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Show " . " ' PROFITABLE MARKET DUCK MANAGEMENT CviKV rM3 Excellent Duck Pond and House. I have kept Mammoth Pekin ducks with considerable pleasure and profit lJuring the past ten or fifteen years. My method is to keep the birds out of the chicken yard so as to prevent the soiling of the water which the: chickens chick-ens have to drink, writes D. 'C. O. Wells of Fayette county, Illinois, in Orange Judd Farmer. A two-foot wire fence has proved satisfactory. Of course, the chickens can fly over this, but the ducks cannot. In eight weeks from hatching I can make young ducks weigh four pounds each, and by June 1 at this weight can usually get twenty to twenty-five cents a pound In Chicago. During the past years the iemand has been increasing annually. There is no trouble about rearing iucks. The brooding time is only about half as long as that for chickens chick-ens and the ducklings do not need nearly as much heat in the brooders. Ducklings should always have a bulky feed. I give a mixture of one part each of bran, and beef meal to two parts of corn meal. The beef meal must never be omitted as it is essential essen-tial to make the ducklings thrive and grow large. To the mixture I add about five per cent of sand so as to supply grit. I always have an available avail-able supply of clean water for the ducklings to drink, but not enough for them to gaddle in. They cannot do more than get their bills wet. It Is necessary that they should do this so as to prevent clogging of the nostrils nos-trils with food. During warm weather I always provide pro-vide ample shade. Any shed will do for old ducks if it is dry. I always supply' plenty of bedding, such as straw. For nests I place ten-foot boards about a foot from the wall and leave openings at each end so the ducks will not pile up and break, the eggs. This space is partly filled with straw in which' the ducks bury their eggs. When I have more than one flock I mate the birds about January, just as I plan to keep them; that is, I make no changes after once having mated the flocks. If this is not done early, any attempt to break up a flock into smaller ones may result unfavorably unfavor-ably and any other attempt to unite smaller flocks is likely to be just as undesirable, because each set will separate sep-arate as soon as they are not, watched. It is therefore highly important to form the flocks by New Year's time. ;;' I always keep plenty of oyster shell in the laying quarters. From; July 1 to January 1 ducks need scarcely any food if they have access to a, good pond. As ducks are usually shy, especially es-pecially at night, they should have a shed well protected from any possible possi-ble night . movements on the part of men and r.nimals. If not so provided they will be excited all night and keep the whole neighborhood awake. Always during the laying season I keep my ducks shut 'up until at least seven o'clock so the eggs will not be dropped outside of the house. |