Page:Ducks- and how to make them pay (IA cu31924003102971).pdf/24

10 clean, especially when the water is changed in their little pond or tub occasionally. If pens of ducks are kept on grass runs they keep themselves quite clean if they have no water to swim in whatever. Those who have a good-sized duck-pond, and wish to keep several varieties, should divide their pond with wire netting, and allow it to go under the water at the least three feet if the pond is deep, otherwise when the ducks dive they may go underneath and come up the wrong side of the wire. Unless this precaution is taken in the breeding season they will get crossed. Whenever duck-ponds are made in the general garden, or where there is a fair space, a few drooping willows should be planted, with some large ferns of some kind, so as to droop round the pond to give a nice appearance.

A little house should be made near the pond, and it is well to have a covered run attached to it. A small one will do, even if it is only a few feet square, so that the ducks can run there, and be fed and watered before they go in the pond. Another reason why a run should be there is because very often when they are allowed to go in the pond early in the morning they will lay their eggs in the water; these are then lost. Ducks should never be let out before nine or ten in the morning to go to their pond unless they have laid beforehand. They should be kept from the pond and allowed to run in a meadow or where they can go ranging about looking for worms and insects, in which case they can be let out as soon as it is daylight, or before that even. Ducks, as a rule, lay from two