CARE OF THE DUCKS

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXII, Issue 22165, 19 July 1935, Page 18

CARE OF THE DUCKS

IMPORTANCE OF WATER

BY A.8.0

Ducks should be mated to the drakes considerably longer than is required with fowls. Two to three weeks will provo quite sufficient with fowls, while poor fertility will be shown in duck eggs, even after tho birds have been mated a month or more. Drakes which have been running in a mob will be very unsettled when divided up and put into various pens with tho ducks. Many days will go by before they tfease to roam up and down the fences in an endeavour to escape and return to the pen from which they have been taken. It is always advisable if possible to mate the birds now if eggs of good fertility are required in September. Dry weather conditions will immediately' effect fertility if swimming water is not available to the bird. The writer has known fertility to drop from one hundred per cent to under fifty per cent in the space of two weeks of dry weather. This may be overcome by providing some sort of a water container, sunk into the ground flush, so thai the birds may have easy access to if It needs to be large enough to give the birds room to splash about. Do not lose sight of the fact thai ducks are naturally water fowl and imagine that they do not require,' in their present generation, water in which to paddle. They will certainly lay just as well without swimming water, provided they are never short of it for drinking, but for good fertility it is really an essential to provide a bath of some kind. If the number kept is small, a benzine drum out length ways is sufficient.