happychappy246 Posted February 8, 2012 Report Share Posted February 8, 2012 Hi there I'm thinking about rearing some ducks to put down on my shoot I was just wondering weather there pretty much the same as rearing pheasants apart from needing a pond obviously any help on this would be great ! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lee-kinsman Posted February 8, 2012 Report Share Posted February 8, 2012 How many are you thinking? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
happychappy246 Posted February 8, 2012 Author Report Share Posted February 8, 2012 40- 60 ? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AmateX Posted February 9, 2012 Report Share Posted February 9, 2012 Ducks are easy but very messy, they eat more that pheasants but come off heat much sooner (7-14 days depending on weather). Some people rear on ponds others just use small shallow water troughs/trays. If you have experiance of pheasants you won't have a problem with duck. As they rear well you will only lose 0-2 per 100. Give them plenty of fresh water, food and you will be fine bar the smell. I put a net over them to keep corvids etc out. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
anser2 Posted February 9, 2012 Report Share Posted February 9, 2012 The biggest problem with releasing duck for a shoot is not the rearing , but getting them to present sporting shooting. There are two ways of doing this , driving the birds over the guns or my much preferred releasing the duck onto an unshot pond and flighting them into a second pond. The secret in providing quality shooting is to minimise human contact once they start to feather up and give them the odd scare once they are flying. I used to release several hundred mallard , putting them into a wired in pond when they were about 6 weeks old. I was able to approach the pond and chuck the food over a reed screen unseen so they did not connect feeding with man. Secondly once they were strong on the wing I used to dog the duck off any surrounding ponds\ditches 2-3 times a month , before the season started , but never on their release pond. The result was duck that were quite wary when shooting started taking wing at the sight of a human at 200 yards. We fed the duck to a wide ditch some 1\4 a mile away from the release pond and for the remainder of the season had brilliant flighting at wary birds. Rearing the birds need not be messy if you keep them on grass , do not over crowd them and introduce them to water for swimming in warm weather at 4-5 weeks if necessary with a wide gravel collar around their Bathing trough. But make sure they are swimming well and waterproof before putting them onto their release pond. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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