Barley at ponds

[markyboy]

Was at a day on sat beating and was talking to a guy who says for the lack of splashes apart from a wet spell in October /November his pond has been terrible but is putting barley down and checking it every second day and majority is gone

No duck coming in apart from odd teal and mallard has only shot it 3 times since September the 27th taking 28 duck from it

This pond use to attract duck from afar it's a well known pond for teal I've even shot it myself years ago and can't understand how he is doing so poor

He says every time he goes there is always a handful of crows sitting on fence at water edge and reckons they are stealing the barley but its in the water around 3 /4 inches deep could they be taking the grub leaving none for duck ? I have my doubts

There was a guy years ago who use to feed it like mad putting down 4 full bags every time leaving it in mounds at the waters edge go up 3pm the day he was shooting it walk duck off and go wait to they came back at flight time , to me this is how not to feed a pond.

So really question is will the crows be the culprits for the missing barley ? And how can he attract more duck to it

This pond is for fighting wild duck I may add

[Ferretboy111]

It will be a mixture of crows and rats- I get crows/rooks eating my barley from my flight pond and rats also swim down to collect it. It's too warm for ducks still- too much food about on the rivers. I've been feeding mine since October and haven't shot it yet due to poor numbers coming in. Have around 50 coming onto it now but usually get over 100 by now. Keep throwing in the grub and wait till numbers build before shooting it again! A

[Paul223]

Is the feed mainly in one area and laid down thick?

 

If so I'd be tempted to use a scope to lay it out sparingly, less attractive to vermin and more work for ducks

[markyboy]

No I know the pond it's a long area about 120 yard on one side that's fed with either a bucket or 2 buckets and no more

But the guy says its normally a bucket the funny thing is about a mile away my pal has a splash that never goes away through winter and is getting about 100 mallard on it most nights and shoots it once a week

Mabie this pond has seen its day it used to be the best teal pond in the area according to a lot of guys at the beating so somthing had went tits up with it

[Paul223]

Try some spuds instead of barley, or a bit of both

 

Any mink around?

[jfgpm]

Our love dried peas.

 

If there is any predator around (bird of pray, mink, fox etc.) our ducks will avoid the pond. Tried a trail cam to find out ?

[markyboy]

There use to be mink traps up at pond not sure if they have been set up again ! That could be a shout tho I even thought that myself !

Low n behold I got a txt from guy today to say 70 odd duck on the pond ! Very windy tho Mabie just seeking shelter!

Think it's fed with barley , frozen then defrosted spuds and all scraps from bakery ie rolls , pies . Crumbles , brides , scones you name it !

Think he calmed down on that tho as it was drawing gulls in with bakery scraps

[scotslad]

He's doing not bad shooting 28 duck in 3 outings anyway!!

 

Has he sat out other nites and no duck came? Possibly coming later if a full moon or something

 

Good chance it could be bothered with predators, mibee could be an otter quite a lot now on the annan catchment and not so many mink, dunno wot the nith is like?

 

Has anything else changed new ponds dug inbetween that pond and nearest big flightline (river etc) is pond still the same depth. New folk moved near pond possibly walking dogs nearby on darkening and disturbing the pond

 

We had a poor year last year with duck, still eating plenty off food off ponds but so much food else where and quite often flight nite would correspond with the full moon and even the supposed darker week was still a pretty light nite so duck could flight all nite. Just the way it goes sometimes.