Jasper County Democrat, Volume 15, Number 49, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 21 September 1912 — POULTRY [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

POULTRY

FAVOR INDIAN RUNNER DUCKS Hardest of All Domestic Fowls and Do Equally as Well Confined as on Free Range. Indian Runner ducks are the hardiest of all domestic fowls. As they do equally well In confinement or on free range, they may be profitably kept by persons in town or city as well as by farmers. They do not require pond or running water —Just water to drink in, something deep enough so the whole head can be immersed, says the Interstate Poultryman. They may be kept more cheaply on free range, as they will find many things of little or no value, Buch as bugs, worms, grasshoppers, grass, etc. These they convert into large white eggs, which if not sold for hatching will command several cents above the market price of hen eggs and. at Easter will bring twice as much. They do not differ in flavor from hen eggs, but are superior for all kinds of cooking. As a table fowl the Indian Runner duck Is excellent. The meat Is tender, Juicy and finegrained. Thus far the demand for breeding stock and eggs for hatching has been so great that the duck has not been raised to a great extent as market stock; but wherever it has become known as a table fowl It Is wanted.

As egg-producers the Indian Runner females are too valuable to sell on the market until from three to nine years old. A flock from a good-lay-ing strain will average from 240 to 250 eggs per layer per year, if properly managed. I find by actual test that the feed that will keep a Plymouth Rock hen in good shape will keep a Runner duck plump, so I think it safe to say that they can be kept as cheaply as any of the large breeds of hens in winter and cheaper in summer if on free range, as they will forage farther into the fields. We like them much better than hens, as they do not destroy crops, neither are they so much of a nuisance around -the buildings as hens. The ducklings of this breed can be raised to a marketable size cheaper and more quickly than those of any other breed. As the ducks never set, the ducklings be hatched by incubators or hens. Hens give the best results, often hatching every egg given them. The eggs are very fertile and may, if deqired, be hatched any month In the year. Ducklings hatched in June or July often lay all winter, while, if hatched in March, they will lay in time to hatch ducklings from them by the Ist of October.