Wild ducks and spring/summer feeding

[bmetson 0]

The gamekeeper on my local shoot has talked about buying in some ducks for the large pond on the land, however with the 'credit crunch' most of the guns are worried about the cost of this...does anybody know of a way to attract wild ducks onto the pond?

There have been some on there in the past and the pond is ideal with a small island and a shallow/marshy end.

 

Also I was wondering if it is worth feeding into the spring and/or summer as there are a lot of birds still about with only the beater's day left.

 

Thanks, Ben

[steviebhoy 0]

The gamekeeper on my local shoot has talked about buying in some ducks for the large pond on the land, however with the 'credit crunch' most of the guns are worried about the cost of this...does anybody know of a way to attract wild ducks onto the pond?

There have been some on there in the past and the pond is ideal with a small island and a shallow/marshy end.

 

Also I was wondering if it is worth feeding into the spring and/or summer as there are a lot of birds still about with only the beater's day left.

 

Thanks, Ben

You sound like you already know the basics mate and your pond sounds ideal. Get the feeding in the shallow end and hope for the best. If you can get a hold of trailer full of old potatoes then fire them in too. Might be a plan if you are trying to keep the ducks there that you knock up a few nesting boxes on the island. Good luck and happy hunting

[bmetson 0]

The gamekeeper on my local shoot has talked about buying in some ducks for the large pond on the land, however with the 'credit crunch' most of the guns are worried about the cost of this...does anybody know of a way to attract wild ducks onto the pond?

There have been some on there in the past and the pond is ideal with a small island and a shallow/marshy end.

 

Also I was wondering if it is worth feeding into the spring and/or summer as there are a lot of birds still about with only the beater's day left.

 

Thanks, Ben

You sound like you already know the basics mate and your pond sounds ideal. Get the feeding in the shallow end and hope for the best. If you can get a hold of trailer full of old potatoes then fire them in too. Might be a plan if you are trying to keep the ducks there that you knock up a few nesting boxes on the island. Good luck and happy hunting

 

 

Thank you for the quick reply! I will give that a go. With the nesting boxes though I am not sure what they should be like...

[claybusers al 9]

you can buy purpose built things from gamekeeper feeds and patrick pinker have a look and copy i used to use oldround 20L drums with the end cut out if you want to nurture your pheasants that are left lots of small feeders dotted about rather than a couple of large ones also if you can get it cheap mix in some different grains wild bird seed and cracked maize goodluck

[BenBhoy 4,706]

aye pal, deffo feed, but important to get balance right, not to overfeed or underfeed, trial and error, important as once season starts up again, you want the birds to know there will always be food there, but dont overfed as they may not need to come back again for couple of days cos they'll be full. if done correctly it can be good sport, but if not then inland duck can be shockingly bad. hope ya get some teal into the shallows.

[bmetson 0]

Thanks for the replies I will be sure to pass the advice on! (Sorry I have not replied sooner...I have so much uni work on I get very little time for anything else... )

 

Ben

[welshboy454 3]

The gamekeeper on my local shoot has talked about buying in some ducks for the large pond on the land, however with the 'credit crunch' most of the guns are worried about the cost of this...does anybody know of a way to attract wild ducks onto the pond?

There have been some on there in the past and the pond is ideal with a small island and a shallow/marshy end.

 

Also I was wondering if it is worth feeding into the spring and/or summer as there are a lot of birds still about with only the beater's day left.

 

Thanks, Ben

We tend to feed until 31 march or so (depends on how much food is left) - the benefit is that mammy duck nests somewhere nearby and in the autumn brings babies along - a brilliant return on investment

[bmetson 0]

Thanks again for the replies, we are going to feed for a few more weeks I think, use up the rest of the grain...Also looks like there might be a few ducks nesting...There always seems to be the same number on the water...

 

Cheers again for the advice!