Duck and apples

[rimfire4969]

I have access to an orchard with a load of wind fall apples. I am sure I read on here about putting them in or by a flight pond. We released about 120 ducks and like to entice wild birds as well. Are apples worth the bother, broken up or whole? in the margins or on the land?

 

Any help would be great.

 

Thanks

 

 

[AberFowl]

We have a crab apple tree overhanging a wide drain, the ducks congregate there and feed on them

After a frost when the apples go soft.

We mash up apples out of the trees in my garden and throw them in the margins.

I also put a few tatty peelings in too, along with the usual barley.

The duck love them!

[Walker570]

Yes, chop them up with a spade. Best when they are a bit rotten, same with spuds unless you boil them. Used to have two large boilers back in the '50s where we boiled pig tatties for our pigs. Used to take two or three bucket fulls a night and a bag of brushings out of the mixing shed and tip on some flight ponds. Just a dirty polished surface the next night where the ducks had cleaned up. Ducks need continuity though so you need to have food always there or they will clear off.

 

on edit...if you have a friendly green grocer have him give you any over ripe bananas, ducks will guzzle those down as well.

Edited August 23, 2017 by Walker570

[scotslad]

I wasn't going to mention bananas as it sounds so stupid, but I know a keeper who tried it ducks loved it, game dealer not so much and said he'd never take any again if he carried on.

 

I was told it fermented? or went off in the ducks gizzards and ruined the ducks

[Walker570]

Obviously hanging them far too long. I have eaten quite a few fed on bananas and they tasted ...... err ..?? just like wild duck breast marinated in maple syrup, white wine vinegar and brown sugar and then smoked

[scotslad]

I have no idea how long they were hung at the dealers? Must admit I wouldn't of thought most dealers would hang them that long before processing.

But picked up either 1 day after shot or day they were shot and hung in a proper chiller.

 

Keeper was gutted as he had a free source of banana's

[Walker570]

Yep, we had a ripening shed close by too. They had to pay to have them taken away, but they had so many we could not use the quantity and they needed them gone all in one go. We used to tip some grain on top so maybe mixing the two helped stop that fermentation. The ground was always polished clean. We also took a lot of waste bread, I mean truck loads. Used to tip it and compress it like silage. You could cut it with a spade. They liked that as well.