AlexThePoacher Posted December 9, 2014 Report Share Posted December 9, 2014 So me and a friend shot a splash we have permission to shoot on yesterday. We had quite a lot of teal come in and a few mallard. What we need advice on is feeding it. We want to get a few bags of Barley and feed it. The splash is always there as it's on marsh land next to the river but there's a few cattle on the field and we was wondering if the cows would eat the barley in the splash? Any advice about feeding would go a miss and our total for the other night was 6 teal a mallard and three pigeons. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
anser2 Posted December 10, 2014 Report Share Posted December 10, 2014 (edited) Almost any corn will draw duck and as long as you scatter it well and do not leave piles of it about I doubt if the cows will touch it. Barley is great but wheat will have the advantage of sinking out of sight making it less likely the cows will find it. I would steer clear of spuds as the cows will go for them , but if they move the cows into another field spuds have the advantage of lasting until they go soft so feeding needs to be less frequent. I usually smash the larger spuds with a hammer to give the birds instant food and leave to smaler ones to go soft in the frost and mix the feeding with corn. That way the duck will have some food all week which is useful if you cant feed thesplash every few days. I have never used it but friends tell me rape seed is very good and indeed almost any seed will work. If its a good acorn year and you have oak trees overhanging a lane its quite easy to sweep up a few bags of acorns and they will keep for months. But only mallard can eat full sized acorns. The only advise I would give is keep the water fresh if you can , most duck do not like stagnent water. I have one splash formed by rain water flooding a meadow and the farmer has a dranage pipe on one side. We close the pipe to flood the grass and if the water is looking stale and smelling we drain the splash on the day before rain is forcast and it will refill with good fresh water. Edited December 10, 2014 by anser2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AlexThePoacher Posted December 10, 2014 Author Report Share Posted December 10, 2014 I think it's a natural wet area that holds water. I think we will be feeding Barley just as it's easier to get our hands on it. Put a couple decoys on the splash so hopefully will bring the mallard in now. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Berettacocker Posted December 10, 2014 Report Share Posted December 10, 2014 Barley is excellent feed. If you can feed it regular all the better. Old rule of thumb being, a bucket of food per 100 duck per day. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Proudly Posted December 10, 2014 Report Share Posted December 10, 2014 Our farmer will not allow us to feed barley until the beasts are moved inside. Reckons the barley swells & can kill them so he told us at the start of the season. Beasts moved 2 weeks ago so we're fine for the rest of the season Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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