Grading and Sorting the Ducklings. As the ducklings are moved from pen to pen through this house as well as the other houses, they are constantly graded for size and thriftiness, the smaller, less thrifty individuals being left with younger lots. Some ducklings do not grow as quickly as others, and these if left with ducklings larger than themselves will not get their share of the feed and will not do as well. In this connection it should be noted that when young ducks are not fairly clean it is a good indication that they are not doing as well as they should.
Cleaning and Bedding the Pens. Careful attention must be given to keeping the pens and the ducklings themselves clean if they are to do well. Therefore the pens must be cleaned out as often as may be necessary to accomplish this purpose. The judgment of the brooder man must decide how often this is necessary but it will be at least once a week. When cleaning the pens the old bedding is thrown out from the front pens through the windows and from the back pens through the door provided in the rear wall for this purpose. Bedding the pens must be done more frequently, usually about every other day. Fresh bedding will help to absorb the droppings and will keep the pens from becoming sloppy or sticky. For bedding, straw, meadow hay, swale hay or any other suitable material available should be utilized.
Ventilation. Plenty of ventilation is required in the brooder house in order to take out the ammonia odor which arises from the droppings. Properly managed, the doors and windows provide sufficient means of ventilation but some duck growers prefer to have roof ventilators in addition.
Other Types of Brooder Houses. Many other types of brooder houses are used, some of them being shed roof construction and many of them being built narrower than this house, that is to say, 14, 16 or 18 feet wide with an alleyway along the front or rear side of the house from which the work is done. The hovers are placed at the back of the pens when the alley-way is in the front, otherwise, they are placed next to the alley-way. The disadvantages of these houses are that only single pens are provided and that valuable brooding space is used up by the alley-way. The advantages of the house described above lie in the fact that the hovers are in the center of the house with the pens on each side of this, thus doubling the capacity, and that by making use of a walk over the hover pipe no room is wasted in an alley-way. Having pens on each side also lessens the labor of taking care of the ducklings to some extent as the arrangement is more compact.
Length of Time in Brooder
In House No. 1. As a rule the ducklings are kept in the No. 1 house until they are from 2 to 3 weeks old, this of course depending somewhat upon the time of year and the weather and also upon the number of ducklings for which accommodations must be provided at any particular time. As the ducks are moved down through the house and eventually reach the last pens they are taken from this house and placed in brooder house No. 2.
Brooder House No. 2. This is a heated house like brooder house No. 1 but in which it is not necessary to maintain so high a temperature. Sufficient heating apparatus should be installed to make it possible to maintain the temperature at 60 degrees if this becomes necessary in the early spring.
The particular brooder house described is 14 feet wide and has a shed roof. It is provided with a window in the front of each pen. No openings are required along the back since this is not a double pen house. The space in such a house could undoubtedly be used to better advantage if it were constructed as wide as the No. 1 house and the hot water pipes and walk put through the middle of the house so as to provide double pens. In this house the hot water pipes are run along the rear of the pens, and while hovers are not really necessary, a walk is constructed over the pipes in order to save space and provide a convenient place from which to do the work, and this forms hovers.
Ordinarily after May 1 no heat is needed in the No. 2 house. The pens in this house are 12 feet wide and they are equipped with feeding and watering arrangements as in brooder house No. 1. As the ducklings are moved to this house from the No. 1 house from 150 to 200 are placed in each pen. They are moved through the house from pen to pen in the same manner as in the No. 1 house to make way for new arrivals. As a rule they stay in this house about two weeks depending somewhat on the weather and upon the number of ducklings being brooded. Yards are used in connection with this house which are the same width as the pens and 50 feet in length. As in the No. 1 house the pens in this house should be cleaned at least once a week and they should be bedded with straw or other bedding material every other day. As soon as the ducks have been moved through this No. 2 house they are put in brooder house No. 3.