duck a day.

There are many patterns of feed troughs in use, hardly any two being alike. They are simple affairs, the simpler the better, as they are more easily kept clean. The designs given for water troughs are equally as good for feed troughs and answer the purpose very well. Each pen of birds should have two troughs, one for water and the other for feed, built proportionately to suit the age and size of the birds they are intended for. Make them of sufficient length to avoid crowding, so that all the birds in each pen will have ample room to eat at the same time.

OYSTER SHELLS AND GRIT.

Grit in some form is essential to ducks and should be kept before them at all times. Many overlook this fact and do not seem to understand that it is of as much value to them as it is to chickens. The sand used in the mashes tends to supply a certain amount of grinding material or grit to them, but does not fully satisfy them for digesting their food. On a farm where more than ten thousand birds are raised annually, and where disease is practically unknown, it was noted that in every pen there was a box of grit and a box of crushed oyster shells. This raiser states that he considers grit and oyster shells an absolute necessity for ducks, and he attributes the healthy appearance of his stock to it. His birds eat it freely and the supply is never allowed to run out.

KILLING AND DRESSING FOR MARKET.

There are two methods of dressing ducks for market, by dry picking and by scalding. Both of these methods are good and are being successfully employed by the largest raisers. Some have a preference for dry picking and others for scalding, and it becomes only a matter of taste which method is used. When birds are dressed by scalding they should be dipped several times, or until the feathers come out easily. The back should be dipped in the water first. After scalding, wipe them as dry as possible with a sponge and pick the breast feathers first. A bird when dressed for market has left on it the feathers on the wing, the tail feathers, and the feathers on head and neck, as shown in fig. 27. The legs are left on, and the birds are not drawn.

The process of dry picking is considered the simpler of the two methods, and one who is accustomed to the work can readily dress 3 dozen birds in a day. The picker's outfit consists of a chair, a box for the feathers, and a couple of knives, one knife being dull and the other being sharp pointed and double edged, for bleeding. The bird is taken between the knees, the bill held open with the left hand, and a cut made across the roof of the mouth just below the eyes. The bird is then stunned by striking its head against a post or some hard substance. The picker seats himself in the chair with the bird in his lap (fig. 28), its head held firmly between one knee and the box. The feathers arc carefully sorted while picking; the pins are thrown away and the body feathers with the down are thrown into the box. Care should be taken about this, as the feathers from each bird will weigh about 2 ounces, and will quite pay for the picking.

The dull knife and the thumb are used to remove the long pinfeathers, and this should be done without tearing the skin. The down can usually be rubbed off by slightly moistening the hand and holding the skin tight. Often some of the pins can not be taken out without tearing and disfiguring the skin; when such is the case they should be shaved off. Seven or eight minutes is all the time necessary to dress a bird. After the birds are picked they should be carefully washed, and plumped by placing in a tank or barrel of ice water. They are hardened in this ice water and given a rounded and full appearance. They are then packed in barrels or boxes and shipped to market. The first or bottom layer is packed with backs down; a layer of ice is then placed over them, and all other layers are packed with the breasts down, a layer of ice being between each layer of ducks. The top of the box or barrel is then rounded off with ice and covered with burlaps. A flour barrel will hold about three dozen birds. Some raisers use boxes for shipping and have the empties returned free.

DEVELOPMENT OF THE DUCKLING IN THE EGG.

Eggs to hatch must have good, strong germs and must be laid by healthy stock. Debilitated, degenerated stock will not produce healthy and vigorous young. The health of the breeding stock must be promoted and everything done that will assist to increase the fertility of the egg. Comfortable houses, cleanliness, pure water, and above all wholesome and nutritious food, are the best promoters of health. The best stock to be had is none too good, and it is erroneous to send the earliest and best stock to market for the small increase in price, and save the later and inferior stock for breeding purposes. A continuation of this practice for a few years means degenerate stock, infertile eggs, weak germs, and large mortality among the newly-hatched birds.

After an egg has been under incubation for thirty six hours, it will, if fertile, when held to the light, show a small dark spot a trifle larger than a pin's head. This little spot is the life germ and shows the egg to be fertile. From this time the development of the germ into the duckling can be plainly seen if the egg be held to a strong light. On the sixth or seventh day the first testing of the eggs should be made and all infertile ones taken out. The germ is very distinct at this time, and there has been a gradual change going on in the interior of the egg. The little spot has been constantly enlarging and becoming more dense, and little veins are seen running in divers directions.

This is the appearance of an egg with a strong, live germ, which under favorable circumstances will produce a duck.

An egg that is not fertile on the sixth or seventh day will be perfectly clear and transparent; all such should be removed at once, as it is useless to allow them to remain. Another kind of egg often seen is a weak or imperfectly fertilized egg, and shows an irregularly-shaped blood vessel, which had started but lacked vitality enough to continue. Such an egg will not hatch and should also be removed from the nest or incubator. Frequently the germ in an egg will show life when tested on the seventh day, but lacks the vitality to carry it through, and when tested later will show dark, irregular blotches over the surface of the egg. These will not hatch, and should be taken out when noticed.

On the fourteenth day the little creature inside the egg begins to assume shape and show considerable life. It has increased many times in size since it was seen on the seventh day; the red veins have become more numerous and have spread over the entire surface, while the yolk is scarcely distinguishable from the other portions. The pupil of the eye has now become distinct, and the projection of the wings is clearly perceived. The absorption of the yolk has also commenced, and this will continue until the twenty-fourth day, when it will be nearly completed. The egg from this time on will rapidly grow opaque, and at the eighteenth or twentieth day is entirely so. On the twenty-fourth day the duckling is ready to make its way out of the shell, and in forty-eight hours after pipping the shell it will be entirely out.

NATURAL INCUBATION.

Hatching under the sitting hen (generally used for hatching ducks) is what is termed the natural process of incubation. The hatching of eggs by this means has always been followed, and no special skill is needed for success, provided the eggs are well fertilized with healthy germs. Many who raise ducks in large numbers, however, use almost exclusively artificial means; some use both the natural and the artificial, while others use the natural entirely.

Of the natural method we shall treat first: Hens of medium size of the American class, barred Plymouth Rocks and Wyandottes, are considered the best for sitting. Nine duck eggs are about the right number to place under a hen in early spring weather, but when the season is far advanced as many as thirteen are used. The hens should be provided with large, roomy nests, and slatted fronts that can be removed and replaced easily when the hens are fed and watered. The nesting material should be of hay or straw, and the nest should be slightly concaved; in the bottom place a little finely cut hay.

Before the hen is put on the eggs she should be thoroughly dusted with insecticides; the nest also should have a good dusting of the same. Both hen and nest should undergo a thorough dusting several times during the process of hatching as a safeguard against lice. When the ducklings are hatched they should also have their share of the insecticides before they are given to the hen. When a large number of sitting hens are used for hatching, as many as possible should be set at one time, and the ducklings raised in brooders. Hatching with hens may be done on a large scale and the young brooded artificially. As many as five hundred sitting hens are used on some farms for hatching ducks. They are set in small houses or rooms with the nests around the sides in tiers, each nest having its own lattice door. Each day, in the morning, the hens are taken from their nests and fed and watered on the floor of the room. They are taken down in limited numbers, sections, as it were, at a time, and after they have had the food, drink, and a little exercise they are placed back on the nests and another section is fed and watered.

ARTIFICIAL INCUBATION.

The subject of artificial incubation has engaged the attention of the civilized world for generations past; the method has done wonders for the poultry industry and has opened up the pathways to fortunes that might otherwise never have been made. The science of incubation and brooding has been developed wonderfully in this country during the last quarter of a century, and what seemed almost an impossibility then has indeed become a certainty now. There are many thousands of chicks and ducklings hatched by artificial means each year, and the numbers of good machines now being manufactured in this country at low prices make poultry raising a business that almost anyone with a limited capital may profitably engage in. The mission of an incubator is to supplant the sitting hen, and make it possible to hatch a large number of chicks at a minimum amount of cost and labor. That this can be done is proved each day.

For artificial incubation, have a room with a temperature as nearly uniform as possible. Balance the beat in the machines, or in other words, see that the heat is uniform at both ends, and, in fact, all over them. See that each is running steadily before placing the eggs in it, as there is a great deal in starting right. The machines should be run at a temperature of 102° for the first three weeks, and 103° the last week. The eggs should be turned twice each day at regular periods. Introduce a pan of water from the fifteenth to the twenty-second day, no matter what the location of the machine, whether in a damp cellar or in a dry room overhead, in a moist atmosphere near the seashore or in a dry one at an altitude in the country. The temperature may go as high as 101° just previous to and while hatching without injury. Place the glass on a live egg after the animal heat rises, which will be when the circulation begins. This will be perceptible in good eggs the fourteenth and fifteenth days.

Considerable weight has been put upon the ventilation question in incubators by manufacturers and operators, but it has been found that when the egg chamber is roomy, and the eggs are taken out and cooled twice each day, it is not of so much consequence. There is no doubt but that there must be some ventilation in the egg chamber, but from the experience and observation of the writer the value of the subject has been overestimated by many. Some machines have top ventilation, some bottom, and others both top and bottom, and there is seemingly no marked difference in the hatching.

When the ducklings are hatching, the broken egg shells should be removed once in every six or eight hours, so that they will not slip over the pipped eggs, as it would be sure death to the imprisoned ones. Occasionally a little bird is unable to free itself from the shell and needs help; the expert can readily detect when this is necessary. The one point to note in this connection is this: The egg just before hatching radiates a great deal of heat, while the duckling, when first out, being not unlike a little sponge, absorbs it, or in other words, the rapid evaporation which takes place generates cold; so that when the ducklings are out the machine should be gauged one degree higher.

When the ducklings are all out and dried off, the machine will run at least two degrees lower than when they were in the egg. Plenty of ventilation is needed in the machines while hatching. Keep the ducklings in the machine at least twenty-four hours after hatching, when they will be strong enough to be removed to the brooder. The heat in the brooder should be started twenty-four hours previous to use, so that it will be perfectly heated and ready for the ducklings when they are taken from the machine.

GEESE.