Duck nesting structures: Tips and Ideas

[GullGuide]

I moved this topic here-
BLACKJACK wrote:
EW6, what do you have in mind for duck housing for mallards? What has worked well for you? I've tried the floating plaforms and had them flipped by the wind and I've tried wire tubes on poles but then the ice takes them out. Any proven ideas would be welcome.

[GullGuide]

I would suggest maybe looking into ways to plant freshwater shrimp in the lake for one, then wait till next fall, gather some wild rice, mix it with mud to form mud balls then toss them out into the lake around the shoreline. You should get rice the next year or so if the conditions are right.
If it is not your land, I would make sure you can always get permission to hunt it. Would hate to do that much work only to make a ducky haven for someone else.
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[BLACKJACK]

EW6, if you do the wood duck houses, consider putting them on poles with predator guards. Coons are a big problem in this area. I've had close to 100% occupancy and success with the pole mounted/predator guarded houses. I can't say that about the wood duck houses that I've put in trees, squirrels and coons raid them. In fact this winter I'm going to start taking down the houses that I've put in trees. Chappel Central in Willmar has the guards and brakets. It adds more cost but if its worth doing, its worth doing right. An added benefit is that you can monitor the houses easily during the nesting season without a ladder. Kind of neat and kids love it. Just cover the hole with your hand to keep the hen from panicking out, then open the side door and peek in. If the hens isn't there, check under the down, thats where the eggs will be. They'll go up one a day - if its more than one a day, you have two hens laying. Last year I had 22 eggs in one nest - 18 hatched off - I counted them on the pond. Another nice thing about woodduck nests is that you get a lot of action by pairs of wood ducks flying around. One year I even had some mergansers nesting.

As you can tell, I enjoy the wood duck houses, lots of bang for the time and effort that you put into them. "Put it up and they will come". I've already got the wood bought for 6 more houses. Good luck.

As far as them sticking around, thats hit or miss. It depends on the habitat. I've watched the wood ducks in the fall, they'll find a particular pond that they like and just swarm in at dusk, but its not the same pond every year. I can't figure out what makes them pick a pond. They seem to spend the day in the small ponds amoung the hardwoods, then at night they're looking for a larger pond. Makes for fun jump shooting in the morning if you can see them going in. Same with the geese. I'll get 2-3 pair of geese nesting, when they're half grown they'll be hanging out together, then all of a sudden they're gone. This is before they can fly so I assume they're taking them overland to a larger body of water.

[This message has been edited by BLACKJACK (edited 11-28-2001).]

[Guest]

My cousin and I put out wood duck houses made from 2 five gallon buckets that fit over each other to make a nice home for nesting ducks. We attach them in the trees and also place sheet metal around the base of the tree to keep predators from crawling up the tree. My cousin put chicken wire on the inside for the hen and chicks to crawl out. Kind of a neat system, and easy to clean out every late winter/early spring before the birds arrive.

We also attached rolls of chicken wire to a wooden platform (platform attached to a long cast iron pole sunk into the bottom of the pond) and placed it in the middle of the open water to keep predators away. In the early spring, before the ice melts we cut natural grasses up and stuff into the chicken wire. Seems to last well each season. I have seen DU have the same setups on various WPAs.

[EW6]

Gullguide,
I put the rice that filled my boat from Mud this year to good use, I just hope that it actually grows. I have always heard that the rice needs current to grow, but if it got started that would be the best thing. I also thought about the freshwater shrimp, but don't know where I would get them locally.

I would maybe have to be careful though, the lake is a DNR walleye rearing pond, that they put a lot of money into killing all the minnows and rough fish. It reall worked and the water quality is improved. The thing is the this year the thing is filled with bass, someone put them in and the DNR guys were pretty mad. I didn't do it but have always wondered if Northerns and Sunnies would actually survive in the pond if introduced. I am not much of a walleye fan so the bass made me chuckle, but if I got seen introducing shrimp for example they may peg me as the bass man.....not cool. So I'll have to tip toe around the introducing species route, even though I think that it would really help.

BLACKJACK,
You seem to be very knowledgeable on this topic. Thanks for the advice....I am looking forward to implementing some of your techniques. I have seen the same exact thing with both the wood ducks and geese that you mentioned. In fact this is one of those lakes that hundreds of woodies will flock into after dark, but I don't know where they come from and why they don't stay on the lake all day. Other than the three of us that hunt (only about once a week) there is no hunting pressure yet they all leave and come in after shooting hours.

[GullGuide]

Yea, I don't know if it is legal or not, but as long as they are using it for a rearing pond, you might as well forget the shrimp idea since the walleye will eat all the shrimp anyway. That is one of the biggest reasons why we have less ducks stopping in Minnesota in my opinion. With aerators keeping fish alive in lakes where they did not survive the winter before and the use of these small ponds by bait companies to raise minnows has caused an eradication of the shrimp. The DNR has not acknowledged this probably because it make too much sense
As for rice needing current, that is not true. Many small ponds and lakes that have hardly any current if none at all are loaded with rice.
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[This message has been edited by GullGuide (edited 11-28-2001).]

[EW6]

The shrimp idea has a lot of merit. I think you are right on Gullguide. Actually I didn't even know what a fresh water shrimp looked like until I hunted a little bit out here at college. It maybe just a coincidence, but I would say that the best duck hunting in Minnesota is in the western part, where there are also lots of freshwater shrimp...makes sense.

I know that there are not enough undisturbed ponds in my area, and that is one of the biggest problems. You can find hundreds of ducks around when there is no one hunting, but as soon as the pressure gets as extreme as it does, it doesn't take a genious to see that they will move on. I would like to see a sort of safe haven on some of the water around Spicer, but the chances of that happening are about nil. Obviously you can't do it unless people are willing to give up there hunting spots...and that isn't really fair either...any ideas on that approach to keeping waterfowl around?

[GullGuide]

There is actually a lot of safe water around New London. The birds have all of the water in Sibley, the sewer plant and a number of sloughs where the landowners will not allow hunting.
At one time there was even talk about turning the open water area on Mud (SE corner) into a resting area, no motors etc. But that was shot down because there is an established private access there. I would like to see a no-motor zone on the lake from The northernmost tip of Geer Island across through the open water. This would hold the divers on the lake at least. It could be a voluntary thing such as the one the have on Swan Lake down by Mankato. Would never happen though.
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[EW6]

I had that very same Star tribune article in mind....it would be tough, there is just not quite enough water to have a big no motor zone.

Last year the holding ponds east of the lake held birds to the point of being black, but there were only a few dozen using it this year and I wasn't sure why there were so few. Did anyone notice that there was almost nothing but Mallards on Mud this past weekend... I hunted it Thursday and saw 0 divers, only Mallards. Definetly I would vote for a no motor zone to keep divers around if it could be done, but that is a mighty tall task.

Just some wishful thinking but, If the lake could produce the same rice that it did this year, I believe that we would see a real increase in nesting waterfowl even over this year's birds. Maybe some of the migrators would take notice of the ample food supply and stay this spring. Cause I think that the lake could produce more birds than I saw on it this past summer.

[EW6]

So far I have only worked with Wood Duck boxes, but I am going to try some sort of nesting structure for geese and Mallards. I was thinking of a tube made of chicken-wire fence, and then filling it with grasses, and attaching it to a pole. The lake is about 30 acres, but hopefully the ice won't take it out. And if it does I'll just have to fix it each year....but if anyone has any other ideas I would love to hear them.

The lake that I am planning on working on this spring has a problem with keeping waterfowl on it up through the season. Usually several couples of geese nest there, but they leave as soon as the young ones hatch. I would like to make food plots, but it is not my land....are there any other suggestions out there? Also there are lots of teal and wood ducks that use it, but they are usually gone after the first two weeks, but unfortunaly I think that is solely in the hands of Mother Nature, and there is not much I can do about it.

I can't wait for spring....
EW

[GullGuide]

From what I heard, Mud produced a bonanza of teal this spring. I guess the weekend before opener there were over 10,000 out there.Something else I heard was that this spring the DNR issued permits to farmers in order to decrease the goose population to stop field damage. A very reliable source told me that one farmer alone killed 100 birds. Think about that. That's 50 breeding pairs just from ONE FARMER! Imagine what the hunting would have been like if this had not happened. Surprising that the DNR did not make this public about issuing permits.

EW,
Yes, the mallard hunting was fantastic all year out there. How did you do that last weekend?
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[BLACKJACK]

Gullguide, I've been thinking of doing the wild rice thing for a couple of years, just looking for a good, easy source of wild rice seed. Do you think a person could go over to Mud Lake with a small boat and collect 30-50 pounds of rice in a couple of hours? How far are the rice beds from the access?

[GullGuide]

You'll have to wait till next year, but I'd go out from the East bridge, around the point and back into the bay. You can see how thick the rice is there from the road.
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[Flick]

Where is this Mud lake you guys keep talking about? I don't plan on going there, just wondering where it is, I have no idea. Also we have 2 woodduck boxes behind our house on a pond. It seems we only get one of them nested in. They're about 10 ft. apart, is that too close?

[GullGuide]

Flick,
Near New London
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[BLACKJACK]

Flick, 10 feet is not too close. Is it always the same house thats occupied? Then double check the hole entrance size on the other one, it should be an oval roughly 4" x 3". Put fresh cedar chips in them each year.

[Flick]

I think one of them is used more than the other one. The one that they use more has a smooth hole. The other one has a hole that was chewed out by squirrels or something. It looks more natural but the hole my be too big. Also when I was driving around this evening in the east metro I saw a couple flocks of geese circling behind a hill, so I turned around to go see what they were up to. As I was going back I saw an unreal amount of geese get out of a field, the sky was black where they got up and once they separated they were all over the place. I would say there was 2-3 thousand. I didn't get permission, everything is extremely sewed up as far as permission goes. By the way the pond behind our house in Oakdale here reopened and there were 60 geese, lots of mallards, including the ones I raised and there was even a black duck. The first one I've ever seen on our pond. It looked pretty cool.

[BLACKJACK]

Gullguide, thanks for the tip on the wild rice, I'll have to check it out next summer.

Flick, if you have a pond out your back door, don't hesitate to put up some more wood duck houses. They're not territorial, you could have a house every 5 feet if you want. Its fun to see the adults flying around in the spring and even more fun when a brood of babies comes puddling along.

[GullGuide]

It amazes me that as good of a lake that Mud is that there are not very many wood duck houses put up on it. Maybe a project that I will think about
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[lost_stringer]

I apologize in advance if the answer to this is already here and I am not seeing it.
Are the plastic Tubbs wood duck houses still available, at least I think it was Tubbs? If not are there any good equivalents?

Thanks for any info on who, where, etc.