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Shooting Forum - Firearms licencing information


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Feeding the ducks.

  • 10-08-2009 12:49pm
    #1
    pullandbang
    Hosted Moderators Posts: 4,948 ✭✭✭


    It's coming around to that time of year again when grown men get out of their warm beds in the dead of night to travel miles in the dark to some god forsaken hole of water. There they stand/sit/hide and wait until dawn to come and hopefully a few quackers.

    Anyone been out feeding ponds or quiet backwaters yet?

    Are there many ducks about?


Comments

  • #2
    EPointer=Birdss
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 2,070 ✭✭✭EPointer=Birdss


    pullandbang wrote: »
    It's coming around to that time of year again when grown men get out of their warm beds in the dead of night to travel miles in the dark to some god forsaken hole of water. There they stand/sit/hide and wait until dawn to come and hopefully a few quackers.

    Anyone been out feeding ponds or quiet backwaters yet?

    Are there many ducks about?

    Have been feeding a small pond/flooded field with maize for the last week or so. Have a drain blocked so the field holds water all year.
    Have the hide poles set up & waiting on some netting to finish it. There was 70+ mallard in it at times last year! Had some great nights shooting last season, in the last half hour before dark!

    What do you use to feed??? Any tips?


  • #3
    steyrman
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 595 ✭✭✭steyrman


    hi im feeding 2 ponds at the moment between 40 to 60 ducks on them with barley sweeping from the mill free to take away i call 2 times a week now and get 12 to 14 bags plenty to feed them also i have a few pipes with dressed corn for the rats.i wont shoot the 2 ponds i leave on alone for a while then change around shoot it 1 every 2 weeks and just bring 6 shells makes it better and there will be a few around at the end of the season i have had to cull the drakes late in the season because there was more of them than ducks hope this helps


  • #4
    pullandbang
    Hosted Moderators Posts: 4,948 ✭✭✭pullandbang


    EPointer=Birdss wrote: »
    What do you use to feed??? Any tips?

    We usually get some barley locally as it's being cut and we use lots of potato peelings - my shooting partner is a veg processor so we have a never ending supply. We'll make a start this week hopefully. It's usually the last two weeks in August - depends on how wet it gets.

    I'm praying for no rain so we can have our clay shoot in comfort and on the other hand, lots of rain so it floods a particular spot :)

    I'm in a no win situation!


  • #5
    Browning
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 122 ✭✭Browning


    Looks like fewer ducks around this year so far. I feed a pond on my land every year from mid july onwards and there seems to be a dramatic drop in the number of ducks circulating. At this stage I would expect to be seeing 30-40 ducks a night, currently only seeing 2-3. Food always available as its fed or checked for activity every evening. No additional disturbance taking place. So at the moment signs are not good. Last year in the 1st week of September upto 90 ducks came to this pond. Fingers crossed :confused:


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