henry_o Posted April 22, 2011 Report Share Posted April 22, 2011 Hi folks, This year I have been intending to experiment with mallards on our family shoot. These ducks will hopefully be used to provide a duck drive. I don't think there's any problem with rearing them, as I have incubated and reared partridge and pheasant in past years. We have three ponds within a small area; each pond is capable oh holding well over 100 birds. I hope to release around 50-60 birds on one pond, and eventually feed them on one of the others. So hopefully they will stay at the release pond during the day and then flight to the feed pond at dusk. So I'm wanting to shoot them off the release pond in a duck drive during the pheasant shoot days. Is there anything else i should know before doing this? Does this method sound right? I can't see any flaws in this plan yet. There are no footpaths or dogwalkers at the two ponds i am intending to use. We won't be using these ponds as flight ponds either as we have a pond nearer a river which serves us well. These ponds don't attract a massive number of wild duck unless they're fed, so i'm not bothered if the reared ducks keep the wild ones away. Would they keep the snipe away? Cheers Henry Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
shakin stevens Posted April 24, 2011 Report Share Posted April 24, 2011 Hi Henry I Help out on a local shoot and duck shooting is my department, i cant see a problem the pond we have we put 100 mallard down and drive them off, once they get flying i bag them off and get them flying every few days, make sure you drive them the right way over the guns on shoot day! we drive the duck early mainly first drive most morning wild duck are still present so its a bonus, we tell the guns one drive only because alot of duck do try to come back to the pond so in my eyes it ant fair to keep banging away at them, plus you wont have many left by november, keep on top of your vermin and keep an eye out for foxes if the ducks have to rest on the bank old charles will have meal or two. if anything reared duck attract other wildfowl so keep a eye on duck numbers because you might find you need to feed a bit more food especially if the weather gets hard, check the shot ducks for condition, and of course its non toxic shot only, even in scotland if your shooting back over the flight pond. rgds bob. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
henry_o Posted April 24, 2011 Author Report Share Posted April 24, 2011 Hi Henry I Help out on a local shoot and duck shooting is my department, i cant see a problem the pond we have we put 100 mallard down and drive them off, once they get flying i bag them off and get them flying every few days, make sure you drive them the right way over the guns on shoot day! we drive the duck early mainly first drive most morning wild duck are still present so its a bonus, we tell the guns one drive only because alot of duck do try to come back to the pond so in my eyes it ant fair to keep banging away at them, plus you wont have many left by november, keep on top of your vermin and keep an eye out for foxes if the ducks have to rest on the bank old charles will have meal or two. if anything reared duck attract other wildfowl so keep a eye on duck numbers because you might find you need to feed a bit more food especially if the weather gets hard, check the shot ducks for condition, and of course its non toxic shot only, even in scotland if your shooting back over the flight pond. rgds bob. Hi Shakin Stevens. What do you mean by driving them the right way? I've seen it done on other shoots where they surround the whole pond and drive them off, and everyone has a few shots then leave those that are tame enough to come back around. Do you feed them constantly on the same pond you shoot them from? The main bit im worried about is the transition from feeding them near the release pond and feeding them at the other pond. How big is your pond to put 100 duck down? Yea we kep on top of the foxes on our shoot, and trap a lot of vermin so hopefully that won't be a problem. Will have a shine around with the lamp quite often the fortnight after releasing them. Thanks Henry Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
shakin stevens Posted April 24, 2011 Report Share Posted April 24, 2011 depends on what you do, and the size of your pond, ours is a fair size, you will find if you have a bit of shelter the ducks will rest at that end, we line the guns out on the other side of the hedge, and have a flag man on the sides, i then walk through the wood up to the resting area give them a flare and a clap and get em up over the hedge over the guns, if they swim or try to break flag em up, if anough go leave the rest behind, let the guns have a bang then holt the shooting, nothing worse than reared mallard they try to get back home and i cant stand folk who shoot poor flying birds. yes we release on this pond and flight them off onto a pond we dont feed. They rest up on the other pond and then fly home at dusk with the wild duck, then you feed em back up till next shooting day, keep a count on what you shoot then juggle how many flushes you want through the season say leave a few for xmas!. rgds bob. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
highseas Posted April 24, 2011 Report Share Posted April 24, 2011 hmm we do a lot of duck up to a 400 day, but if they are relised on to one pond and fed their they will always call it home and if their is no reason to leave they wont you could feed them to the other ponds and get them set up their, but i dont think they will leave their home pond to flight other places Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
henry_o Posted April 24, 2011 Author Report Share Posted April 24, 2011 hmm we do a lot of duck up to a 400 day, but if they are relised on to one pond and fed their they will always call it home and if their is no reason to leave they wont you could feed them to the other ponds and get them set up their, but i dont think they will leave their home pond to flight other places Hi Highseas yea i agree with them calling it home, but i don't want them getting too fat to fly and being a waste of money. Would they not hang about the 'home' pond during the day then flight to the other possible feed pond in the evening. This way they're getting more exercise and would be more inclined to fly on a shoot day? I don't want to have to shoot them off the other pond as the one i plan to release them on is the best set up for a duck drive. Cheers Henry Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
highseas Posted April 24, 2011 Report Share Posted April 24, 2011 well fat duck will fly but nothing gets tamer than mallard we feed ours at night as soon as they start comeing to us for feed this wilds them up quite a lot if i was you i would be reliseing feeding ad driveing all of one pond them maybe feeding the others a little bit for flighting Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
M ROBSON Posted April 25, 2011 Report Share Posted April 25, 2011 (edited) Release them at one pond and once they start to fly slowly feed them further and further away from it, toward the other pond. Then once they have fed they will fly back to the first pond. This gives you a chance to put your guns in place for the drive. We do a lot of driven ducks in September and either shoot them coming back to their home pond or through a stand of trees between the two ponds. Image0063 by mj robson, on Flickr Image0034 by mj robson, on Flickr Image0032 by mj robson, on Flickr Cheers, Mark. Edited April 25, 2011 by M ROBSON Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
henry_o Posted April 25, 2011 Author Report Share Posted April 25, 2011 Release them at one pond and once they start to fly slowly feed them further and further away from it, toward the other pond. Then once they have fed they will fly back to the first pond. This gives you a chance to put your guns in place for the drive. We do a lot of driven ducks in September and either shoot them coming back to their home pond or through a stand of trees between the two ponds. Cheers, Mark. Yea I see what you mean getting further away. This is what I was worried about as the field where the release pond is is full of wheat so I'd be feeding 30 yds from the pond then all of a sudden be 150-200 yds away from it at the edge of the field. And then I dont want them relating me to food because I want to make them as wild as possible for the shooting, so i don't want them flying to me at the edge of the field to get food. I'm guessing you just feed yours barley? How much would be needed each day per 50 birds? Do you just scatter it on the ground? What strain of mallard do you buy in? I'm unsure of which will fly best over fairly flat land. Cheers Henry Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
M ROBSON Posted April 28, 2011 Report Share Posted April 28, 2011 They won't go tame once you start shooting them! :yp: I feed mine on a quad and they will fly to me, I rev the engine, whistle and shout and they soon learn this means food. They will fly several hundred yards from the release pond to get to me at feeding time. Once I turn up with a dog they turn wild as hell, we often have to wait for them to loose hight so we can shoot them! I feed them all sorts, I get quite a bit of free feed from graiding machines, reared ducks aren't fussy. The 2 ponds thing is the only way to do it properly in my opinion. If you only want a small shoot with a few guns just flush them off one pond and let them land in on the other in peace, then their not going off elsewhere. If you want a big day stop them getting in onto the other pond, but you'll only do this a few times before they smarten up and start landing on ditches, stubbles or other waterways around the area. They should come back for the feed later. We had ducks from HighFly a few years ago and they were very poor flyers. Now we get them from a Romney Marshes strain and they are excellent. Cheers, Mark. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
henry d Posted April 28, 2011 Report Share Posted April 28, 2011 stop them getting in onto the other pond, but you'll only do this a few times before they smarten up and start landing on ditches...... Seen that happen a few times BTW, is that Bertie in the red and blue socks ?? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
highseas Posted April 28, 2011 Report Share Posted April 28, 2011 Seen that happen a few times BTW, is that Bertie in the red and blue socks ?? the far left looks very like a guy i know rob perry? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
M ROBSON Posted April 29, 2011 Report Share Posted April 29, 2011 It is Bertie. I don't know a couple of the guns in that pic. It was taken after a day on a local estate where they do things on a bigger scale, I have 2 duck drives on my shoot, they have 6. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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