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Getting released ducks to fly!!


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All tips, advice appreciated. 2 small shoots I'm involved with have a pond apiece and keep wanting to utilise the water for a duck drive. Rarely do the duck fly well. Anyone who has experience of sucess with showing reared duck care to comment on their secrets/essentials?

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All tips, advice appreciated. 2 small shoots I'm involved with have a pond apiece and keep wanting to utilise the water for a duck drive. Rarely do the duck fly well. Anyone who has experience of sucess with showing reared duck care to comment on their secrets/essentials?

hi mate not sure how to put a link up but if you put reared ducks into the search bit at the bottom then go onto the topic i started 3/4 of the way down the page there is a few suggestions on their !i found the sneaking up on them idea worked best but still could not get all of them off the water but if you can feed them away from the pond that will definately work i just didnt manage to get them away hope this helps

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as little interaction as possible works well feed at night if possible,if the pond aint too big get them off using seweling and flush them on the ground once flying fairly well things should improve,doging works well also but keeping them wild is the key,ducks tame down very quickly...

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Thanks for input, wondering whether an electric feeder might be a good solution cos without hand feeding the adlib feeding from a hopper is much of problem in that they get fat and lazy? Although the hopper or weekly heap of tailings gets them less humanised.

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reared duck are easy to get flying after you release them let them settle in for a week or so then every so often get say five of you with flags and a dog and go and get them to lift this will get them flying good for the shooting season. and try to get as close to true mallard strains as you can most have a bit of domestic duck in now adays which hinders the flying abilites of them hy-fly do arite ducks

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we release 100 duck on a pond thats about half an acre. they fly well. I tend to put it down to three essentials.

1, keep them wary of humans.

2, keep them hungry.

3, go to a recomended supplier (strain).

 

Great tip totally agree,

 

What i've found best is feed them at dusk and feed them just enough, make sure everything is cleared up. I feed on the edge of the water and never stop around long, i get them fed and off i go. 3-4 weeks before the season i shake a bag a few times when i feed them and is enough to get them up flying.

I do this 4-5 times a week up until the season starts and all the ducks fly well. We've always got our ducks from a supplier in norfolk.

The key is as little contact as possible. Don't allow anyone else to go and feed them.

 

We shoot in the evening so the ducks are hungry and more likely to take flight

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  • 11 months later...
All tips, advice appreciated. 2 small shoots I'm involved with have a pond apiece and keep wanting to utilise the water for a duck drive. Rarely do the duck fly well. Anyone who has experience of sucess with showing reared duck care to comment on their secrets/essentials?

 

 

I realease 5000 reared ducks and the best way i find to get they flying nearly as well as wild ducks is do not exceed feeding them more than 25kg of food to 500 ducks, and when they start flying in off the banks is to start feeding them off the ponds by calling them everytime you feed them either with the horn of the truck or using a whistle, afer a few weeks of training you could take them a mile away then get them flying back, just let them go on there own dont push them back otherwise you spook them. and remember little and often, if they dont come out to where you want them dont feed, just try again in 20 mins. you will be amazed trust me ive had a duck shoot for 8 years and they amaze me every year just takes time, but you only get out what you put in

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All tips, advice appreciated. 2 small shoots I'm involved with have a pond apiece and keep wanting to utilise the water for a duck drive. Rarely do the duck fly well. Anyone who has experience of sucess with showing reared duck care to comment on their secrets/essentials?

 

 

I realease 5000 reared ducks and the best way i find to get they flying nearly as well as wild ducks is do not exceed feeding them more than 25kg of food to 500 ducks, and when they start flying in off the banks is to start feeding them off the ponds by calling them everytime you feed them either with the horn of the truck or using a whistle, afer a few weeks of training you could take them a mile away then get them flying back, just let them go on there own dont push them back otherwise you spook them. and remember little and often, if they dont come out to where you want them dont feed, just try again in 20 mins. you will be amazed trust me ive had a duck shoot for 8 years and they amaze me every year just takes time, but you only get out what you put in

100% right there mate ,tried and tested,its the way foward.

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All tips, advice appreciated. 2 small shoots I'm involved with have a pond apiece and keep wanting to utilise the water for a duck drive. Rarely do the duck fly well. Anyone who has experience of sucess with showing reared duck care to comment on their secrets/essentials?

 

 

I realease 5000 reared ducks and the best way i find to get they flying nearly as well as wild ducks is do not exceed feeding them more than 25kg of food to 500 ducks, and when they start flying in off the banks is to start feeding them off the ponds by calling them everytime you feed them either with the horn of the truck or using a whistle, afer a few weeks of training you could take them a mile away then get them flying back, just let them go on there own dont push them back otherwise you spook them. and remember little and often, if they dont come out to where you want them dont feed, just try again in 20 mins. you will be amazed trust me ive had a duck shoot for 8 years and they amaze me every year just takes time, but you only get out what you put in

100% right there mate ,tried and tested,its the way foward.

 

 

 

Same as above!

 

I rear 600 on my 2 ponds and feed them off the water.

 

I shoot on an estate that has 5 sets of double ponds and do over 2 thousand ducks between them. They drive them from one pond to the other, often off a steep hill and at least 1/2 a mile apart. The keeper whistles them in to feed.

 

Mark.

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Guest rodsmith

just chuck alot of feed(barley or wheat)into the shallows and leave quiet as they do tend to get very tame.i tended to give them flying lessons when i fed.i just let the dogs run havoc!!

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you have the best reply feed them away from pond/lake start a short distance and build it up every day they will soon run to you when you whistle.

when they have cleaned up they might run back but as you get further they soon fly to you and back again,if they dont hide your dog between you and the lake when they have finished feeding call the dog to you they will soon learn to use there wings.

when we shoot them you kill afew then you have to wait for them to some down they go that high.

regards

lyndon

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