When the young are hatched they should be left with the hen till well nestled, well dried, and strong enough to stand. Many scores of ducklings are lost by inexperienced persons through their impatience to remove them from the nest. The little duckling is at first clad with soft yellow down, which gradually disappears as the feathers grow. After a few days, 3 or 4 broods are put together with one hen, who is quite able to take care of them all. For market purposes the treatment of the ducklings is as follows: They are not allowed to go into any water, but are kept in hovels, or the rooms of cottages, each lot of 30 or 40 separated by low boards; it is no uncommon thing at Aylesbury to see 2000-3000 all in one establishment. They are kept very clean and dry on barley straw. Their food consists of hard-boiled eggs chopped fine, and mixed with boiled rice and bullock’s liver cut up small. This is given to them several times in the day for about a fortnight or more. When they are capable of consuming more, they are fed on barley meal and tallow greaves mixed, together with the water in which the greaves have previously been boiled; some also use horseflesh to mix with their other food. This constitutes all that is necessary to produce early ducklings for the table.
They are killed at 10-12 weeks old, just before the adult feathers come; as the energy up to that time has been spent in the growth of flesh, but is then directed to the feathers, and a duck at 5-6 months when plucked often does not weigh so much as one of 3 months. The hens should be set in December and not later than March, for then the demand for ducklings is greater than the supply.
As to the treatment of such as are intended for breeding and exhibition. To produce birds of great frame and weight, the same food is given during the earliest stage; but, after about 3 weeks, they are allowed to go to the water, and their food is varied as soon as possible, by giving them maize (or better, oats) and barley alternately, when they can eat the same. They should be fed 3 times a day, and always have a trough of water by them, or the grain be thrown into the water; and it is an advantage to have some gravel or sand at the bottom, so that when drinking they also get hold of some grit, which helps digestion, and tends to keep the bill in proper colour. Maize is apt to render the birds too fat, and increase the tendency to accumulate internal abnormal fat, and to go “down behind,” in which condition they are perfectly useless as stock birds.
Geese
Geese.—Geese can only be profitably kept where there is abundance of grazing ground, as they derive the greater part of their nourishment from grass. Under suitable conditions no birds can be more profitable, but under other circumstances they cannot be recommended.
Of the three varieties, namely, the pure white or Emden, the grey or Toulouse, and the common saddle-back, the first name is to be preferred, as the birds pluck much better and clearer than the grey, and are much larger than the common parti-coloured breed.
The management of these birds in suitable localities is attended with very little trouble. In the early part of the year the old geese should be well fed with oats thrown into water, so as to stimulate them to early laying in February, if possible. When she has laid from eight to thirteen eggs, the goose remains on the nest, and her eggs may then be given to her.
The nest should be on the ground, without any intervening boards; and, if in a dry situation, should be watered, so as to keep the mould moist. The hatching goose should be well fed with oats thrown into a pan of water when she leaves the nest, and she should be allowed to go on to the pond or river.
When hatched, the goslings require grass, meal slaked with water, or porridge made with oatmeal. After a few days, oats, in water, may be given, and with the food they find by grazing, the young will do well until fattening time, when they should be fed on oats, in water. In many parts the geese are partially plucked two or three times a year for the sake of the feathers. Nothing can be more injurious than the practice; the small sum obtained for the plumage is much less than the deterioration in the value of the bird.