Chapter III: Part 3

In running your machine, the first step is to set it level and see that the glasses register alike in both ends of the machine. Next, procure good oil, 150 test (as poor oil will necessitate frequent trimming, besides crusting the wick). Do not use more flame than is necessary, as it will only be a waste of oil, and with some machines will increase the ventilation, and at the same time decrease the moisture. Be regular in both filling lamps and trimming them, as irregularity frequently involves forgetfulness, and that sometimes means disaster to the hatch. In trimming, it is well to turn on the same amount of flame in relighting your lamp as it had previously.

In the Monarch Incubator this required amount can readily be seen at once by the action of the regulating bar. It informs the operator just when he has enough,--when too much and when too little. Keep both lamps and chimneys clean, and have stated periods for turning your eggs, which should be done twice each day. As I said before, an egg-tester is not required with duck eggs, as they are so transparent that the whole process can be plainly seen without in the flame of a common kerosene lamp. If a duck egg is carefully examined, after being subjected to a heat of 102 degrees for twenty-four hours, a small dark spot will be seen about the size of a large pin-head. This little spot, if the egg is gradually turned, will always float over the upper surface of the egg. This is the life germ, and the first indication of fertility in the egg, and is represented in Figure 1.

At the end of forty-eight hours this dark spot will have nearly doubled its size, and a faint haze will appear around its edges a shade darker than the surrounding contents of the egg. This haze is the first appearance of the blood veins radiating out from the germ.

Figure 2 shows how the egg appears at this stage with the air-cell slightly enlarged.

At the end of the third day the dark spot, which is the heart of the embryo duck, can still be seen; but not so distinctly, because a dark circle some three-quarters of an inch in diameter will now appear in the upper surface of the egg, in the centre of which the dark spot is visible. This circle is several shades darker than the rest of the egg, and no matter how the egg is turned will always float in its upper surface.

Figure 3 represents the egg at this stage, with its enlarged air-cell.

Figure 4 represents the egg as it appears at the end of the fourth day. The circle surrounding and inclosing the germ will have nearly doubled in size, and is of a still darker hue; indeed, the whole contents of the egg is perceptibly darkened. If the egg is broken carefully at this date a delicate tracery of veins will be found to have enveloped the entire yolk of the egg, all originating from the centre or heart of the embryo; the pulsations of which (if the shell is removed) can now be plainly seen with the naked eye. This net work of veins cannot be plainly seen with a common lamp, but with a powerful glass are very distinct. This latter is not at all necessary in testing the egg.

The discovery and locations of the minute organisms may be interesting to the scientist, but not at all necessary to the operator, who simply wants to be assured of the life and health of the germ. This he can readily determine from the increased size and gradual development of the circle; it, and the contents of the egg, now assume a darker shade. Up to this time I use no moisture, and the contents of the eggs have gradually evaporated and the air-cell proportionately enlarged. This air-cell is slightly enlarged till the tenth day, when no further evaporation should take place. About three days before hatching the rapidly developing duck will gradually diminish the size of the air-cell, leaving himself just room enough to work out.

Nature, in the case of the old hen, provides for her own contingencies, while we must resort to art to obtain the same conditions.

While incubating under the hen during the first few days, the egg evaporates rapidly. Then the pores gradually become coated with an oily secretion from the feathers of the hen until evaporation ceases. Now, we cannot successfully fill the pores of the eggs, it is too delicate an operation to attempt; but we can easily obtain the same conditions in another way, and that is to prevent the further evaporation of the egg by vaporizing water in the egg-chamber, so that evaporation will not take place. Exactly when this should be done is already known, but exactly how much is quite another thing, and depends largely upon the conditions of the atmosphere outside. The point is this: the humidity inside the egg-chamber must be the same, whatever the conditions are outside.

If your machine is in a warm, dry room, heated by a fire, far more evaporating surface will be required than in a cool, dry cellar, for the reason that water vaporizes just in proportion to its heat; and as the circulating pipes upon which the water-pans rest must necessarily be much warmer in a cold room than in a warm one, of course more surface must be exposed in a warm than in a cold one. The operator will always have to use his judgment more or less in that. It may perplex the novice somewhat, but it is easily understood when one becomes accustomed to it.

As a rule, in our machines, we introduce one moisture pan about the 18th day for both duck's and hen's eggs. It makes some difference whether a machine is run in a humid atmosphere near the seashore or in a dry, rarified atmosphere at an altitude in the country.

Figure 5 represents the egg at the end of the fifth day, the circle enlarged, shaded darker in color; the whole egg being slightly darker in hue.

Figure 6, at the end of the sixth day, shows still more plainly the germ undergoing a gradual change in the egg, enlarging and assuming a darker hue. The outline of the circle is now gradually acquiring the form of an ellipse, and in a live embryo the line of demarkation should be distinct. If it is at all wavy and irregular in its outline, and instead, remaining intact, the contents of this ellipse show a disposition to assimilate with the surrounding liquids when the egg is revolved, it can be safely removed as a dead duck.

Figure 7 represents a dead embryo, as it will appear from the seventh to the twelfth day. The germ being separated and appearing in dark irregular blotches over the entire surface of the egg; the egg having become nearly opaque over its entire surface. At this stage the egg, if it has not already become so, will soon be very offensive. These should be removed at once and handled carefully the while, as they are apt to explode and unpleasant consequences ensue. The operator should run no risks, as discoloration on the outside shell of a duck egg is a sure sign of decay, and they can safely be taken from the machine. There are always a certain number of duck eggs (especially during the month of August and the latter part of July) that have the appearance of fertility during the first three or four days of the hatch, but do not possess vitality enough to carry them through. These die at all stages of the hatch; neither operator nor machine is responsible for them. This is caused by the condition of the mother bird.

In order to economize the room thus made by the removal of the fertile eggs, I run a small 150-egg machine, in connection with twenty-one of the largest size, using it, as it were, as a tender. When filling one of the larger machines, I always fill one tray in the smaller one so that when the eggs in the large one are tested, after the third day, there will usually be eggs enough in the small tray to replace those removed as infertile, so that the large machines are kept full during the entire hatch by the little one. Thus the small machine is made to accomplish far more than it would were it run through the hatch. I am thus enabled to have a hatch come off nearly every day, consequently our eggs are never older than that when introduced into the machine. Always date each day's quota of eggs--keep them by themselves, then there will be no mistakes made. I have known parties to keep one general receptacle for their eggs, and when filling their machine take them from the top, while the bottom ones were never disturbed, not even turned, and of course soon became worthless for any purpose.

Figure 8 denotes the appearance of the egg during the eighth day of incubation. If portions of the shell are carefully removed at this stage, the rudimentary intestines may be plainly seen, together with the gradual development of the beak and eyes, as well as the trembling of the pulsating arteries through the whole embryo.

At this stage the operator should mark all doubtful eggs and return them to the machine, as he will find plenty of room there. He will soon become expert, and can detect life and death in the germ at a glance. Experience alone will give the operator an insight into this business. The incipient stages of decay, though easily detected by the expert, cannot be intelligently described by him. The application of a little heat for the short space of twenty days to an inert mass, developing it into active, intelligent life, is simply wonderful. The process and effect he can easily describe, but the procreative power behind it all is beyond his ken. Should a little duckling be taken from the shell on the thirteenth or fourteenth day it will resemble Figure 9. It will kick and struggle several moments after its removal. The yolk is not yet absorbed, but the process is just beginning and will continue until the twenty-fourth day, when it will be nearly absorbed. The egg, from the fourteenth day rapidly assumes a darker hue.

The extremities of the little bird gradually develop, the feathers grow, and at the twentieth day the egg is opaque. At this stage the embryo will endure greater extremes of heat or cold than at the earlier stage of the hatch. I should not advise the operator to presume upon this, however, but just make the conditions as favorable as he can, so that the little bird will have the strength to free himself from the shell. I need not say that this is the most critical time during the whole process, and matters should be made as favorable for the little duckling as possible. About the twenty-fourth day he will be already to break the shell, but, unlike the chick, who will make his way out of the shell a few hours after he has pipped, the duckling will lay for forty-eight hours before he is ready to come out. At this time there should be plenty of moisture in the egg-chamber, for should the orifice or broken parts become dry, and the little duckling, in consequence, be attached to the inside lining so that he cannot turn, he can never get out without help.

When the hatch is well underway a little more air should be allowed to circulate in the egg-chamber, and a part of the evaporating surface can be removed, for as each duckling makes its appearance he becomes a little sponge, until dried off, and furnishes plenty of moisture for the machine. When nearly dried off the duckling should be dropped into the nursery below the egg-trays. While hatching, the eggs should be kept pipped side up in the trays, as the birds sometimes get smothered when the orifice is underneath. The dry birds should be dropped below about once in four hours, for, if allowed to accumulate, they will roll the egg upside down, crowd the egg-shells over the pipped eggs, or pile themselves over the egg, smothering the young birds.

This work should be done very quickly, so as not to derange the temperature of the machine. Be sure to keep the heat up in your machine, for its tendency is always to go down during hatching, for the reason that the egg radiates a great deal of heat, while the little duckling, with its woolly covering (which is a non-conductor), retains it. Many people advocate allowing the little fledglings to remain with the eggs until all are hatched, but this is all wrong, not only for the above reasons, but for one which is far more important than either.

The amount of heat requisite to hatch the eggs is too much for the young birds already hatched and dried off. With chamber at 102 degrees, they will be seen crowding around the sides of machine with their little bills wide open, gasping for breath, when, had they been placed below, the proper temperature can be maintained in both, as the bottom of machine runs at least five degrees lower than the egg-trays.

Be sure and Follow Instructions.

Another fertile source of trouble is removing ducklings from machine, putting them behind the stove, or somewhere else to dry off. For every fifteen birds removed, the heat in egg-chamber is reduced at least one degree, as you are removing so many little stoves, and if the machine is not gauged higher, to correspond with the number of ducklings taken out, the result will be fatal to the unhatched eggs.

I corresponded a whole summer with one man on this very point before I found out what he was doing. He said he had never been able to get out more than fifty per cent. of fertile eggs. His machine ran splendidly until his chicks were about half hatched, when it would drop down to 90 degrees, and the rest would die in the shell, after they were nearly all pipped. At last a letter came from him stating that he had just had a worse experience than ever. He had a most promising hatch of three hundred fertile eggs, nearly all of which were pipped, and that, after a little more than half were hatched, he took them out as usual, about one hundred and fifty in number, and put them behind the stove to dry off, and his machine dropped to 90 degrees at once, and not another chick came out. The cat was out of the bag.

I wrote him at once that for every fifteen chicks he had taken out he had taken one degree of heat from his machine, and had he followed instructions he would not have suffered loss. He wrote back that he had shut up his machine for the season, but that he should run it one more hatch just to prove that I was wrong. At the end of three weeks a letter was received saying, "I tender you my hat. I got a splendid hatch of 88-1/2 per cent." Proving that occasionally there is danger of the operator knowing too much. After the ducklings are all out, the egg-trays should be removed, the valves opened, and the machine cooled down to 90 degrees, and the birds allowed to remain in the machine for at least twenty-four hours. I always cover the bottom of machine with an inch of fine wheat-bran, otherwise the ducklings would soon make it filthy and offensive. This acts both as absorbent and disinfectant.

After each hatch there will be more or less fertile eggs left in the trays with dead ducklings in them. There will be, comparatively, but few of these in the spring of the year, but during the latter part of the summer there will be more of them, and many of the eggs will have but little vitality in them.

Forcing the Bird Reduces the Vitality of the Egg.

The reason is this: the bird in its natural condition does not produce her eggs in our climate until April. She will lay twenty-five to thirty eggs, then show a desire to incubate, then will recuperate, and set a second time, perhaps giving a total of thirty-five or forty eggs. Now, we have completely reversed nature in this respect. By judicious feeding, good care, warm quarters, and careful breeding, we have induced the bird to produce her eggs in winter instead of summer, and, not only that, we compel her to lay three or four times as many of them; and when the poor bird shows a desire to incubate and recuperate her exhausted frame, we induce a change of mind, as soon as possible, and set her at it again.

As a natural consequence, as the warm season advances many of the birds are off duty, as it were, and the eggs not only decrease in numbers but in size as well, and during the extreme heat of summer, the later part of July and August especially, the eggs show a decided want of vitality. I never expect, at this season, to realize more than one duckling from two eggs. The same machine full of eggs that would give a hatch of 350 ducklings in the early spring, at this season will not give more than 175 to 200. The eggs appear to be as well fertilized during the first two or three days as in the early spring but evidently there is not vitality enough to carry them through, as the germs soon begin to die, and before the hatch is out you have taken nearly one-half of the eggs away as worthless. Nor is this all.

There is always a far greater mortality among the later hatched birds than in those got out earlier. They are more uneven in appearance, and never attain the size of those hatched earlier in the season,--convincing evidence that the old birds have transmitted their enfeebled, debilitated constitutions through the egg to the young ones. The natural laws of cause and effect are plainly represented here. I have tried repeatedly to overcome this difficulty by changing the feed and quarters of the old birds, dividing their numbers, but without effect. This shows the absolute necessity of selecting large, vigorous breeding stock. This principle applies equally to both land and water fowl.

The Absolute Necessity of Good Breeding Stock.

Debilitated, degenerate stock will not produce healthy and vigorous young. This is a prime cause of failure with many of our poultry breeders. They say that they cannot afford to breed from their early-hatched stock. They are worth too much in the market, so they are sent to the shambles, and their owners breed from the later-hatched, inferior birds. A few years practice of this kind soon degenerates the stock so that you will hardly recognize the original in it, and both birds and eggs are not only thus, but a very small per cent. of those eggs can be induced to hatch, and no amount of petting and coaxing can induce those that are hatched to live.

Every young breeder of poultry should inform himself of these facts before he starts in, for no living man can afford to breed from inferior stock. I passed through experiences of this kind many years ago, and always found that the laws of primogeniture cannot be lightly set aside. I invariably select the choicest of my early hatched birds for breeding stock, and no matter how high the price in market, I cannot afford to sell them. A gentleman, who is a large breeder, said to me the past spring: "How is it that your ducks are so much larger than mine? I bought stock from you four years ago, and have been breeding from it ever since, and now your birds are six or eight pounds per pair heavier than mine." "True, but you bought my latest-hatched birds, because they were cheap, and have been breeding from your latest-hatched birds ever since, while I have been breeding only from the choicest of my early birds. You have been steadily breeding your stock down, while I have been breeding mine up. There is now a wide gap between them."

Caring for the Ducklings when Hatched.

The little ducklings should be left in the machine for at least twenty-four hours longer. Be sure and open the air-valves and give them plenty of air, so that they may be well dried off. A uniform heat of 90 degrees should be held in the egg-chamber. The outer doors of the machine should be closed and the little fellows kept in darkness the first twelve hours. After that the outer doors should be let down. Then you will see some fun, for the little ducklings are far more active than chicks, and will begin to play at once. In the meantime the brooding-house should be prepared for the reception of the young brood. The heat should be started some twenty-four hours previous to use.

The brooding-house should be the same whether you are growing on a small scale or a large one, with simply the length proportioned to your needs. But always recollect that heat should radiate from above on your ducklings, as bottom heat will soon cripple them in the legs and render them helpless. In fact, I do not consider bottom heat as essential even for chicks. The most successful grower I know of, who grows 3,000 chicks each spring, getting them all out between January 1st and March 1st, and closes up the whole business by July 1st, uses top heat exclusively. He has experimented fairly with both, and says he wants no more bottom heat. If the breeder is growing on a small scale it will be economy for him to use brooders instead of a heater.

Figure 11 represents the best duck brooder I know of. As there is no patent on it anyone can make it who has the conveniences. This brooder is six and a half feet long by three feet wide, and will accommodate 150 ducklings. These brooders are of the most improved construction, are intended for both indoor and outdoor work, keeping the young ducks dry and warm in cold, stormy weather, even when located out of doors. The heat is generated in copper boilers, the water flowing through a galvanized iron tank, under which the young ducklings hover. This tank is five feet long, twelve inches wide, and about an inch thick, and is hung about eight inches from ends and back of brooder, leaving nearly eighteen inches in front the entire length of brooder, in which to feed the first day or two. The case of this brooder is made of matched boards and thoroughly ventilated and furnished with glass doors to admit light. This brooder should be used in the brooding-house during winter and early spring, after which it can be used to better advantage out of doors.

Let it be understood that a good brooder is, next to the incubator, the most important thing in the business. It is worse than useless to get out large hatches of strong, healthy birds, only to have them smothered or chilled in worthless brooders. Numbers of the patent brooders now on the market are made by men who never raised a chick or duck in their lives, and are regular fire and death traps. Many instances have come under my personal notice where not only ducks, chicks, and brooders, but the buildings themselves have been entirely consumed by these fire traps.

Again, those brooders are always rated for higher than their actual capacity. Ignorant parties buy them, fill them up according to instructions, when a sad mortality is sure to follow from overcrowding and consequent overheating. This is especially the case with chicks. Ducklings never smother each other from overcrowding, but, of course, will not thrive when too closely packed. These 150-duck brooders can be run at an expense of two cents per day for oil. In extreme cold weather artificial heat should be kept up in these brooders for three weeks; in warm weather, a week is sufficient. The same brooders can be used over and over as fast as the new hatches come out. When brooders are removed, closed boxes can be used instead.

When the operator does business large enough to require the use of five or six brooders, it would be cheaper for him to put in a heater at once, as the original cost of the heater would be less than that of the brooders. Years ago, when the question of heaters was first agitated, the cost was enormous, and the consumption of coal in proportion. Large hot-house boilers were used, often at a cost of several hundred dollars before the thing was ready for use. Now a good heating system can be arranged for a building one hundred feet long at an expense not exceeding $100. This, of course, would be much less than a complement of brooders for the same building.

Advantages of the Heating System.

The heating system has several marked advantages over the brooders. One is, that during the extreme cold of winter the building is always warm enough for the little birds, while with nothing but brooders it would often freeze around them, necessitating feeding inside the brooders, which would not be as healthy for the ducklings. Again there would be a great saving of labor, as a self-regulating heater would require no more care than a single brooder, while the oil consumed in the brooders would fully equal the cost of coal required for the heater.

There is one point here which the beginner should always take into consideration in the selection of a heater, and that is, be sure and get one that will give you the greatest amount of heat for the fuel consumed. The patent steam and water heaters now upon the market are too numerous to mention. But there is a vast difference in the economy of these heaters.

When contemplating the purchase of a heater, several years ago, I called upon a party who was running a newly-purchased heater. He seemed very much pleased with it, and said it ran admirably,--warmed his buildings nicely, and only cost about one dollar per day for coal. I made up my mind then and there that I should run my brooders a while longer. But on interrogating another party using one of a different pattern, he assured me that his heaters warmed both brooders and buildings in good shape at a cost of fifteen cents per day. This was presenting the matter in a new phase. The difference in cost of running these heaters one year would purchase two. I am now running three heaters called the "Bramhall-Deane Heater" and am heating two brooding houses (one 250 feet long, the other 175 feet long), at half the cost per day. Either steam or water may be used. I prefer water for both safety and economy.

For instance, should the fire go out accidentally the heat would cease at once where steam was used, while water would hold its heat for hours, and would continue to circulate just so long as the water in the boiler was hotter than that in the pipes. I do not know but there are other heaters in the market just as economical as the "Bramhall-Deane," but I know of several prominent poultry men who are changing their heating principle, not because they are dissatisfied with the work done by that now in use, but solely on account of the expense attending it.

Figure 12 represents our brooding-house as it appears outside. Its dimensions have already been given. It is boarded in with closely-fitting hemlock boards, the whole being covered on the outside with the heaviest quality of "Paroid" Roofing.

This roofing is manufactured by F. W. Bird & Son, East Walpole, Mass. We have more than an acre under roofing, a large proportion of which is covered with Paroid. We find it strong, pliable, insusceptible to either heat or cold and to all appearances will be more durable than anything we have ever used. I have many buildings covered with this roofing. In applying it, begin at the eaves, lapping it 1-1/2 inches. It is so heavy that it does not require wooden strips to hold it down, simply nails and tin caps, which should be about an inch apart. A coat of the liquid, which goes with it, will glaze it over in good shape. For a flat roof, it is far better than shingles at less than half the cost.

Interior Arrangement of Brooding-House.

As the construction of this building has been already noticed, I will proceed to describe its interior arrangement for a brooding-house. In the first place, as in the breeding-house, there should be a walk three feet wide the entire length of the building on the back side. Next to the walk, and parallel with it, the brooder box should run. This box will be thirty inches wide, and like the walk, the entire length of the building. In my building the brooding arrangement is very simple, being a box with two sides resting on the ground, eight inches high in the clear, the ground being utilized as the bottom of brooder.

This brooding-box consists of two parts. The sides, seven inches wide, are nailed securely, and constitute the sides of the pipe-stand. The cover is portable, with cleats nailed across the top to strengthen it, and with strips an inch wide nailed underneath, in front and in back, to keep it in position. These strips are supposed to rest on the seven-inch strips in the sides, and, when the cover is on, make a tight brooder.

Figure 13 represents the interior of brooding-house, with these covers on the brooders and ready for use. Also, with two of the covers removed showing the heating pipes. These consist of a two-inch flow and return, running parallel with each other the entire length of the building, and lying ten inches apart from centre to centre. These pipes rest upon cross boards, whose length corresponds with the width of the brooder, and to which the sides are nailed; two-inch holes are cut out in the top of these boards into which the pipes are laid, the upper surface of which comes flush with the top of the boards, so that when the cover of brooders is in position it rests equally on pipes and boards.

The distance between these boards corresponds with the width of pens outside of brooder, and constitute partitions for the same. The partitions are simply inch boards, twelve or fourteen inches wide, fitting into ground in front of building to keep them upright and in position. The front of the brooder leading into the pens is cut out in centre of brooder four feet long and four inches deep to allow the free passage of the ducklings. These openings in the first four pens are fringed with woolen cloth, cut up every four inches, to keep the brooder warmer in cold weather. The remaining brooders are not fringed, for reasons which will appear hereafter. The heater can be located in the end of building most convenient to the operator.

The bottom of the pens should consist of sand which, when it becomes wet, and before it becomes offensive, should be covered with fine sawdust. This is a good absorbent and disinfectant as well. The inside of the four brooders next the heater should be filled up with hay chaff to within four inches of the pipes, the distance being gradually increased as you near the other end of the building, until the whole eight inches in height will be required, using simply sawdust enough to disinfect the bottom of brooder. This is my present brooding arrangement, with the exception of a common door handle screwed on each brooder cover to facilitate handling. It may not suit every one; some may want it more ornamental, more expensive; others may wish to simplify it still more. But such as it is, it is now all ready for use, with heat applied.

But those little ducklings, who have been waiting all this time in the machine, are getting both hungry and impatient, and require immediate attention. The food which has already been prepared consists of a formula composed of four parts wheat-bran, one part corn-meal with enough of low grade flour to connect the mass without making it sticky or pasty, in fact, it should be crumbly so that the little birds can eat it readily. About five per cent. of fine, sharp grit should be mixed into their first feed, after that, one or two per cent. is all sufficient. This grit should be increased in size as the birds grow older.

About the third day, a little fine beef-scrap should be introduced, soaking it a little before mixing. When a few days old, a little green rye, if obtainable, should be given them, or as a substitute, finely chopped cabbage or lettuce. When the birds are two weeks old, one part corn-meal to three parts bran should be used. This food should be scattered upon the feeding-troughs, which are simply one-half inch boards, nine or ten inches wide, by three or four feet long, with laths nailed on the sides and ends. Small water-cans, inverted in tin saucers, so that the ducklings can drink readily without getting wet, should stand convenient to the food.

How to Remove the Ducklings Without Injury.

To facilitate the removal of ducklings from the machine, I have a square basket some two and one-half feet long, by fifteen inches wide and one foot high, with close covers, hinged in the centre. In order to secure the ducklings, usually all that is necessary is to open one door of machine, hold this basket under it and make a little chuckling noise, and strange to say, the little fellows will run out over the pipes, over the glass door, down into the basket in dozens as fast as their little legs and wings can carry them. This basket will hold 100 ducklings conveniently. When full, it should be carried to the brooding-house and carefully inverted over the feeding-boards.

The little birds will begin eating at once. This process can be repeated until the machine is emptied. There will be some of the later-hatched ones that should be allowed to remain in the machine ten or twelve hours longer, as they can be cared for better there. These can be readily detected, as they are not as active as the others, and perhaps not completely dried off. The ducklings should be put out, if possible, during the middle of the day, and while the sun shines through the windows, as they can be fed in the sun and put under the brooder later in the day.

In event of there being no sun, it will not do to feed under the brooding-box, as it is too dark. I then take a one-half inch board, four feet long (to correspond with the length of opening in front of brooder) and six inches wide. I nail two pieces of the same width and height, one foot long, on to each end of this board, forming a parallelogram four feet long and one foot wide, minus one side. This is set up in front of the opening in brooder, and being of the same length, forms a little pen in front of brooder one foot wide, in which the feeding-trough can be placed with drinking fount.

The ducklings can then run out and in and feed when they wish. This board will only be needed for a day or two, when it can be taken up and reserved for the next brood. The ducklings should be fed once in two hours, scattering a little food on the troughs. Be sure that they eat clean before more is given. At the end of a week the regular feed should be four meals each day.

How to Feed.

When I can get stale baker's bread I use that in connection with, and instead of, bran. It can be profitably mixed with milk, not too sour, when it can be had for a cent a quart. But do not give milk as drink,--the young birds will smear themselves all over with it, their beaks and eyes will be stuck up, the down will come off their little bodies in large patches, and they will be a constant aggravation. I was once called upon to visit an establishment, the owner of which complained that his ducklings did not grow, and he was very anxious for me to locate the trouble. I found six to eight hundred ducklings there of all ages, and, strange to say, nearly of one size; and one lot of nearly three hundred ducklings eight weeks old would not average one pound each, when they should have weighed four pounds.

Such a sight I never saw before, and hope never to see again. Of all the miserable, squalid, contemptible looking objects, those ducklings took the lead. This man had not only mixed their food with milk, but had kept it by them in open troughs, and the birds had bathed in it and spattered it over each other until there was hardly a feather left on their emaciated bodies; and yet this man did not know what ailed his ducks.

Is it strange that some people fail in the poultry business?

When in full operation, we run twenty-one large machines, and as it requires twenty-seven days to close up each hatch, of course we have a hatch come off nearly every day. Now as each hatch is supposed to occupy two brooder-pens with the corresponding yards, in the course of five or six weeks that brooding-house will be filled with its complement of 3,000 ducklings. These will be of all ages, from the little puff-balls just from the machine, to the half-grown bird of six weeks old. The brooding pipes are supposed to radiate the same amount of heat at the extreme end of the building as they do next the heater, consequently the brooders are of the same temperature in all their parts. Not so the building.

As the heater radiates a great deal of heat, the end in which this is located is always 12 or 15 degrees warmer than the other and is thus better adapted to the comfort of the newly hatched ducklings than the other, so I always put the birds fresh from the machine next the heater, while the older ones are passed down the building. This is a very simple process. One end of the partition board is lifted up a little, food scattered in a trough in the empty pen adjoining, the ducklings will rush under in a moment, then the board is dropped. The same process is continued until all are moved and the building filled.

The building just described we term our nursery, and has a capacity of about 2,500 birds. When full, the older birds are probably about two weeks old, and of course these older ones must be removed to make room for successive hatches of younger birds. For this purpose, we constructed a building 125 feet long, 32 feet wide, which we style our double brooding house. It runs east and west with a walk four feet wide through the centre, with brooding-pens on each side. This building has the same capacity of a single building 250 feet long, and accommodates about 5,000 birds. On the south side of this walk our brooder boxes are arranged.

At one end of the building is a heater, from which an inch-and-a-half flow and return pipe runs under the brooder boxes the entire length of the building and furnishes heat for the little birds. The brooder-boxes are located twenty inches from the side of the walk. The ducklings are fed and watered in this space, and are not allowed in it except for that purpose. To effect this, the covers of the brooding-boxes, which are six feet long by two feet wide, are cut in the centre the entire length, and hinged with a perpendicular lip, which when closed, meets an upright board below, some two inches high, shutting brooders tight, excluding ducklings from feeding apartment, so that it is always sweet and clean.

By this arrangement, the ducklings are all fed and watered from the walk, thus reducing the labor to a minimum, while there is no danger of crushing the little birds under foot or under the troughs. The attendant is not hampered in his movements, but can work as quickly as he likes. All he has to do is to distribute the food and water, throwing the covers back as he goes, when the ducklings, which are always waiting, rush in and soon fill themselves. Twenty minutes is all that is required for them to eat and drink.

A person of good judgment can easily determine about how much the birds will consume, though it is well for him to pass along the walk, giving a little more food where their wants are not satisfied, or taking up what is left over, shutting the covers down when the birds are through.

As this building is well piped, distributing water at both ends, as well as at the mixing-box and heater, it makes the feeding almost a pastime, the work is done so easily. This building is just what we have been looking for. There are none on the place that pleases us so well. Its many advantages over a single building must be evident to all. The increased facility for doing the work, as well as its economy in housing many more birds for the money invested, are not the least.

When planning this building, we had some misgiving about running it east and west as the lay of the land required, thinking that the exposure on the north side during the inclement weather of the early spring, would confine the young birds to the building and they would suffer for want of exercise, but we were agreeably disappointed as we found that they thrived equally as well, if not better, on the north side as on the south, proving what I have always known in duck culture, that the extreme heat of summer is more debilitating to young birds than the cold of winter, and that early hatched birds will always be of larger size and more robust physique than late ones.

That is why I have always made it a point to select my early hatched birds for breeding purposes. I have never known any too good for that. I insert cuts of this double building, with the older ducklings on the north side and the younger ones on the south. Were I to build another, I should duplicate it in every respect.

Regulation of Heat in Brooders.

Now, as the birds grow larger, they naturally need less heat, and we must contrive to fix it so they do not get so much. As stated before, no fringe is used beyond the first four brooders,--the space in front being left open; and not only that, but we gradually raise the back of the cover next the walk until it opens an inch or more the entire length of the pen. Those ducklings, before they reach the other end of this brooding-house, will weigh (if well cared for) over a pound each.

The brooder will not then be large enough to hold them, neither do they require the heat, in fact it would be injurious at this age; so before the birds reach the extreme end of the building I shut them off from the brooders entirely by placing a board in front of the opening. The young birds will always thrive better out of doors than in; and when two weeks old I always let them out during the sunny days of April, by opening the slides in front.

At this stage of growth when the birds are from two to four weeks old, especially with the early hatches when confined as they usually are during the inclement weather in winter, unless extreme care is taken, a sad mortality is sure to follow.

There is a great tendency at this stage of growth, when the birds are confined, to overfeed as well as to overheat in the brooders. This, coupled with too little exercise is sure to cripple the birds, weaken their legs and render them helpless. Even experienced growers sometimes get a little careless and lose whole hatches. We have numerous letters from all parts of the country in which people write "My ducklings are all crippled, cannot walk and are dying off fast. What shall I do?" There is only one thing; feed sparingly, and give all the exercise possible. Often, the want of grit will cause the same trouble.

(Our yards have been prepared for this the previous autumn, and are now covered with a thick coat of green rye five or six inches high.) To accomplish this, I make pens outside the building in front, ten feet long, and of a width to correspond with the pens inside. I simply use old boards a foot wide, tacking them together with wire nails, as it is only a temporary arrangement. When snow falls it must be shoveled out at once. Just as soon as the weather and the condition of the ground will allow, I set up the partition wire outside to correspond with the width of pens inside. This wire partition runs the whole length of the yard; and as the yards are 100 feet deep, it gives the ducklings a yard 6x100 feet. I always feed outside whenever the weather will permit. It is needless to say that the sanitary arrangements in this building are of the utmost importance. Indeed, it will require constant watchfulness and care on the part of the attendant.

The Sanitary Arrangements.

With several thousand ducklings confined in one building, the tendency is decidedly filthy. The capacity of the duckling for filth is wonderful, and he comes honestly by it. It is simply astonishing how soon he will manage to mix the contents of his water-tank with that of his yard and make both sloppy and offensive. The chick is nowhere in comparison. It is true, the duck is not so easily affected by it as the chick, but it will not do to presume too much upon that. At this stage the attendant will be kept busy every moment from daylight to dark.

Not only the regular feeding four times a day requires his attention, but the simple mixing of seventy-five to one hundred bushels of feed each day is quite a little job of itself, especially when the different ingredients should be exact. The water tanks also must be regularly cleaned and filled. The troughs should be carefully cleaned before feeding, as the ducks will readily eat all foreign matter together with the food. In short, the whole business must be systematized all the way through, and the attendant should understand that it is never safe to neglect a single detail.

I had always made a point of doing this duty myself. A few years ago, not feeling well and having other business requiring my attention, I engaged a man whom I considered competent to do this business for me. I took him over the yards, showed and told him just how the thing must be done; watched him to see that he did the work faithfully and complied with all its details. Things went on apparently well for a week or two, when, going home one day, I noticed a number of dead ducklings lying around, and looking under the brooder I found quite a number more. I at once interviewed the man and cautioned him. He insisted that he had followed the instructions to the letter. But the mortality did not abate, on the contrary it increased to an alarming extent; and I had lost more ducklings in one month than I had lost for ten years previous.

I watched him and found that the feeding-troughs were not cleaned at all, and when the birds scattered the sawdust in them the food was thrown on that, the ducklings consuming both. The food was thrown partly in the trough and partly on the ground; apparently a matter of perfect indifference to him. The water-tanks were not rinsed out. Instead of stepping over the eighteen-inch partition wires he stepped on them, breaking down the standards and flattening down the wire, so that the birds were all mixed together promiscuously,--ducklings two weeks old with those of six weeks. The little ones were trodden down by the older ones and almost denuded of their feathers, and there was no thrift to be seen anywhere. To say that I was indignant does not express it. I had often seen such a condition of things elsewhere, but not before on my own ranch; I was absolutely ashamed to show visitors around the yards as long as this state of things existed.

That man was promptly discharged, and I undertook the feeding myself. The birds were sorted out and returned to their own yards, the wire replaced, the feeding-troughs cleaned, the pens carefully disinfected. In four days double the amount of food was consumed and things were decidedly improved. But those birds never acquired that uniformity of size and appearance which had always characterized my market birds. The best material to use in the pens inside the brooding-house is dry, fine sawdust, if it can be obtained. It is by far the best thing I know of for the purpose. The next best is finely chopped straw or hay, tanbark, etc. The brooders, like the pens, require close attention. The top should be scraped off before it becomes offensive, and new material applied. This can be easily done by simply lifting the edge of the cover next the walk and drawing it over into the walk, when it can be taken in a barrow or basket.

The Necessity of Green Food.

It must be remembered that as the broods grow older the cleaning process must be repeated oftener, as their capacity for generating filth will always be in proportion to their size. Those unacquainted with duck-culture have little idea how fast these birds will grow; how soon they will successively outgrow brooders, pens and yards, and how soon every vestige of green will disappear from yards that were thickly covered with rye. But the ducklings must be kept growing at all hazards, and a vegetable supply must be procured from outside.

Rye comes first in the season (I always cultivate it for the purpose, and when coarse, it must be cut so that it can be readily eaten); then grass; and next corn fodder, which is best of all. It is astonishing how much of the latter these birds will consume--hundreds of pounds each day. It should be cut very fine, not more than one-third of an inch in length. Unlike the hen, the birds prefer the stalk to the leaf. Give them all they will eat, once each day. [But we have forgotten that empty machine. After the ducklings are taken out it will be found running at 85 to 90 degrees. I gauge it up to 102 and fill it with fresh eggs at once, not forgetting to fill one tray in the little tender.] There is one bad habit to which ducklings of four or five weeks old are addicted, and that is feather eating. First the down will begin to disappear from their backs; next, as the birds grow older, the quills which grow out from the end of the wings will disappear, and they are all exposed for tempting morsels.

These quills bleed profusely when disturbed, which, of course, seriously retards the growth and progress of the birds. This vice should be checked at once, for vice it is,--superinduced by idleness and close confinement. When the first indications of these troubles appear, the attendant should watch the birds closely for a few moments, when the aggressors can soon be detected. They should be removed at once and confined by themselves, or placed in yards with older birds already feathered out, which affords them no temptation to practice their newly acquired art.