Ornamental ducks.The ornamental ducks of the same species as the common duck, and derived either from common ducks or directly from the Mallard, are the East India Duck, the Black, White, and Gray Call Ducks, and the Crested White Duck.The Call Ducks are so named because their persistent quacking makes them valuable for calling wild ducks within range of the guns of hunters, and they are much used as decoys. They are very small and were produced by dwarfing common ducks. The name "gray," to describe the colored variety, is misleading. The color is like that of the Mallard but of a lighter shade. Some Mallards are quite as gray as the average Gray Call Duck. The Black East India Duck is a dwarf black duck differing so little from the Call Ducks as to leave no doubt, in the mind of any one acquainted with the mysteries of making and naming breeds of poultry, that, like the Call Ducks, it is of European origin.
Fig. 128.Blue Orpington Ducks. (Photograph from owner, Sunswick Farm, Plainfield, New Jersey)
There are many ornamental ducks of other species, the most interesting of which are the brilliantly colored Wood Duck (sometimes called the Carolina Duck) and the Mandarin Duck, which, besides being gorgeously colored, has a peculiar crest and has some of the feathers on its wings oddly curved and spread, giving it a singular appearance. Specimens of these ducks arealmost always to be seen in a collection of fancy waterfowl. The Wood Duck is a native of North America, the Mandarin Duck of Northern China.
Place of ducks in domestication.It has been stated that if there were no fowls, the duck would make the best substitute, but as we have fowls in great variety, and as they suit us better than ducks for nearly every purpose for which either might be used, ducks are not often kept in place of fowls. Small flocks of ducks are kept in addition to a flock of fowls, both on farms and by town poultry keepers, either because the owner likes to have them about or to add to the variety of poultry meat for home consumption. The flocks of ducks so kept are of comparatively little economic importance. The ratio of ducks to fowls is only about one to fifty, and the ratio of values of the products of these two kinds of poultry is probably nearer one to one hundred. But when poultry keeping is made a special business, duck growing gives the surest and the largest profits, because ducks can be grown in large numbers more easily than any other domestic animal. The largest permanently successful poultry farms in the world are the great duck farms of the United States.
Fig. 129.Black and White Call Ducks, Brook View Farm, Newbury, Massachusetts
To the fancier, ducks are decidedly less interesting than fowls, not only because, as has already been stated, they present fewer superficial characters upon which he can exercise his art, but because they are, on the whole, less intelligent and less capable of developing confidence in one who handles them. Fowls are much easier to handle in the way the fancier must oftenhandle his birds for thorough examination. As a rule, a fowl quickly learns that it is not going to be hurt, and the more it is handled the tamer it becomes. Young ducks are almost stupidly fearless of the person who feeds them, as long as he goes among them without touching them, but after he catches them they are as stupidly shy. It takes very much more patience to handle ducks as a fancier handles birds than the average human being possesses, and so very few people find them satisfactory for pets after they cease to be a novelty.
Perhaps if the interest in the breeding of ducks for exhibition were greater, stocks of ducks that were free from this timidity could gradually be developed. Individual birds are often found which are not at all shy; and, as a rule, persistent selection for any quality will eventually make it a race characteristic.
Although ducks delight in the water and, when they have an opportunity to do so, spend a considerable part of the time in it, they are often kept very successfully where they have no water except for drinking. Some duck breeders, who have kept their ducks for many generations without water in which they could swim, have said that the ducks lost all desire to swim, and that birds of such stock would not go into the water even when they had the opportunity to do so. This statement greatly exaggerates the facts. Any young duck, no matter how the stock from which it came has been kept, will take to the water as soon as it can run about if it is given access to water at that time; but if young ducks are kept away from the water until they are several weeks old, and then given access to water in which they can swim, they are often as much afraid of the water as they would be of any object to which they were not accustomed. If they remain near the water, however, it will not be long before they follow their natural instinct to get into it. Having once entered the water, they are immediately as much at home there as if they had always known the pleasures of life in that element.
As comparatively few people keep ducks, and specialization in duck culture is mostly in the line of producing young ducks for market, on a large scale, there is not as much variety in methods of managing ducks as in methods of managing fowls. If ducks are expected to do the best of which they are capable, they must be given a great deal of attention. While no bird will endure more neglect without appearing to suffer, there is none that will respond to good care more generously.
Numbers.The small flock of ducks on a town lot is usually averysmall flock, kept more from curiosity and for a little variety in poultry keeping than with any definite purpose. Most of such little flocks are composed of a drake and from one to five ducks. Where a larger flock is kept for the eggs they produce, the number rarely exceeds fifteen or twenty. Many town people who want to grow only a few ducks each year prefer not to keep any adult stock, but to buy a few eggs for hatching when they want them.
Houses and yards.Ducks require about the same amounts of house and yard room per bird as fowls. While they will stand crowding better than any other kind of poultry, they appreciate an abundance of room and good conditions, and are more thrifty when they are not overcrowded. Where they can be allowed to remain outdoors at night, they really need no shelter but a shed large enough to give them shade from the sun on hot days and protection from hard, driving storms. On most town lots, however, it is advisable to have them indoors at night for protection from dogs and thieves. Also, the amount of roughing that they like, while not at all detrimental to them, is not conducive to early laying. So most duck keepers prefer to have the ducks housed at night and in severe weather, and give them approximately the same space that would be given to an equal number of fowls.
The floor of the house should be littered with straw, hay, or shavings. The object of littering the floors of duck houses is not to afford them exercise, but to provide them with dry bedding. The droppings of ducks are very watery, and the bedding must be changed often enough to keep the ducks clean. It is customary to provide shallow nest boxes, placing them on the floor next the wall, preferably in a corner. The ducks are quite as likely to leave their eggs anywhere on the floor, or out in theyard (if they are let out before they lay), but the nests are there if they want them, and many will use the nests regularly.
The only other furnishings needed are a feed trough and a drinking vessel, but it is advisable to have a tub or a pan in which the birds can take a bath, and to supply them with water in this once or twice a week. The drinking vessel must be one that they cannot get into, for if they can get into it they will certainly do so. An ordinary wooden water pail, or a small butter tub with the part above the upper hoop sawed off, makes a very satisfactory drinking vessel for adult ducks. It will hold enough water for the ducks to partially wash themselves, which they do by dipping their heads in the water and then rubbing them on their bodies and wings. For the regular bath for two or three ducks one of the largest-sized bath pans made for pigeons will do very well, or an old washtub cut down to six or eight inches deep may be used. For a flock of eight or ten ducks a good tub may be made from one end of a molasses hogshead. The bath should always be given outdoors, because it takes the ducks only a few minutes to splash so much water out of the tub that everything around it is thoroughly wet. The drinking water should also be given outdoors whenever the houses are open.
As the ducks of the breeds usually kept can hardly fly at all, very low partitions and fences will keep them in their quarters, but to keep other poultry or animals out of their yards it may be necessary to build higher fences. For the heavier breeds, like the Pekin and Rouen, fences are usually made from 18 inches to 24 inches high. The ducks will rarely attempt to go over these, but occasionally a drake learns to climb a two-foot fence by using his bill, wings, and toes, and may then manage to get over a higher fence. For the small, light breeds, fences 3 or 4 feet high may be needed. If their yard is on a slope and is large enough to give them a chance to start a flight high up on the slope, so that they will rise above the fence at the lower side, it may be necessary either to put a very high fence on that side or to cover the yard.
While the fence for ducks need not be either high or strong, there must be no holes in it that a duck, having put its head through, could by pressure enlarge enough to let its body pass. A piece of wire netting that has begun to rust a little may be as good as ever for fowls for a long time, but if used for a duck fence it will be most unsatisfactory, because the ducks will soon make many holes in it. If wire netting alone is used, it should be fastened to the ground with pegs every three or four feet.
Feeding.The feeding of ducks differs from the feeding of hens in that ducks need mostly soft food, and that, if the keeper wishes to force growth or egg production, they may be fed much larger proportions of such concentrated foods as beef scraps and meat meals. As has been stated, in its natural state the duck gets the greater part of its food from the water. This is all soft food, and the bird swallows a great deal of water with it. It does not, therefore, need a large crop in which to soak its food before it passes into the gizzard. So the crop of the duck is small—merely an enlargement of the gullet. Some of the old books on poultry say that the duck has no crop, but you can see by looking at a duck that has just had a full meal that the food it has taken remains in the passage, sometimes filling it right up to the throat.
Fig. 130.Pekin duckling six weeks old
With a mash (just the same as is given to hens) morning and evening, a cabbage to pick at, plenty of drinking water, and a supply of oyster shell always before them, ducks will do very well. If they have no cabbage, about one third (by bulk) of the mash should be cut clover or alfalfa. When the days are long, it is a good plan to give them a little cracked corn or wholewheat about noon. The water supply should always be replenished just before feeding, for as soon as a duck has taken a few mouthfuls of food of any kind, it wants a drink of water.
Laying habits.With the exception of the ducks of the Indian Runner type, which lay some eggs at other seasons, as hens do, ducks usually lay very persistently for about six months, and then stop entirely for about six months. Occasionally ducks of other breeds lay a few eggs in the autumn, but this trait has not been developed in them as it has in the Indian Runner. If they are comfortably housed and well fed, Pekin and Rouen Ducks usually begin to lay in January. If they are allowed to expose themselves to rough weather, and are fed indifferently, they may not begin to lay until March or April. When they do begin, they usually lay much more steadily than hens until hot weather comes, and then gradually decrease their production until by midsummer they have stopped altogether.
Fig. 131.Pekin drake four months old, weighing nine pounds
The eggs are usually laid very early in the morning. Ducks often lay before daylight and almost always lay before eight o'clock. When a duck lays in a nest, she is very likely to cover the egg with the nest material when she leaves it. A duck will often make a nest and remain on it an hour or more and then go and drop her egg somewhere else and pay no further attention to it.
Growing ducklings.For a poultry keeper who has only a little room it is much easier to grow a few ducks than to grow an equal number of chickens. There are two reasons for this: One is that the ducklings stand close confinement better and are not so sensitive to unsanitary conditions; the other is that ducks of the improved breeds grow much more quickly than chickens and are grown up before the novelty of caring for them wears off and the keeper tires of giving the close attention that young poultry need when grown under such conditions.
The ducks of the improved breeds are mostly non-sitters. Unless one has common ducks, Muscovy Ducks, Rouen Ducks with some wild Mallard blood, or Mallards not long domesticated, he is not likely to have a duck "go broody," and so small lots of duck eggs are usually hatched under hens. As duck eggs are larger than hen eggs, a smaller number is given to the hen. Eleven medium-sized duck eggs are given to a hen that would cover thirteen hen eggs. If the eggs are large, it is better to give such a hen only nine.
The development of a fertile duck egg that has a white or slightly tinted shell can be seen very plainly when the egg is held before a light, much earlier than the development of a hen egg. If the shell is green and quite dark in color, the development of the germ may not show any better than in a brown-shelled hen egg. The period of incubation is about four weeks. Eggs are sometimes picked as early as the twenty-fifth day, but usually on the twenty-sixth day. As stated inChapter II, the duckling usually waits quite a long time after chipping the shell before it completes the process and emerges.
In a little duckling we find the most striking resemblance to a reptile that is to be seen among domestic birds. It has a long, soft body, a long neck, short legs, and a wriggling movement, and sometimes, when it is wriggling through a small hole, it looks very snakelike. While they are very small, ducklings are the most interesting of young birds. They will go to the water assoon as they leave the nest. Dabbling in it will not hurt them in the least if the weather is pleasant, if the water is not cold, and if they can leave it when they are tired and go to their mother and get dry and warm. Much of the pleasure of growing young ducks is in watching their behavior in the water. For this purpose a large pan or a small, shallow tub may be placed in their coop. It should either be sunk in the ground, so that they can get in and out easily, or two short pieces of board should be nailed together at such an angle that they will form a little walk from the ground outside, over the edge of the vessel, and to the bottom inside. This walk enables the ducklings to get out if the water gets so low that they cannot scramble from its surface over the sides of the pan or tub. The best way to teach the little ducks to use the walk is to put a little pile of sods or earth beside the vessel containing the water. The ducks will learn very quickly to go into the water in this way, and will soon find their way out by the board walk. After they have come out by the walk a few times, they will begin to go in by it. It is very important to make sure that if young ducks are given water to play in, they can get out of it easily. Many who have not had experience in handling them neglect this and feel very bad when some of their ducklings are drowned.
If proper provision is made for the safety of the ducklings, they afford a great deal of entertainment. One of the first things a little duck does when it gets into the water is to go through the peculiar ducking performance that gives the name to its species. The little fellows duck their heads to the bottom, and their tails and feet go up into the air while they mechanically feel with their bills for the food which instinct seems to suggest should be there. They play in the water, going through all the motions of feeding in it. If the sun is warm, they are as likely to lie down together in the sun when they leave the water as they are to go to the hen to be brooded. As they lie on the ground they often turn one eye toward the sky and look steadilyupward, as if they knew intuitively that one of their most dangerous natural enemies might appear from that quarter. In every way they comport themselves just as old ducks do and not at all in the ways of their hen mother.
The young ducks may be fed, as the old ones are, on mash, but should be fed oftener, unless their coops are where they can eat all the grass they want and can get a great many flies, worms, and insects. They are expert flycatchers, and if there is anything in their coop to attract flies, they will get a great many of them. Under such conditions three feeds a day will be sufficient. If they have no grass they should be fed five times daily and should be supplied with tender green food of some kind. For the first few days the mash given them should have a little very fine gravel or coarse sand mixed with it—about a heaping tablespoonful to a quart of mash. At any time after that when the ducks seem dull and weak, a little fine gravel in the mash will usually tone them up.
Little ducks grow very fast and in a few weeks are entirely independent of the hen. At ten or twelve weeks they are fully feathered and almost full-grown, and are ready to be killed and eaten as "green ducks."
General conditions.The small flock of ducks on the farm is usually most profitable if it can be given the run of a small pasture or orchard where the birds have good foraging and have access to a pond or stream but cannot wander away. Ducks on the farm are often allowed to run with other poultry. This may do very well if the flocks of all kinds are small and can separate when foraging, but as a rule it is better to put the ducks where they will be away from other poultry. A small flock of ducks properly placed on a farm should require very little food and very little attention. If possible the birds should be free at night,because the worms and grubs come to the surface in greatest abundance then, and they can get as much in an hour early in the morning as they can in several hours after the sun is high. The principal objections to leaving them out at night are that they may be attacked by animals that prey upon them, and that the ducks may lay their eggs where they are not easily found. The person in charge of the ducks has to use his judgment as to whether the risks in his case are so great that the ducks should be confined at night.
When a flock of ducks on a farm has liberty to wander at will, it often makes a great deal of trouble, because ducks are prone to stop for the night wherever they happen to be when they have eaten their fill late in the day.
Feeding.If the ducks are kept in until they have laid, they should have a little food when they are let out. It does not make much difference what this is. If a mash is made for other poultry, some of it may be given to them. Otherwise, a little whole grain will make them comfortable until they can pick up a more varied breakfast. The best method of feeding the young ducks will depend upon the conditions. As a rule it is better to keep them quite close for the first two or three weeks and feed them well. The ideal way is to coop them on grass, or in a garden where they can get a great deal of green food and worms. Treated in this way they will get a better start and will grow much faster and larger than if they are allowed to wear themselves out by running about while small. On a farm where there is no water near the house, but where there is a stream at a little distance, the young ducks should be so placed that they cannot make their way to this stream. Very small ducks at liberty will often find their way alone to water so far from their home that it was not supposed that they could locate it. If they have an opportunity to do so, small ducks are much more likely than older ones to wander off in search of water, and instinct seems to direct them toward it.
After the ducklings are three or four weeks old, they may be given as much freedom as old ducks. Unless natural food is very abundant, they should be fed some grain for a while. Ducks grown in this way cannot be sold to advantage as green ducks. At this stage of growth they cannot be collected from small flocks and marketed in condition to bring the prices paid for those from the special duck farms, and as it costs the farmer little or nothing to keep his ducks until mature, it is usually more profitable for him to do so than to sell them earlier.
Fig. 132.Duck farms at Speonk, Long Island
On a farm near a market where there is a good demand for green ducks it might pay very well to grow several hundred a year. On this scale the methods should be similar to those used on the special duck farms, except that the hatching might be done with hens. It would not do to let the ducks run about as recommended for stock which is to be kept until mature, because then they would not be fat at the age for killing them.
History.The growing of ducks for the New York City market began on Long Island at a very early stage of specialization in poultry culture. Many farmers there produced a few hundred ducks for this market each year, and found it veryprofitable. As the demand increased they tried to increase production to meet it, but were unable to do this, because there was then in this country no duck adapted to their needs. The Aylesbury Duck, the favorite table duck in England, was too delicate. The only hardy white duck that they had was the White Muscovy. This breed was not very satisfactory, because the females are much smaller than the males, but they had to use white ducks, for the colored ducks will not pick clean at the age at which ducks can be marketed most profitably; so they did the best they could with the White Muscovy Duck, under the restrictions placed upon their operations by the difficulty of getting broody hens. While the industry was mostly on Long Island, there were duck growers here and there on the mainland in the vicinity of New York and also near Boston, but there were no duck farms of any importance in other parts of the country.
Fig. 133.View from the windmill tower in Fig.132
When the White Pekin Ducks were brought from China, and reports of their hardiness, prolificacy, and rapid growth were circulated, the duck growers were at first very skeptical, but they soon learned that the reports which they had supposed were greatly exaggerated were literally true. Then every duckgrower had to have Pekin Ducks. The production increased very much after the introduction of the Pekin Duck, but the growth of the industry was still retarded by the impossibility of getting all the hens that were needed to hatch the eggs. Several incubators had been invented, which hatched very well for those who had the skill to operate them, but which, in the hands of unskilled operators, spoiled most of the eggs placed in them. About 1890 appeared the first incubators with automatic regulators that really worked so that the ordinary person could manage the machines successfully. One of the New England duck growers who had invented the best of the machines used before this time was already growing ducklings on quite a large scale. On Long Island, where most of the duck farms were located, the farmers were hard to convince of the superiority of incubators for their work. Indeed, the only way that they could be convinced was by practical demonstrations right on their own farms. The first incubators used there were machines set up on trial by a manufacturer who had invented an incubator which was very easy to operate. This man went to the duck growing district, placed machines on various farms, and went from farm to farm daily to attend to them, until the farmers were fully convinced that the machines would do what was claimed for them. In a very short time the artificial method had displaced hatching with hens on the commercial duck farms, and the business was growing amazingly. Within ten years there were many farms producing from 15,000 to 20,000 ducks a year, and a few producing from 40,000 to 50,000. One man on Long Island, who operated two farms a few miles apart, sometimes grew 80,000 ducks in a season. Those who were successful on a large scale became moderately rich. Without exception the successful duck farms have been built up from small beginnings by men who had very little capital to start with. Some of these farms have been operated on a large scale for twenty years.
Fig. 134.House and yards for breeding stock
Fig. 135.Brooder house for young ducklings
Fig. 136.Fattening sheds and yards
VIEWS OF WEBER BROTHERS' DUCK FARM, WRENTHAM, MASSACHUSETTS
As would be expected, the success of the big duck farms has led many people with large capital to undertake to establish duck farms on a still larger scale. But these undertakings do not last long, because it is practically impossible to secure for such a plant an organization as efficient as one developed by the owner of a plant which has grown from small beginnings under his own management.
Description.A large duck farm is a very interesting place at any time, but is most interesting at the height of the growing season, when all the operations in the business are going on at the same time. The total number of birds on a farm at any time is very much less than the product for the season, because the first ducks hatched will have gone to market before the eggs which produce the last are laid, but in flocks of more than 10,000 the impression on the visitor is much the same, no matter what the numbers.
Fig. 137.Duck house and yards on seashore, Fishers Island, New York
Duck farms are of two types: those located on streams or inlets have the yards for all but the smallest ducks partly in the water; the inland duck farms, on which the young ducks grown for market are given no water except for drinking. Some of the inland farms give the breeding stock access to streams andponds only during the molting season, when they can be allowed to run in large flocks and a small area of water will serve for all. For a time after the large inland duck farms were first established it was claimed by many that ducks grew faster when not allowed to swim than they did when allowed to follow their natural inclination to play in the water. No doubt some ducks which were in dry yards grew better than some having access to large bodies of water, and on the whole as good ducks were grown on the inland farms as on those near the water, but it has long been known that it is much easier to manage the ducks when they have water in their yards. There are two reasons for this: in the first place, they are much more contented in the water; in the second place, they feel very much safer on the water when anything alarms them, and will keep quiet on it when, if they could not retreat to the water, they would rush about in a panic and many would be injured.
Fig. 138.Quarters for breeding stock on an inland duck farm. Swimming tanks in the yards
Ducks are very timid and easily panic-stricken. The duck grower has to take every possible precaution to guard against disturbances of this kind, because ducks are so easily injured, and even if they are not hurt, a sudden fright will make themshrink a great deal in weight. Visitors who come merely out of curiosity are not desired on duck farms at any time, and none but those familiar with the handling of ducks are ever allowed to go about the farm without a guide who will see that the ducks are not disturbed. Many visitors think that this is unreasonable, but the duck grower knows that the mere presence of a stranger excites the ducks, and that a person walking about might put a flock in a panic which would at once extend to other flocks, simply because he was not familiar enough with the ways of ducks to detect the signs of panic in a flock which he was approaching, and to stand still until they were quiet, or move very slowly until he had passed them. If a stranger, walking between yards where there were five thousand ducks fattening, made an unconscious movement that set the ducks in motion, the loss to the grower could hardly be less than from five to ten dollars, and might be very much more. Where such little things can cause so much trouble and loss, the difference between success and failure may lie in preventing them.
On a duck plant with a capacity of 50,000 ducks everything is on a big scale. Although ducks will stand more crowding than other kinds of poultry, it takes a large farm for so many. The buildings will cover many thousands of square feet of land and, though of the cheapest substantial structure, will represent an investment of fifteen or twenty thousand dollars. Incubators, appliances, breeding stock, and supplies on hand will amount to about as much. The incubator cellar will be several times as large as the cellar under the ordinary dwelling house. Before the so-called mammoth incubators were made, the largest-sized machines heated with lamps were used on all duck farms, and an incubator cellar would sometimes contain as many as seventy incubators having a capacity of from 200 to 300 eggs each. Now many of the large farms use the mammoth incubators, with a capacity of from 6000 to 18,000 eggs each. These mammoth incubators are really series of small egg chambers soarranged that the entire series is heated by pipes coming from a hot-water heater, instead of each chamber having an independent lamp heater as in the small, or individual, machines.
Fig. 139.Feeding young ducks on farm of W. R. Curtiss & Co., Ransomville, New York
As nearly all kinds of supplies are bought by the carload, and as stocks must be kept up so that there will be no possibility of running short of foodstuffs, a great deal of space is requiredfor storage. Large quantities of ice are needed to cool the dressed ducks before shipping them to market, so the farm must have its own ice houses and store its own supply of ice in the winter. For some years after duck farms grew to such large proportions, the mixing of mash was all done by hand, with shovels. Often one man was kept busy all day long mixing mash, and very hard work it was. Now the men on the large farms mix the food in big dough mixers, such as are used by bakers, and work that would take a man an hour is done in a few minutes.
In some sections the killing and dressing of the ducks is done by men with whom duck picking is a trade at which they work during its season. In others the killing is done by men, but the pickers are women living in the vicinity of the farm, who can be secured for this work whenever they are needed. A farm that markets 50,000 ducks in a season will keep a large force of pickers busy the greater part of the time for many months. Quite a large building is required to provide room for the pickers to work in, for tanks for cooling 500 or more ducks at once, for space for the men who pack them, and for lofts for drying the feathers before they are sold. This drying process must be used whether the birds are dry-picked or are scalded before the feathers are removed. Water on feathers dries quickly, but the oil in the quills dries very slowly. The feathers from one duck are worth only a few cents, and where small numbers are grown the feathers are hardly worth the trouble of saving and curing. On a large plant the total product of feathers for a season amounts to several thousand dollars, and it pays to provide facilities for taking proper care of them.
After the crop of ducks on an inland farm is marketed, the fences must be removed and the land plowed and sowed with winter rye. This crop is used extensively for this purpose, because it is a gross feeder and takes the impurities from the soil very fast, and also furnishes a good supply of green food forthe stock ducks during the winter and for the first young ducks put on the land in the spring. Where the farms are large enough, all ducks may be kept off a part of the land each year and crops grown on it. The farms located at the waterside do not have to look to the purification of the land so carefully, because the rains wash a great deal of the droppings away. Some of these farms get large quantities of river grass from the streams and cut it up to mix with the food for the ducks.
There are two general classes of duck fanciers: those who breed one or more of the useful varieties for fine form and feather points, and those who breed the ornamental varieties. Breeders of the latter class usually keep other kinds of ornamental poultry also.
The methods of the fanciers of useful kinds of ducks compare with those of the practical growers who handle small numbers as do those of the fowl fancier with the methods of the poultry keeper who keeps a few fowls for his own use. In a general way they are the same, yet wherever it is necessary they are modified to secure the best possible development of the type. If a duck fancier has not a natural water supply for his ducks, he either makes a small artificial pond or ditch or gives them water for bathing much oftener than the commercial duck grower thinks is necessary. He also gives both old and young ducks more room, and encourages them to take exercise, because this makes them stronger, more symmetrical, and better able to stand transportation and the handling to which they are subjected when taken to shows. Most duck fanciers are also fanciers of fowls or of some other kind of poultry. The competition in ducks is not nearly so keen as in fowls. Hence they are so much less interesting to a fancier that few are satisfied with the sport that may be obtained from exhibiting ducks only.
When the growing of green ducks for market began to be developed upon a large scale, many of those engaged in this line exhibited stock and sold birds for breeding and eggs for hatching. They soon found that while the Pekin Duck was unrivaled as a market duck, it was not of sufficient interest to fanciers to excite the competition that creates high prices for the finest specimens, and that it paid them better to devote themselves exclusively to the production of market ducks. At the present time only a few market duck growers make a business of selling breeding and exhibition stock. Most of them will not take small orders, but will fill large orders when they have a surplus of breeding stock and can get a good price for it. On almost every large commercial duck farm there are hundreds of birds much better than most of the Pekin Ducks seen at poultry shows, and many better than the best exhibited. There is probably no other kind of poultry in which so large a proportion of the finest specimens are found on the plants of those producing for market.
The ornamental varieties of ducks are given much less attention in America than they deserve. Few are seen except in large collections of fancy waterfowl, and sales from these collections are principally for special displays at shows. On many farms the Mallard, Call, and East Indian Ducks might be established and left to themselves, to increase in a natural way, only enough being sold or killed to keep them from becoming too numerous. If located in a suitable place, such a flock makes a very attractive feature on a farm. The highly ornamental Mandarin and Carolina Ducks, being able to fly quite as well as pigeons, must be kept in covered runs. They will breed and rear their young in a very small space. A covered run 6 ft. wide, 6 ft. high, and from 20 to 30 ft. long, built in a secluded place and having a small shelter at one end, makes a very satisfactory place for a pair of ducks of any of the small breeds to live and rear their young.
People who are not familiar with animals often get wrong ideas of the characters of certain creatures from the popular metaphorical use of their names. Perhaps those who first applied these metaphors understood them correctly, but after long use by people acquainted with the metaphor but not familiar with the animal to which it relates, a part of the meaning is likely to be lost. This is what has happened to the term "goose" as applied to a person. When one acts stupidly foolish about some little thing he is often called a goose. Most people, associating the idea of stupidity with the name of the goose, suppose that geese are very stupid and uninteresting. If you will notice how the term "goose" is commonly applied to persons, you will discover that it is very rarely used except to apply to a person for whom the speaker has a great deal of affection. Under the same circumstances others are more likely to be designated by some harsher term. The most marked characteristic of a goose is not stupidity but an affectionate disposition. The ancient Egyptians noted this, and in their hieroglyphic writing a goose stood for "son." The goose is a very intelligent and interesting bird. It is of a most social nature and becomes very much attached not only to its mates but to other animals and to people. No domestic animal except the dog develops so much affection for its master as a goose will if it is permitted to do so. But, while interesting in some ways, the goose has so little of the other qualities which lead man to make a companion and pet of an animal, that its devotion is not usually encouraged. Commercially geese and ducks belong to the same class and are used in thesame way (the goose being preferred where size is desired), but in some points of character, structure, and habits they are quite different.
Description.In general appearance a goose resembles a duck so closely that people not familiar with both often mistake large white ducks for geese, but no one that knows either kind well is likely to make mistakes in the identity of any of the common varieties. While many of the small domestic geese are no heavier than the largest ducks, geese are on the average more than twice as large as ducks. Their legs are longer and much stronger. Their bills are larger at the juncture with the head and smaller and more pointed at the tip. While ducks are usually very timid, geese are bold, and this makes a marked difference in their attitude when approached and also in the carriage of their bodies. They are very strong birds, quite able to defend themselves against the attacks of small animals and from annoyance by children. Indeed, they are very likely to take an aggressive attitude toward persons or animals that they regard as trespassers, and a large gander when angry is a dangerous customer. A blow from his wing might knock a child down or even break a small child's arm.
Fig. 140.Emden Geese
There are no regular distinguishing marks of sex in geese. The males average larger than the females, but the difference is slight and some females may be larger than some males of the same breeding. In some foreign varieties, not known in this country, the males are mostly of one color and the females of another, but as there are exceptions to this rule, it is not reliable. In those varieties which have a knob on the bill this is likely to be more prominent in the males. There is nothing in the form of the plumage to distinguish the male, like the little curl in the tail of the drake. The voices of males and females are so nearly alike that, while a difference may sometimes be noted in the voices of birds known to be of different sexes, the voice is not a plain indication of the sex. There are some males so distinctly masculine, and some females so distinctly feminine, in appearance and behavior, that a person familiar with geese will not often make a mistake in identifying the sex by the general appearance. There are others about which the most expert goose breeder is in doubt until the laying season arrives and the production or nonproduction of eggs shows without doubt which birds are females and which are males.
Fig. 141.Toulouse Geese
The namegooseis applied to either male or female without reference to sex, and also to the female as distinguished fromthe male. The male is called agander. The young are calledgoslings.Gooseandganderare the modern forms of Anglo-Saxon names.
Origin.Our fully domesticated geese all originated in the Old World. The European stock is believed to be derived from the Gray Lag Goose, which is still found in Europe in the wild state. The origin of the curious name "Gray Lag" has been the subject of much speculation. The most plausible theory is that which takes "lag" in its common meaning and supposes that the term was applied to this species of goose because it was slower in motion, or because it lingered longer in Northern Europe, than the less familiar species. As in the wild state the Gray Lag Goose ranged over Europe and Northern Asia, it may have been domesticated many times in many different places. Wild specimens may still be brought into domestication, but there are no authentic reports of such cases. The Chinese breeds of geese, which will shortly be described, are quite different in appearance from the European races, but the difference does not necessarily show that they are of different origin.
Fig. 142.Toulouse goslings three weeks old
Common geese.Throughout Europe and America the ordinary geese are of much the same type as their wild progenitor. They are a little heavier and coarser than the Gray Lag Goose, and have not its great power of flight, yet some of them can fly better than any other domestic poultry. The author has seen flocks of common geese fly from a high hill over the roofs of tall buildings at its foot and alight in a stream fully an eighth of a mile from where they started. It is perhaps needless to say that they always walked home. Such geese were hard-meated and tough except when quite young. They were geese that picked the most of their living where food was none too plenty. Well-kept stocks of common geese have probably always been very good table poultry.
Improved races.In various parts of Europe the common geese have somewhat distinctive race characteristics. The Roman Geese are supposed to be the oldest distinct race. They differ from ordinary geese in that the prevailing color is white, and they are more prolific layers. The Pomeranian Goose, found throughout Germany and Southeastern Europe, is somewhat larger. The female of this race is usually white, the male white with a gray back. Because of the peculiar markings of the male this variety is sometimes called the Saddleback Goose. The Emden and Toulouse Geese are very large. The Emden was developed in Germany, where it was at one time called the Brunswick Goose. The first specimens seen in America came from Bremen in 1826 and were called Bremen Geese. They had been known in England for a long time and had become very popular there under the name of "Emden Geese." The name "Bremen" was used in this country until about 1830, when the English name was adopted.
The Toulouse Goose is a very large gray goose which originated in a goose-growing district in the vicinity of Toulouse in the South of France. It was introduced into England about 1840 and into America about fifteen years later.
In Russia gander fighting was from very ancient times a popular sport, and several varieties of geese were bred especially for their fighting qualities. The most common of these is the Tula Goose, which is usually gray in color but is sometimes clay-colored. The latter point is very interesting for its bearing on the question of the common origin of the European and Asiatic breeds of geese, to be discussed in the next paragraph. None of the Russian races of geese are known in this country.
Fig. 143.White China Geese. (Photograph from Charles McClave, New London, Ohio)
Fig. 144.Brown China Geese. (Photograph by E. J. Hall)
The Asiatic races of geese probably came to America as early as the Asiatic races of fowls. They were early known in England under a variety of names, and were quite popular there over a hundred years ago as Spanish Geese. A writer in an agricultural paper in 1848 stated that he had seen White China Geese inVirginia in 1817. It appears, however, that the early introductions were immediately so mixed with the native geese that the distinct type was lost, and that it was not until nearly 1850 that the specimens were brought here from which the stocks now known were produced. There are two varieties of the China Goose—White and Brown. They are smaller and more graceful than the improved European varieties and are more prolific layers than any except perhaps the Roman Goose. They have a large knob on the head at its juncture with the upper mandible. Most of the geese of Europe are either white or gray (black-and-white). The red which appears to a slight extent as brown in the Gray Lag Goose has been lost or so reduced that it is not noticed except in the Tula Goose, which is sometimes clay-colored. The colored variety of the China Goose is distinctly brown. Hence, if they came from the same wild species as the European geese, the red which was reduced in Europe was greatly increased in China. But if, as is not impossible, they came from different wild species, a most interesting question arises: The Chinese types and the European types are perfectly fertile when bred together.Would their wild ancestors (supposing them to have the same characteristics) be equally fertile? Unless we can find a wild ancestor for the Chinese type, all that we know of the relations of domestic races points to the conclusion that they, like the European races, are descended from the Gray Lag Goose.
The variety known as the African Goose is a larger and coarser type of the Brown China, and is probably obtained by crossing with the Toulouse or by selection from mixed flocks. Nothing definite is known of the origin of this type, but to any one familiar with the stock in the goose-growing district of Rhode Island, and with the breeding methods of the farmers there as applied in the development of the Rhode Island Red fowl, it appears probable that African Geese came from this district.
Fig. 145.African Geese on a Rhode Island farm
Ornamental varieties.There are two ornamental varieties of domestic geese and quite a number of species of wild geese that are kept in collections of fancy waterfowl. The Sebastopol Goose evidently belongs to the common domestic species. It isabout the size of the common goose, is white in color, and has a peculiar development of some of the feathers of the body and wings, this development of the plumage giving the variety its ornamental character. A number of feathers on the back of this bird are long and twisted, as if they had been loosely curled, and lie in a wavy mass on the back and rump. The Egyptian Goose is the smallest domestic goose. It is unlike other domestic geese in being quite gaudy in color. It is found in the wild state and also in domestication in many parts of Africa. Sebastopol and Egyptian Geese are rare in this country.
Fig. 146.Sebastopol Geese on an English farm
The Canada Goose, or American Wild Goose.Few persons in America have not at some time seen a flock of wild geese flying in wedgelike formation as they migrate in the spring and fall. Their honking can often be heard when they cannot be seen. Hunters watch for these flocks and, when they are flying low,sometimes shoot them as they pass, but the favorite method of hunting wild geese is to induce them to approach a hunter concealed where he can get a better shot at them. For this kind of hunting, shooting stands are built near bodies of water where wild geese may alight in their passage. These stands are either concealed in the bushes or masked by green boughs. In order to bring near the stands any wild geese that may alight of their own accord, and also to attract any flying by, captive wild geese are used as decoys. At first the birds used for this purpose were those crippled but not killed by the hunters and kept in confinement. As the supply secured in this way was small, and as the wild birds bred readily in captivity, the breeding of wild geese for decoys soon became quite common in districts where the shooting of this kind of game was good. The wild geese will mate with domestic geese, producing a sterile hybrid called a mongrel goose.
Fig. 147.A pet Canada gander. (Photograph from George E. Parrett)
Place of geese in domestication.In ancient Egypt and Rome the goose was a sacred bird, not an object of worship but reserved for the use of the priests, who keenly appreciated the advantage of having a monopoly of the use of the best domestic table bird then in existence. In later times, until the turkey was introduced, goose was the favorite kind of poultry for festal occasions all through Europe. Then it lost some of its popularity in those places where turkeys were extensively grown. InGermany, Austria, and Russia there is still a very large production of geese. In this country geese are grown in small numbers by a few persons in almost every community. The feeding and flocking habits of geese especially adapted them to the conditions under which they were kept when stock of all kinds was allowed to run at large and to feed on common or unoccupied land in charge of a gooseherd. As towns grew, and as people became less tolerant of the trespassing of live stock, the growing of geese in towns declined. Nearly all the geese now produced in this country come from flocks on general farms. The production of geese on farms has been restricted to some extent by the abundance and cheapness of turkeys. As turkeys become scarce and dear in any locality the production of geese seems to increase. From early times geese have been prized for their feathers. So valuable have these been considered that it has been a practice to pluck the live geese each year before they molted. Public opinion now condemns this barbarous practice, and persons plucking live geese are sometimes punished for cruelty to animals.
Fig. 148.Mongrel Geese on a Rhode Island farm
Geese will bear confinement well if given proper attention, but they require such large quantities of succulent green food that it does not pay to grow them where they cannot secure most of this by foraging. Very few people who keep geese in inclosures too small to furnish them with good pasture can conveniently supply them with all the green food that they need. Hence no one engages in growing geese in close quarters for profit. Many, however, grow a few geese under such conditions because of the interest a small flock affords. Goose growing cannot be developed on intensive lines as duck growing has been. One obstacle to this is the difficulty of supplying green food under such conditions. Another is that the average egg production is small. The description of the management of geese on farms will show more fully why this branch of poultry culture is likely always to be restricted to general farms.
Size of flock.On the ordinary farm, where only a few dozen geese are grown each year, a flock of one male and from two to four females gives a sufficient number of breeding birds. It is more difficult to get a start with geese than with fowls or ducks, because a young gander will often mate with only one goose, and an old gander separated from mates to which he has become attached may be very slow about establishing new family relations. An experienced goose grower does not expect to get very good results the first season that a flock of breeding birds aretogether. On the other hand, a flock once harmoniously mated does not have to be renewed every year or two. As long as the old birds are vigorous the entire product of young may be sold each season without reducing the producing capacity of the flock. The average gander is past his prime after he is six or seven years old, but geese are often good breeders until ten or twelve years old. Occasionally a goose lives to a great age. There are reliable accounts of geese breeding well when over twenty years old. Some stories of geese living to more than eighty years of age have been widely circulated, but little credence is to be given such tales; people who originate them and suppose that they are true do not know how difficult it would be to make sure of the identity of a goose through so long a period.
Houses and yards.Geese, like ducks, prefer to live in the open air, and do not often voluntarily take shelter from any element but heat. It is customary to provide a small shelter which they may use if they wish. In most cases it is not necessary for a farmer to make a yard especially for geese. The permanent fences or walls between the divisions of the farm will usually keep geese in the pasture allotted to them. The best place for geese is a marshy meadow in which some parts of the surface are elevated enough to be quite dry at all seasons. These places afford more comfortable resting places when the birds tire of the wet land. They also furnish different kinds of grass from those growing on very wet land. On many farms there are tracts of land much more suitable for geese than for any other live stock. Cattle and hogs sometimes cut up such land very badly, destroying the vegetation on it and making it unsightly. Such a piece of land is sometimes a part of a pasture used for cattle. In that case it may be a good plan to fence the cattle from the soft ground with a wire or rail fence, which keeps them out of the part reserved for the geese, yet allows the geese the range of the whole pasture. A small number of geese in a large pasture will not hurt the pasture for cattle or horses.Too many geese in a pasture spoil the grass for themselves as well as for other stock. Even when cattle have access to all parts of a pasture in which there are geese, a small space should be inclosed for a feeding pen, where food for the geese will be out of the reach of other stock. This is especially necessary during the breeding season, when they usually require extra food.
Feeding.A flock of geese in a good pasture need no other food except at the breeding season or when they are being fattened. If there is any doubt about the pasturage being sufficient, a small trough or box containing grain of any kind that it is convenient to give them should be put where they can eat what they want. When there is snow on the ground, they should have a little grain and all the cabbage, beets, turnips, or other vegetables they want.
Laying season and habits.Geese usually begin to lay in February or March. As many nests should be provided as there are geese, for while two or more geese sometimes lay peaceably in the same nest, it is more likely that each goose will want one to herself. A barrel placed on its side in a secluded place makes a good nest. Geese are sometimes very notional about the location of the nest and, neglecting one provided for them, may choose a spot right out in the open or in some place where the nest is not well protected. When they do this, it is a good plan to place over the nest, without disturbing it, a large box with a hole cut in one end for passage. Geese, like ducks, lay very early in the morning. When they begin laying while the weather is cold, the person who has charge of them must be up early and get the eggs before they are chilled. A goose usually lays from twelve to eighteen or twenty eggs and then goes broody. The common practice is to set the first lot of eggs under hens, and keep the goose away from her nest until she shows no inclination to sit. She may then be allowed access to the nest and before long will begin laying again. As a rule the second lot of eggs will be fewer in number than the first. When the goosegoes broody the second time, it is as well to set her, for if stopped again she may not resume laying. Occasionally a goose lays for a whole season without going broody.
Hatching and rearing goslings.In hatching goose eggs under hens the hens are managed in just the same way as if they had hen eggs. Each hen is given four or five eggs, according to the size of the eggs and the size of the hen. A goose must be set in the nest where she has been laying. If she is inclined to be very cross if approached while sitting, she should be left to herself as much as possible, care being taken that nothing can molest her. With the help of the gander a goose can defend her nest against almost anything likely to attack it, but some eggs would probably be broken in the fray.
The period of incubation is from thirty to thirty-five days. The goslings sometimes chip the eggs two days before completing the process. They should be left in the nest until they begin to run about. Then, if they are with a goose mother, they may safely be left to the care of the old ones, and may not even need to be fed. The early goslings with hen mothers should be placed on sod ground where the grass is fine and soft, in coops such as are used for little chickens, with a small pen in front of each coop to keep them from wandering away. This pen may be made of boards 8 or 10 inches wide, set on edge and kept in place by small sticks driven into the ground. It is best to give them only grass to eat the first day. After that two or three light feeds of mash may be given daily, but they should always have all the fresh, succulent green food that they can eat. The coops and pens should be moved as often as is necessary to secure this end. The goslings should also be constantly supplied with drinking water. They will appreciate a bath occasionally.
Goslings grow very rapidly. In from ten to fourteen days they are so large that they no longer need the hen mother and she may be taken away. At this stage several broods may becombined and the flock allowed the run of any place where it can graze unmolested. A shelter should be provided for protection from the sun, and a roomy coop with a dry floor to keep them in at night. If allowed to do so, they would stay out and graze at intervals during the night, but the owner will sleep more comfortably if he is sure that nothing can disturb them. Although very big babies, they are quite soft and helpless at this stage. When six weeks old a gosling is nearly half-grown. Young goslings that were started with hen mothers may then be put into the pasture with the old geese. When ten or twelve weeks old they will be almost as large as the adult birds.
Fig. 149.Goslings three or four days old
Fig. 150.Goslings three weeks old
Fig. 151.Goslings nine weeks old
In growing geese on the farm the most important thing is to provide good pasture. Grass is not only the most economical food, but it is the best food. Geese will grow and fatten on grass without grain, but will not fatten as quickly or be as firm-fleshed. To fatten for market they should be confined for from ten to twenty days before they are to be killed, and fed all that they will eat of some very fattening food. Corn soaked in water until it is soft is an easily prepared food and a very good one.
The most important goose-growing district in the United States is that part of Rhode Island where the colony system of egg farming is used. This district is well adapted to goose growing. The winters are not severe, and the birds can have grass almost the year round. The breeding geese are often kept in pastures occupied by hens and cattle, but there are also many small ponds and marshy places used exclusively for geese. The absence of foxes makes it possible to keep them in fields a long way from the farmhouses, and for this reason many spots are used for geese which in other districts would be too exposed. The large flocks of hens in this district give an abundance of sitters to hatch the early goslings. As the person who looks after the sitting hens and the young chickens on one of these farms has to give the greater part of his time to that work for several months in the spring, he can often use the remaining time to best advantage by hatching and rearing a few hundred goslings. So a large proportion of the farms which specialize in eggs also specialize in geese.
The numbers grown on a farm vary from 100 to 500, the average being between 200 and 300. To produce this average number, flocks of 15 or 20 geese and 4 or 5 ganders are kept. A flock of this kind does not mate miscellaneously, as a similar flock of ducks would. It is composed of as many families as there are ganders, and if the pasture is large, these families will remain separate a great deal of the time.
The method of handling the geese on these farms differs from the ordinary farm method in that the work is done more systematically and more attention is given to the goslings while growing. They are grazed each year on new grassland. Most of them are sold unfatted, as soon as they are of full size, to men who make a business of fattening and dressing them.
Fig. 152.Goslings grazing on a Rhode Island farm
Market duck growing is conducted on so large a scale that each grower can employ expert pickers and sell his product directly to wholesale dealers in poultry. So the duck grower fattens his own ducks before killing them. It is natural for him to do this, too, because his method of fattening is a modification of the feeding process which he has used from the start. As he nears the end of his process of feeding, he simply increases the proportion of fat-forming material in the food and feeds all that the ducks will eat. The fattening of geese that have been grown on grass to make them of the quality that will bring the highest price requires a change to a heavy grain diet. The farmers who grow these geese could fatten them better than any one else and make more profit on them, but few of these farmers are willing to give them the special attention that this requires. So large a part of the geese sold alive are thin that the men who bought them to dress for market long ago saw an opportunity to makea greater profit by fattening them before they were killed. Some of those who engaged in fattening geese were very successful and made large profits. As they extended operations in this line they required a great deal of land. Sometimes as many as 15,000 geese are fattened on one farm in a season. The fatteners buy in the early part of the summer from the farmers who sell the green geese as soon as they are grown. As these make the finest geese for the table, and as the best demand for geese comes at the holiday season in the winter, a large part of them are put in storage after being killed. After the green geese are disposed of, the fatteners buy live geese shipped in from distant points, and have them ready to kill about the time when the demand for goose is good.
Fig. 153.Scene on a goose-fattening farm in England
While they are very profitable when everything goes well, fattening geese is a business attended by heavy risks. In buying from many different sources a fattener may get some geese having a contagious disease, and the infection may spread through his whole flock before he discovers it, for some diseases have no pronounced symptoms in their early stages. Keeping such large numbers of geese on the same land year after year also brings trouble through the pollution of the soil.