CHAPTER XXII.
DUCKS.
Ducks will not pay if all their food has to be bought, except it is purchased wholesale, and they are reared for town markets, for their appetites are voracious, and they do not graze like geese. They may be kept in a limited space, but more profitably and conveniently where they have the run of a paddock, orchard, kitchen garden, flat common, green lane, or farmyard, with ditches and water. They will return at night, and come to the call of the feeder. Nothing comes amiss to them—green vegetables, especially when boiled, all kinds of meal made into porridge, all kinds of grain, bread, oatcake, the refuse and offal of the kitchen, worms, slugs, snails, insects and their larvæ, are devoured eagerly. Where many fowls are kept, a few ducks may be added profitably, for they may be fed very nearly on what the hens refuse.
Ducks require water to swim in, but "it is a mistake," says Mr. Baily, "to imagine that ducks require a great deal of water. They may be kept where there is but very little, and only want a pond or tank just deep enough to swim in. The early Aylesbury ducklings that realise such large prices in the London market have hardly ever had a swim; and in rearing ducks, where size is a desideratum, they will grow faster and become larger when kept in pens, farmyards, or in pastures, than where they are at and in the water all day." Where a large number of geese and ducks are kept, water on a sufficient scale, and easily accessible, should be in the neighbourhood.
Toulouse Goose.
Rouen and Aylesbury Ducks.
Ducks, being aquatic birds, do not require heated apartments, nor roosts on which to perch during the night. They squat on the floors, which must be dry and warm. They should, if possible, be kept in a house separate from the other poultry, and it should have a brick floor, so that it can be easily washed. In winter the floor should be littered with a thin layer of straw, rushes, or fern leaves, fresh every day. The hatching-houses should be separated from the lodging apartments, and provided with boxes for the purpose of incubation and hatching.
In its wild state the duck pairs with a single mate: the domestic duck has become polygamous, and five ducks may be allowed to one drake, but not more than two or three ducks should be given to one drake if eggs are required for setting.
Ducks begin laying in January, and usually from that time only during the spring; but those hatched in March will often lay in the autumn, and continue for two or three months. They usually lay fifty or sixty eggs, and have been known to produce 250. The faculty of laying might be greatly developed, as it has been in some breeds of fowls; but they have been hitherto chiefly bred for their flesh. They require constant watching when beginning to lay, for they drop their eggs everywhere but in the nest made for them, but as they generally lay in the night, or early in the morning, when in perfect health, they should therefore be kept in every morning till they have laid. One of the surest signs of indisposition among them is irregularity in laying. "The eggs of the duck," says Mr. Dickson, "are readily known from those of the common fowl by their bluish colour and larger size, the shell being smoother, not so thick, and with much fewer pores. When boiled, the white is never curdy like that of a new-laid hen's egg, but transparent and glassy, while the yolk is much darker in colour. The flavour is by no means so delicate. For omelets, however, as well as for puddings and pastry, duck eggs are much better than hen's eggs, giving a finer colour and flavour, and requiring less butter; qualities so highly esteemed in Picardy, that the women will sometimes go ten or twelve miles for duck eggs to make their holiday cakes."
A hen is often made to hatch ducklings, being considered a better nurse than a duck, which is apt to take them while too young to the pond, dragging them under beetling banks in search of food, and generally leaving half of them in the water unable to get out; and if the fly or the gnat is on the water, she will stay there till after dark, and lose part of her brood. Ducks' eggs may be advantageously placed under a broody exhibition hen. (See [page 88].) A turkey is much better than either, from the large expanse of the wings in covering the broods, and the greater heat of body; but if the duck is a good sitter, it is best to let her hatch her own eggs, taking care to keep her and them from the water till they are strong. The nest should be on the ground, and in a damp place. Choose the freshest eggs, and place from nine to eleven under her. Feed her morning and evening while sitting, and place food and water within her reach. The duck always covers her eggs upon leaving them, and loose straw should be placed near the house for that purpose.