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Increasing the duck population..

  • 30-09-2009 12:29pm
    #1
    johngalway
    Closed Accounts Posts: 10,271 ✭✭✭✭


    Alright. Got some wild ducks, would like more, or to help them in some way. I like the hen house idea and will try some of them to see how they'll work. Any other ideas? Would only shooting drakes and leaving the hens alone be of benefit to the population?


Comments

  • #2
    stevoman
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 3,041 ✭✭✭stevoman


    johngalway wrote: »
    Would only shooting drakes and leaving the hens alone be of benefit to the population?

    id say it honestly couldnt do any harm but rearing them and lettign them take their chances seems to be the best bet.

    id love to rear a few myself but i just dont have the space in an estate unforunatly.


  • #3
    Dusty87
    Closed Accounts Posts: 2,920 ✭✭✭Dusty87


    Feast or famine stevoman. I have plenty of land and plenty of farmed ducks, but the pond is close by the house and there's no natural ponds anywhere. Not even a drain i could dig out. They'd become too friendly if i left them wit the farmed ducks.


  • #4
    terminator2
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 1,081 ✭✭✭terminator2


    COME ON DUSTY ive seen a pond on top of a mountain never mind a hill


  • #5
    Dusty87
    Closed Accounts Posts: 2,920 ✭✭✭Dusty87


    terminator2 wrote: »
    COME ON DUSTY ive seen a pond on top of a mountain never mind a hill

    Whaaaa? I never said anything about the top of a hill. Is that some kildare sayin with hidden meaning?:):)


  • #6
    Bonzo78
    Closed Accounts Posts: 12 ✭Bonzo78


    A good start to help the ducks would be to keep the predators short.


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  • #7
    BoarHunter
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 1,200 ✭✭✭BoarHunter


    put some corn permanently in the shallow waters and the duckies will always come back. they love the jug basket on top of water. http://nichoirs.net/panier_hollandais.png

    You can place them on little islands or even create rafts for them ( the advantage is that the raft will never get flooded ).

    The most important is that your pond will keep shallow waters all year round and that it contains food.

    If you clip the wings of a good calling hen, nice cover on the water you will have a good recipe to have a lot of ducks.


  • #8
    monarch
    Closed Accounts Posts: 41 ✭monarch


    johngalway wrote: »
    Alright. Got some wild ducks, would like more, or to help them in some way. I like the hen house idea and will try some of them to see how they'll work. Any other ideas? Would only shooting drakes and leaving the hens alone be of benefit to the population?


    just over the mountains from you,we tried a few different things to help the ducks.
    we found that sancuarys work fairly well and of course feeding them.
    the biggest thing we noticed was that we hit the mink very hard for the last few years and noticed a big difference in the amount of young ducks that survived this year.
    like most things we found work,work,work is the only way and there is no quick fix.
    hope this is of some help to you


  • #9
    welsummer
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 395 ✭✭welsummer


    we have a strict policy that the first duck in the group to be fired on is always the drake and if their is another one then go for that as well, but if a single hen duck gets up then it fair game or if their is no drakes in the flock. if every body took this policy including the commercial shoots it would make some difference to the wild population. the difficulty with this is when flighting duck in the evening its hard to tell the difference in the fadeing light.


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