Lord1e Posted June 1, 2009 Report Share Posted June 1, 2009 Hi, One of the farms i shoot on as 3 or 4 decent sized ponds, but there isn't much in the way of ponds/lakes/rivers in the sorrounding area. The landscape is well suited for a duck shoot, and the guys who own the farm have enough heavy machinery onsite to make any changes as required. So, i've suggested it might be a good idea to put some reared duck onto the pond. Wild duck frequent the pond a fair bit at the moment, with up to a dozen often seen on the larger pond. Are we too late this year to build a duck pen, and put some reared game into? Where can i buy reared duck from? What's the chances of them actually staying put? All advice would be greatly appreciated. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
al4x Posted June 1, 2009 Report Share Posted June 1, 2009 make them duck friendly and feed it well and you may well get some very good returns, most of the people i know who do it usually get over 100% return on birds put down simply by feeding well Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JDFrain Posted June 1, 2009 Report Share Posted June 1, 2009 Not to late mate if you have an island on the pond use that as the pen area(wire this of with gate etc). if you put some young ducks on it you will be able to hold them no problem if you are there every day feeding etc they will get used to you. this will or hopefully will bring a few extra ducks in, but bear in mind if you want to shoot the ducks you are putting down then the least amount of contact the better, use an auto feeder. If ducks dont want to get up and fly they wont, because they wont see you as a threat. Regarding brining in the wild ducks, i would start feeding in august and keep an eye on how many ducks are coming in, dont over feed them though keep them keen and make them work for a good feed. (barley) feeding in the shallows. Once you start feeding they will learn that there is food available at your ponds and hopefully you should start getting a good few coming in. Personally i would only shoot it once a fortnight this giving the ducks a chance to regain confidence in feeding on the ponds. JDF Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JDFrain Posted June 1, 2009 Report Share Posted June 1, 2009 Where are you based, regarding buying a few ducks. JDF Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lord1e Posted June 2, 2009 Author Report Share Posted June 2, 2009 Thanks ever so much for the advice. So ideally the large pond would have an island in the middle of it, and this would be reachable from a walkway. The walkway would be gated to keep out any predators, but wouldn't mr fox just swim across to the island ? Obviously we'd undertake pest control, but would we need to fence off the entire lake as well ? I've heard about leaving the ducks well alone, otherwise they become too tame and will refuse to get up off the pond. If we buy an auto feeder that should solve the problem? What sort of age ducks would be best to buy? How much should i expect to pay? At what time of year do i put the ducks down, and when do i start feeding them? Will they need shelter ? Sorry for all the questions, it's difficult researching this information on the internet so all your advice is greatly appreciated. Regards, Chris Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JDFrain Posted June 2, 2009 Report Share Posted June 2, 2009 it would be ideal if the large pond had an island but if it has not you could consider just making a small pen on the pond side which would drop down into the pond, ducks tend to stay were they are if there is feed there regular for them. regarding wiring the whole pond there should be no real need if you have got charlie under control. They do swim but tend not to like to. especially this time of year as there is plenty other food available for them. the auto feeders will solve the problem or at least help obviously you will still want to keep an eye on things making sure they are getting enough food feeding them morning and evening, but you can set this on the feeder programmer. Most ducks are bought in at six weeks put on the pond pens upto you if you want to give them access straight onto the pond, i would say keep them penned for a few days just to let them settle in. (matter of opinion) You can provide them with a bit of cover and also fresh drinking water may seem a bit daft but they do use drinkers. Cost for ducks is around the £3.00 each mark depending on how many your buying there is a lad on here who has some in the for sale section for £2.80 (1000 left) And regarding putting the duck down any time from now on will be good, put them down when you start to see people advertising them. Hope this helps JDF Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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