Wild Ducks

eggs than they can successfully hatch, pick up some eggs at intervals from the nests, taking care always to leave two or three in each nest. These eggs should be placed on a large tray or shallow box, lined with hay, sawdust, or other suitable material. It is not advisable to place them touching each other, and care should be taken to turn them daily; if this is done the eggs will keep well for three weeks, by which time you have collected a sufficient number to put under hens, however small your stock may be.

Eggs left in the nest will, of course, not require turning, as the duck does this herself.

When you have collected a number of eggs, place them under hens, having first satisfied yourself that the hens are good sitters. Eight to ten sittings of twelve eggs each is a good number to put down as a start, as from this number you ought to get about a hundred ducklings, and these, when old enough, can be divided into two runs of about fifty each. I have found by experience that it is unwise to