Page:Ducks- and how to make them pay (IA cu31924003102971).pdf/78

60 cannot. Stock ducks eat but very little when they are full grown and are not laying. I have often noticed they have not consumed so much food as the hens. If they have a good range of a meadow, and such a place as a farmyard in the country, with a pond or brook, when they are not laying they seldom want food at all; they get their own living. I would warn purchasers of buying Aylesbury stock ducks of ordinary advertisers. Go to well-known breeders. There are good duck-breeders who sell first-class reliable stock. Some people give from 7s. 6d. to 21s., and others go as high as £3 3s. for good-bred Aylesburies. Many of them are sold for Aylesburies, but are only really cross-bred. This is a disappointment, and it may be months before the owner finds out that they are not pure. I have known people who have kept ducks for years, who have offered me their stock of young Aylesburies, and in some cases I have asked them what colour their beaks were, and the answer has been, "Almost every bill is as yellow as a guinea." Of course they have been Pekins, and not Aylesburies at all. In one or two other cases I have asked them to send the ducks on approval, especially where I knew the people and thought they would know what Aylesbury ducks were; but I have had to feed them and send them back at once. Where people do not know any better, ignorance is bliss. Those who take the trouble to go through this little book will be able to judge for themselves whether they get a cross or pure stock. There is one thing in Aylesburies which I should mention. If they are allowed to run on