POULTRY.

Globe, Volume XXII, Issue 2110, 27 November 1880, Page 4

POULTRY.

[" Mark Lane Express."] In hatching ducks' eggs by far the best plan is to put their eggs under hens. A duck ia easily startled, and often beoomes restless if allowed to sit, while a steady croisbred hen makes a good sitter and an exoollent mother. On the twenty-eighth day, and sometimfs before, the young duellings begin to mske their appearanoe. For the first twelve hours After they leave the shell they require do food, then a little milk may be given, followed bybarley meal and milk mixed together very thin. About the third day they will have fully obtained their appetites, and the moro food is given them, and the oftener they are fed, the more they will eat and the faßter they grow. If they are to be ready to kill «t the age of eight or ten weeks, then almost from the time they are hatched they must be fed with the most fattening kind of food. The first month after they ore hatched every two hours is not too often to feed them, but care must be taken to see that they eat up the food clean, and that it is given fresh and ■weet each time. If this is allowed to remain utaeated it sooribeoomes mixed with the birds' own excrement, whioh, of course, is not desirable.

At most farmhouses there is usually a quantity of skim milk, -whioh has often to be thrown away, as no use can be found for it. Now, skim milk, mixed -with barley meal or middlings, makes one of the best,' if not the best, o£ foods for young ducks. -It is ■ truly marvellous how they will thrive on this kind of food, and for a change, if a dead lamb or calf is boiled, and the liquor mixed with the meal, and the flesh cot up small and given to the birds, they will enjoy this greatly. When a lamb or a calf dies young its flesh is frequently thrown away, but where ducks or ohiokens are kept the dead carcase should be cut up and stewed for the birds, as they are particularly fond of animal food, and it helps to push them along Tery rapidly. As the birds get older, barley, tail-wheat, and oats may be given. The corn should be thrown into a trough full of water, as ducks cannot so readily pick off the ground individual-grains of corn as fowls can. The food should be varied as much as possible. If it is noticed they do not seem to relish one kind of food, then change it to another, and endeavor-'always to have something in their crops.

It is best not to allow the young ducklings to go into, the water until they aro a month old. They will readily take to it, almost as soon as they can walk; but this often bringß on cramp, or they get ohilled and die. Those intended for tilling at an early age I never let visit the water, as I find they grow faster, and are fatter internally than when allowed to swim and paddle in a stream or ditch. Neither do I give them much exercise, as they take longer to fatten. The secret in preparing ducks' for killing at an early age, is to supply them with the beat and most fattening kinds of foods, to vary this frequently, keep them clean, and allow them as little exercise as possible. Kept under these conditions, and with a suitable variety to breed f rom, ducklings, on arriving at the age of two or three months, ought to weigh from -81 b to 101 b each, and, if they are fit for killing in April or May, readily Bell in London for 12s to 15s a pair.

The Belgians hare long been famous for their homing pigeons. Races are held annually,-when prizes of considerable value are competed for. This year the prinoipal race has just taken place, in which 3630 birds were entered. These left Brussels en the 20th nit., and were liberated at Lamothe, near Bordeaux, at 4.30 a.m. on the 24th of July. The distance from Brussels to Lamothe-is about 500 miles, and by Saturday 760 of the birds had reached their homes. The firßt bird arrived at a quarter past four in the afternoon, so that ■ it must have travelled at the rate of 1200 yards per minute. The total value of the prizes amounted to £2617. The King and the Count of Flanders each give special prizes, and the bird arriving home first would win for its owner about £SO. This will give my readers some idea of the interest the Belgians take in their celebrated homers.