The Opelousas courier., 1899-01-07
ACRES OF DUCKS,
RAISED BY THE THOUSAND ON A NEW
JERSEY FARM.

wild geese is one OF the things PEG
pie read Of in California. Some al
lowance is usually made for the state
ments, but there need be none made
for the assertion that on a New Jer
sey farm within four miles Of Tren
ton there are acres Of domestic ducks
The farm borders on the Shabba-
kong road, and the fields beside the
road are filled with large and small
focks Of pure white Pekin ducks
Patrick MacAvoy is the duck farm
er. Fifteen years ago Mr.. MacAvoy
was a bookkeeper in New York. His
health. gave way and he was advised
to move into the country. He rented
a farm, and embarked in the milk
business. He was one of the pioneers
in bottling milk. He was also a pioneer
in the use Of ensilage as food for his
cows, and built a large silo in connec.
ton with an improved and Well-ap-
pointed cow barn and dairy. These
We're destroyed by fire about ten
years ago, and Mr.. MacAvoy looked
about for some new business.
He started a chicken farm to raise
broilers for the New York market,
but soon found that there were deal
ers who sold broilers for 20 cents a
pound early in the season, while he
could not afford to raise them for less
than so or 60 cents a pound. He in
vestigated, and learned that the two
and three pound birds shipped from
the West in the fall and winter We're
frozen in r~efrigerators and held for
the early spring trade. That drove him
out of the chicken broiler business,
and he started his duck farm.
He began nine years ago with five
ducks. Last year he raised 10000 and
now has on a part Of his 15O7acre
farm about 10000. The number will
grow less week by week now until his
stock will be reduced to about a thou
sand. or maybe 500, which will be the
finest of his 1ocks and will be kept
for breeding purposes next year. New
York takes the whole product of the
farm.
These thousands Of ducks are all
Matched in incubators of Mr.. Mac
Avoy's invention. There are eighteen
Of them, with a capacity of 1000 gigs
each, and in the height Of the hatch
ing season, about the later part of
May, it takes the entire time Of one
man to look after the incubators and
remove the little ducklings to the
brooders, which are placed in a sunny
room in the second story of an ad-
joining building. Here they are kept
for ten days when they are ready to
be transferred to the field. It takes
nature four weeks to hatch a ducks
egg; the incubators can beat nature
by forty-eight hours.
Not every egg that goes into the in
cubators produces a duck. The duck
has succeeded in Matching 81 !
per cent. of the eggs placed in the arti-
fetal hatchery, and at other times has
secured only so per cent. All the eggs
are tested before being placed in the
.lncubators, and at the end of the third
lay they are again carefully inspected
and those that lack fertility are taken
out and boiled hard and mixed with
the meal cake that furnishes the food
the ducklings during their earlier
lays.
1T must take a large amount Of
feed for so great a fock,' suggested
he writer to Farmer MacAvoy.
Not SO much as is generally be-
he replied. Il have found
hat if ducks are fed regularly it re-
luires little to keep them fat. They
get all they can eat. The little ones
re fed six times a day and the grown
mes three times"
"But you have no ponds for them
o swim in. Ducks cannot be raised
Without water, a they?"
mo. They get all the water they
an use, but it is given to them in
roughs. It is for them to drink; not
o swim in. There is a creek down
It the end of that field that is for the
'rown ducks that are ready for
market. They are so fat that
hey must have the cooling water
# the creek for their bath, and they
pend much of their time under the
in the shade. There are wooden
helters for the others, in which they
un to escape from transforms and
rom the heat of the sun in the middle
+ the day. Besides, you know, wa
is not healthy for young ducks"
nd in explanation the duck farmer
on. Its a curious fact that if
gets upon the back of a young
uck before it's feathers grow, the
uckling will die"
Adjoining the field Of breeders is
ne field for the ducklings, in one end {
which are the runs connected with I
row of low one-story frame houses. {
bout 200 feet long. Flocks Of 200 or i
90 are placed in each run, as it is !
Ound that they do not thrive when ,
llowed to run in n large flock. In
Re field they wander about in fiocks. $
nd when disturbed by the visit of a !
each flock will, start in sin t
lie file for its particular runway. Ap- {
they know where they be- c
ing, as some occasionally get into $
wrong runways and quickly 60 |
ut and into the right one. =
The ducks, large and small, appear
know Mr.. MacAvoy and the dozen '
len and boys employed to aid in car /
lg for them day and night. These I
go about the fields, and the :
lr6o nov mr. n4yo-<s~, No..