Duck feeding why barley ?

[fenboy]

I know Barley is the most favoured feed for flight ponds etc but why ?

When feeding a pond are you looking for a food that floats or one that sinks in the shallows ?

 

The reason I ask is next season I intend to feed a drain that runs through a farm i shoot .

 

This drain has decent numbers of teal and mallard visiting through the season is nice and shallow but it has a light tidal flow on it ending up in the wash via a sluice.

 

Therfore I am wondering that if barley etc floats it will either be spread over a large area of washed away , what would you feed in these circumstances ,.

[Ferretboy111]

Barley is used as its cheaper than wheat! It all sinks, alittle will float a while. Put it tight to the bank or try find a slower patch and throw it in the shallows! Cheers

[matty*]

i done exactly what your going to on a drain which is very close to the tidal river this year, my only problem was the water level rising and lowering all the time, i just cut feeding stations along the side at different levels. i noticed mallard going on the drain whilst shooting pigeons on the rape field in the summer. i used wheat which sank in the shallow water and left some on the dry bank. i put alot of duck up when feeding only a week into feeding the drain. i started using barley about a month ago but only because i was given it. not so many get on there now as theirs alot of water on the wash now. but back to the point i just used wheat and they came in good numbers.

[r1steele]

Barley has less of a chance of going sour than wheat so it is good for flight ponds as it tends not to ruin them but on tidal areas anything that you can get a hold of for the right price should do the job.