gameshooter93 Posted July 11, 2012 Report Share Posted July 11, 2012 Hi all, got my duck poults a couple of days ago and they all settled in well. This is my first year of putting ducks down, and am a bit worried because they seem to be quite tame and not bothered about me being near them. Is this normal or not?? Also how often do I need to check on them without making them even more tame!!! Any help would be much appreciated, thanks! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mark g Posted July 13, 2012 Report Share Posted July 13, 2012 Hi all, got my duck poults a couple of days ago and they all settled in well. This is my first year of putting ducks down, and am a bit worried because they seem to be quite tame and not bothered about me being near them. Is this normal or not?? Also how often do I need to check on them without making them even more tame!!! Any help would be much appreciated, thanks! they are always tame when you have them, the trick to getting them to fly is feed them away from the pool if they are hopper fed put it on wheels so that you can move it every few days and end up with them feeding about 200 yards from pool, if you dont you will end up chaseing them about with boats and all sorts of other silly stuff trying to make them fly and eventually give up haveing ducks, this is going to be the last time i give advice on ducks as nobody has the balls to feed them away from the water round here and i am kind of tired of repeating myself Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Keeperchris Posted July 14, 2012 Report Share Posted July 14, 2012 Totally agree with u mark!! Ours are fed about 150 yds away from the ponds by the time the season arrives and all I have to do to get them flying is crack a flag. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
webber Posted July 14, 2012 Report Share Posted July 14, 2012 Progressivley feeding a distance away from the home pond is certainly the way forward to ensure that ducks will fly, and fly strong. Fail to do so, you run the serious risk of ducks simply swimming around the pond, fat and lazy, not bothered about beaters, dogs, bangs etc. You will struggle to get them up, even if you do get them up, it won't be for long, a waste of time, effort and feed and money. Done properly ducks provide some excellent shooting, done incorrectly (the lazy mans way) they will generally provide very little, poor shooting. webber Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Scully Posted July 14, 2012 Report Share Posted July 14, 2012 Good advice.On a big non-commercial shoot I used to beat on the pond margins were fed,as a result ducks were chased from county to county by dogs,but never got above head height,and if they did they would make directly for the water.Waste of time,effort and money. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gameshooter93 Posted July 15, 2012 Author Report Share Posted July 15, 2012 thanks for the advice guys. I will do what you say and hopefully it should work!! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PhilR Posted July 16, 2012 Report Share Posted July 16, 2012 We have two ponds on our shoot with predominantly cattle in the grazing fields on one side and arable crops on the other. We use auto timer feeders on 45 gallon drums and the ducks have been fed pond side in the past. Last year we had considerable difficulty in getting the ducks off the water. If we were to feed away from the ponds, it would be easier to site the feeders in the grazing fields, so that the ducks don't ruin the crops. However, we then have the issue of the cattle getting at the grain, we've got past experience of what cattle can do to the feeders when they've escaped into a field containing them on the pheasant drives. We can't be alone in having this problem, so does anyone know what methods we could use to protect the feeders from the cattle. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mark g Posted July 19, 2012 Report Share Posted July 19, 2012 We have two ponds on our shoot with predominantly cattle in the grazing fields on one side and arable crops on the other. We use auto timer feeders on 45 gallon drums and the ducks have been fed pond side in the past. Last year we had considerable difficulty in getting the ducks off the water. If we were to feed away from the ponds, it would be easier to site the feeders in the grazing fields, so that the ducks don't ruin the crops. However, we then have the issue of the cattle getting at the grain, we've got past experience of what cattle can do to the feeders when they've escaped into a field containing them on the pheasant drives. We can't be alone in having this problem, so does anyone know what methods we could use to protect the feeders from the cattle. four posts and some stock netting upside down so that the big holes are at the bottom, birds can walk through Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Son of a gun Posted August 2, 2012 Report Share Posted August 2, 2012 they are always tame when you have them, the trick to getting them to fly is feed them away from the pool if they are hopper fed put it on wheels so that you can move it every few days and end up with them feeding about 200 yards from pool, if you dont you will end up chaseing them about with boats and all sorts of other silly stuff trying to make them fly and eventually give up haveing ducks, this is going to be the last time i give advice on ducks as nobody has the balls to feed them away from the water round here and i am kind of tired of repeating myself I tried you advice this morning and it worked a treat thanks Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
happychappy246 Posted August 21, 2012 Report Share Posted August 21, 2012 I've got the opposite problem my ducks are 14 weeks old and so wild I don't think the guns will be able to get lined out without them flying off somewhere else :L Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dunteige Mallard Posted August 21, 2012 Report Share Posted August 21, 2012 That sounds strange how often are they fed? If you cut there feed back this should tame them down a bit as they will be more interested to see you coming! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
silver pigeon 3 Posted August 21, 2012 Report Share Posted August 21, 2012 Our ducks on the pond are flying well, even though we have no option of feeding more than 30 yards from the pond, everytime they are fed they are pushed off the water by the dogs and once in the air they circle until the feed goes down. A bit different but seems to work, we will really know Oct when we shoot it for the first time. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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