Part 12

Ducklings when confined to yards are sometimes troubled with sore eyes. The adjacent parts become inflamed, the head slightly swelled. This is caused by feeding sloppy food, and from filthy quarters. The feathers around the eyes become filled with the food, the dust adheres to them. The eye is naturally inflamed. Washing out thoroughly and bathing the eye with a little sweet oil will usually effect a cure.

Diarrhoea.

Young ducklings are sometimes afflicted with diarrhoea. This disease is caused more by overheating brooders and the exhausted condition of the mother bird than from improper food. Do not overfeed or overheat the ducklings. Feed bread or cracker crumbs, moistened with boiled milk, into which a little powdered chalk has been dusted.

Abnormal Livers.

This disease is the most dangerous to which young ducks are subject. It is seldom prevalent except during the warm weather, and usually in young birds of from two to six weeks of age. The livers of the young birds enlarge to such an extent as to force up their backs,--a deformity which will cling to them through life. It is caused by a complete stagnation of the digestive organs, and often makes its appearance after a heavy rain, or long wet spell, when the yards are invariably wet, sloppy and offensive. The young birds will, while in constant contact with this mud, absorb more or less of it, clogging the digestive organs, and deranging their appetites. Remove the birds to some dry, shady place, feed sparingly, and give a little of the "Douglas mixture" in the drinking water.

Ducklings must be Carefully Yarded While Young.

A great mortality often occurs to young ducklings when allowed free range during warm weather, from devouring injurious insects. Bees, wasps, hornets, bugs of all descriptions, are eagerly swallowed alive but not always with impunity, and the birds often pay the penalty with their lives. Always confine them, even when designed for breeding purposes, until they are six weeks old, when they can be allowed their liberty.

The most of the diseases to which ducks and fowls are subject can usually be traced to some infraction of conditions, and of course are always more or less under the control of the careful operator. Two young men called here a short time ago wishing to know what was the trouble with their fowls. Hitherto they had occupied a cold building, so open that the snow sifted through on them, and they had never to their recollection had a diseased fowl. Within a year they had put up a nice, warm building with a glass front, and their fowls had been diseased ever since. They had shut their birds in a building that would run up to 100 degrees during the day and that would go down nearly to zero at night, subjecting their fowls to thermal changes, under which neither animal or vegetable life could possibly live, and then expect them to thrive.

The amateur poulterer should understand in the beginning that it is far easier to anticipate disease in poultry than to cure it. Where fowls are kept in large numbers, their health and well-being can only be insured by extreme care and cleanliness, together with a free use of disinfectants. Buildings should be kept dry, clean and sweet, and not too warm. The greater the variety of food the better, so long as it is healthy and nutritious; while gravel, sand, shell and granulated charcoal should be kept by them during confinement in winter.

I am often asked by parties, "Why do so many would-be poulterers fail if it is a legitimate business and fairly profitable?" I reply, I am not prepared to concede the point that the proportional number of failures in the poultry business is greater than among other vocations in life. Hundreds of men fail every year in mercantile, manufacturing and brokerage pursuits. People do not decry any legitimate business from this cause, because they know there are hundreds who are not only getting a livelihood, but are amassing fortunes at them. There are hundreds, yes thousands, of farms on the market in New England today, for less than the value of the buildings, because their owners have made failures of them. Do men denounce agriculture? No! Because they know that from time immemorial men have not only secured an honest living, but have gained a competence from tilling the soil. You simply say that it is the men. Why not be equally frank with the poultry business?

They say the whole thing is contrary to nature, and you can't improve upon nature. Can't we? That is just what man is placed upon this sublunary sphere for, and he must begin by improving himself. With the present opportunities for obtaining information, no one has a right to remain ignorant because he begins by making a failure of himself; and when a man has failed in the poultry business or elsewhere, it is simply want of that indomitable pluck, energy, and perseverence, which are the requisites of success everywhere, coupled with a disinclination to sacrifice his comfort and ease, or conform his life to his business requirements.

Again, we hear that artificially grown fowls are stunted and small, the flesh tasteless and insipid, and many other things which have no shadow of truth in them. I append the testimonials of some of the largest poultry dealers both in Boston and New York cities, who cheerfully and voluntarily testify to the superiority of our artificially-grown birds. These firms are square and honest dealers, and we heartily recommend them to any who stand in need of their services.

I have endeavored in this little book to impart what little knowledge I possess on this important subject to the reader. If he can learn wisdom by my experience and avoid the errors into which I fell, it is all I ask. The business, as I have learned its details, has become more profitable each year; while the experience of the past season has been highly satisfactory, as the demand has been greater than ever before.

FORMULAS FOR FEEDING DUCKS.

For Breeding Birds.

(Old and young, during the Fall.)

We turn them out to pasture, when we can, in lots of 200.

Feed three parts wheat-bran; one part low grade flour; one part corn meal; five per cent. of beef-scrap; three per cent. of grit, and all the green feed they will eat, in the shape of corn-fodder, cut fine, clover or oat-fodder. Feed this mixture twice a day, all they will eat.

For Laying Birds.

Equal parts of wheat-bran and corn meal; ten per cent. beef-scrap; twenty per cent. of low grade flour; ten per cent. of boiled turnips or potatoes; fifteen per cent. of clover-rowen, green rye or refuse cabbage, chopped fine; three per cent. of grit. Feed twice a day, all they will eat, with a lunch of corn and oats at noon. Keep grit and ground oyster shells constantly by them. We never cook the food for our ducks, but mix it with cold water.

For Feeding at Different Stages of Growth.

The first four days, feed four parts wheat-bran; one part corn-meal; one part low grade flour; five per cent. fine grit. Feed four times a day, what they will eat clean.

When from four days to four weeks old, feed four parts wheat-bran; one part corn-meal; one part low-grade flour; three per cent. fine grit; five per cent. of fine ground beef-scrap, soaked. Finely cut green clover, rye or cabbage. Feed four times a day.

When from four to eight weeks old, feed three parts wheat-bran; one part corn-meal; one part low-grade flour; five per cent. of fine grit; five per cent. of beef-scrap. Mix in green food. One per cent. fine oyster shells. Feed four times a day.

When from six to eight weeks old, feed equal parts corn-meal; wheat-bran and fifteen per cent. low grade flour; ten per cent. of beef-scrap; ten per cent. of green food; three per cent. of grit. Feed three times a day.

When from eight to ten weeks old, feed one half corn-meal; equal parts of wheat-bran and low grade flour; ten per cent. of beef-scrap; three per cent. of grit. Oyster shells and less green food. Feed three times a day. They should now be ready for market.

Note.--The above ingredients should be made into a mash, and should be crumbly, not pasty. Proportions by measure, not weight.

QUESTION BUREAU.