OUR TWENTY-FIVE HUNDRED BREEDING DUCKS. Kodak standing in centre of yard.
If this is not done at once the vice becomes general, and disastrous consequences are sure to follow. If it has already attained headway, before the novice detects it, he must change them to new quarters; a grassy area is best, where they usually forget all about it. This can be readily done, as the operator should always have a spare roll of eighteen-inch wire netting on hand with which he can enclose a given area in a few moments. Too much cannot be said in favor of this wire, it is so cheap, portable and convenient. It can be taken up and removed in an incredibly short time to facilitate plowing and disinfecting the yards. While it effectually separates the birds, it affords little or no impediment to the attendant during the process of watering and feeding. I fasten this wire up to short stakes driven in the ground, using small staples for the purpose. When removed it can be rolled up, stakes and all, without disturbing the staples.
It is then ready for resetting or stowing away for next season's work. This wire is now the cheapest of all fencing for poultry work,—much more so, even, than lath-fencing; and has the great advantage of being portable and far more durable than any other material. Two-inch mesh, No. 19 wire, can be had now for three-quarters cent a square foot by the single roll, and proportionately cheaper by the quantity. Never purchase No. 20 wire, as it will prove unsatisfactory in the end. It is not self-supporting and can only be kept in position by boards, both above and below. There is great difference in the quality of this wire; that made by some firms being of so soft material that it will not stand alone. The squares soon become ellipses, and your eighteen-inch wire settles to a foot. The best I have ever used is that made by the Gilbert & Bennett Manufacturing Company, Georgetown, Conn.
Previous to this our oldest ducklings will have reached the extreme end of the brooding-house, and it will be filled to its utmost capacity. In order to make room for the successive hatches I drive the older hatches out and round to my cold buildings, two in number. These buildings are each seventy-five feet long, with contiguous yards one hundred feet deep. The slides in the buildings are left open, and the ducklings are at liberty to go out or in as they see fit,—a privilege of which they avail themselves as the state of the atmosphere inclines. These yards always have a thick mat of rye growing on them. The partition wires have been set up and the young birds are quietly driven to their respective quarters.
After ducklings reach the age of six weeks, it is not necessary to confine them in buildings during the night. Indeed, they are far better not, unless it is extremely cold, or there is danger from vermin. Even severe rainstorms will not injure them. They should be watched carefully, however, as they are apt, during their antics, to fall over on their backs, when, through suction from the wet and muddy ground, they are seldom able to turn back again. Prompt assistance should be rendered, or it will surely be too late, as the back of a duckling is his most susceptible part. After the birds are six weeks old it will not be necessary to feed more than three times per day, gradually substituting meal for bran, until the birds are eight weeks old, when their food should be, at least, three-quarters meal. There should also be a steady increase of animal food after the seventh week.