The Dickinson press., 1890-08-02
GROWTH OF A DUCKLING
THOSE AT COLUMBIA POULTRY FARM
&, DON'T KNOW HOW TO SWIM.

THOSE AT COLUMBIA POULTRY FARM
DON'T KNOW HOW TO SWIM.
The Incubation and Brooding House Gre.
ute Feelings of Deepest Gratitude in
the Breast of Her Duckship-Hatch-
ing 5000 Eggs at One Time.
Will duck swim?
Not all ducks. The ducks of the Column
bia poultry farm will not. This farm is
at Red Bank, N. j., and is the largest of
its kind in this part of the country.
The ducks on this farm are divided into
two classes, the breeding locks and the
aocks of ducklings preparing for market.
All the breeding flocks have to do is to
lay eggs; having done that all response
bility on their part ceases. The incubator
and the brooder do the rest. Year after
year the ducks of these breeding focks
have been carefully selected and bred to-
gether with the single idea of making
them good layers.
It is seldom that a duck in the breed
ing focks wants to set, and when recent
ly Nj. Burr, the proprietor of the farm,
put a tank of water i'll n of the breed
ing pens the ducks had to be driven into
it, and when they got there We're SO scared
that they got out again, heaping wild
anathemas in duck language on the head
OF MIR. Burr for trying to drown them.
But when it comes to the business of lay
ing eggs these ducks are in their element,
and for about five months in the year
each self respecting, hard working mem
Der Of the flock will lay one egg a day.
HOW THE BIRDS ARE CLASSIFIED.
The 500 ducks which compose tho breed
ing focks at the Columbia farm are kept
during the breeding season in a long,
low house divided into twelve compart-
ments. Twelve yards, of which they
have the run, adjoin the compartments.
They are divided into twelve tribes in
order to facilitate selection and observa-
ton, for a duck that falls below the stan
dard is eliminated. Mr.. Burr has been
for 1--WE years experimenting with arti6-
cial incubation, and has finally got it to
point which is nearly perfection.
Having got the breeding ducks to lay
POLITICALLY and confne their attention
entirely to that one branch of tho bust
ness, the nextthing wa to get eggs from
them best suited to the personal pecr-
Garities and habits of life of the incuba-
tors. 1t was found that in order to make
good egg shells, the ducks needed to be
furnished with some sort of sea shells as
an appetizer, as it were, for their other
food. Oyster shells were tried, but the
result was an egg with a shell so hard
that the duckling which the incubators
tried to hatch gave up the struggle to
get out of his shell and quietly settled
down to die before he had fairly begun
to live. Finally, fine, brittle shells, col
lected on the seashore, were tried, with
the result of forming an egg shell Just
firm and hard enough to give the duck
ling a little healthy exercise when he
picks his way out under the genial
warmth of the incubator.
Given the proper breeding flocks and
the proper eggs, the next problem was
the management of the i%ncubators. It
was found absolutely necessary to have
perfect control of the regulation of the
temperature. An incubator house was
built partly under ground so that the
effect Of sun and the varieties Of the eli
mate would have little effect. Twelve
incubators, in which are 5000 eggs, are
at work in this house, quietly and unos-
tentatiously doing tho work of which
they have relieved the ducks which laid
the eggs. The %incubators are heated by
hot water, the heat coming from above,
which arrangement has been found to
give the best results.
WHAT H 1NCUBAToRS CAN DO.
! When a duck sets on a nest of eggs
and the germ of life begins to grow in
them, evaporation takes place through
the porous shells and the water elimi-
mated from inside the shell leaves room
for the embryo ducklings to grow. AS
the incubation proceeds, the brooding
duck furnishes from her feathers an oil
which cover the shell and stops the
evaporation. Mr.. Burr has accomplished
the same results in his i~ncubators by
regulating the moisture. When the eggs
are first put in there is only one pan of
water put in with them, but as the pro-
cess Of incubation proceeds other pans
are added, until the hot, dry air which
first filed the incubator has been re-
placed by a moist atmosphere, in which
evaporation is almost impossible.
1t was also found that as ducklings
grew in the eggs a large amount of
animal heat was generated. This rem
dered it necessary to diminish the ex-
ternal application Of heat, and now the
last day or two of the Matching is done
almost entirely by the heat furnished by
the ducklings themselves. The incu-
bators are kept at a temperature of 102
degrees for the first twelve or fourteen
days. After that slight variations in
temperature will do no harm. When
the eggs begin to hatch the temperature
is put up to 1O3 degrees, and kept there
until all are out. For thirty-six hours
after they are Matched the ducklings are
kept in the incubators. Then they are
taken to the brooding house.
The brooding house is nearly 200 feet
long and plays the mother duck to 5000
ducklings at the same time. 1t is divided
into pens communicating with glass
yards, and here can be seen ducklings
ranging from one day to ten weeks old
all divided off according to their age.
When n of the ducks in the breeding
pens looks over at the incubator house
and thinks what a tedious job is being
taken off her hands there, and then
catches sight Of the brooding house,
which is relieving her Of all the response
bilities Of motherhood, she is so grateful
that she goes and lays another egg.-New
York Tribune.
The Safer Styles.
There have been so many instances Of
Eon4o~rx .s~1o ~nIl3.c L.s. LoS. a-lo--1.l