Feeding duck pond

potatoes are also good, boiled of course...try to pick up loads of old/gone off potatoes for free, boil and dump in low water, keeps the ducks interested for much longer than barley, and is free (if procured right of course!).

​sorry, nothign to do with times for lifthing them off

Tatties were superb for ducks but we lost that option when the farm stopped growing them.
 
I'm no duck expert, but I found that I lost a lot of young ducklings to foxes in the night-time. I since started putting out a few wee 'rafts'/pallets on half 10L floatations jars/other/what works/etc. with a rock tied to a rope as anchor a few yards out, I found the ducks would hop up there and spend the night instead of on the shore/bank and the survival rates rocketed..

just a thought.

Maybe something I will try next season makes sense to me :thumb: I have two ponds one at the back of the house which is rarely shot I like to watch the wildfowl there so its fed through the year always gets loads ducks and geese on it.
The other which is a bit bigger and in a more remote area I started feeding last week, there are 2 broods of mallard on it and recently noticed the hens going out to feed leaving the ducklings to fend for themselves for a while so started feeding a bit earlier trying to keep them on site but usually I would start in august. DF
 
when i was keepering we fed a flight pond , i started by getting 1ton teleporter bucket full of barley to start off , then once they found it bag fed from then on , at its peak 100kg of barley was being hoovered up ! (gaffer was not fussed at the cost he like shooting duck)

basicly this pond wiped out every flight pond in 10 mile radius , on more than one night we counted 2500 plus mallard and go knows how many teal .

all wild and this story is no bull i have witnesses .

to say the other shhots in the surrounding area were not best pleased is an understatment .

and the best bit , IT WAS NEVER SHOT !!!!!

the gaffer fell ill , but he still wanted it fed .
 
Little but often, start late August shoot October when they have decent feathers for plucking . Ducks are very greedy the more you feed the more they will eat. Good hunting
 
Why do you boil potatoes before feeding to ducks?
There is smallish pond on our shoot and we have never really bothered with it but last season I bagged a couple of mallard on an evening flight.
One thing I have access too is potatoes as the farmers grows a heck of a lot of them.
He dumped a couple of tractor bucket loads down there last year and that kept the ducks happy and even kept a few on there for when the pheasant shoot rolled through. These potatoes were not boiled.

​Thanks
 
I have a small flight pond and feed approx 3 x week half bucket of barley/wheat whatever we can get. Just keep an eye in the shallows if there is grain left then ease off. If you come and the water is muddy and lots of duck feathers then you might need to put in more. I try and feed late afternoonearly eve some say best to flush off duck as you want thenm to flight in at the evening. Every pond is different, last year hopeless as so much flooded stubble ducks had too much choice.

D
 
Been feeding for nearly a month now one bucket full of barley and a quarter bucket of beans ( as a trial never used them before) every morsel gone In the morning with 50 + birds teal/mallard still on.
I flush them off and return to feed it as late as I can in the evening, its looking good for the season unless we get flooded out again ! I agree with earlier posts last year was a disaster especially as I had a flooded barley field nxt door which was left when the harvester got stuck,
 
for flight ponds little and often is the thing , youll get a quick early flight like that . For ponds with reared duck on them you really want to feed them on a daylie basis so their hungry enough to come to you when you arrive , then you can whistle them off the water and trail them away from the water a little further each day , on a shoot day you nip off while the guns have a drink feed your duck away while the guns get in position then you can flush a few birds and walk away the other birds will lift when they hear shooting . Dont dump feed , youll encourage rats , take oxygen out of the water and end up with fat lazy ducks . Reared duck are best fed away and shot coming back rather than shot being drven off . when feeding duck , barley for fit wheat for fat
 
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