Duck feeders?

[Andy seatrout]

Hi all,

We put down 350 duck on our shoot and so far so good….. I’ve bought 3 auto-feeders that work well, and I’ve got five ‘soft spiral springs’ on the bottom of five 200 litre metal drums on long legs in about 18 inches of water….

I’m getting blockages in the spiral feeders, often enough for it to be annoying, I don’t want to hand feed the duck as they’re not tame and fly very well ( and have done from the 2nd shoot really) plus I simply can’t get to them every day to check….

The feeders I’ve got are from agrigame. They work well enough but as soon as a bit of wet or damp gets into the top of the spiral ( or a few extra bits of straw from the wheat) they’re blocked and I lying down poking around with a wire to free them…. On a weekly cycle I’m getting 2. -3 blocked at any time….

I did think that maybe the size of the feeders ( they take about eight bags) might increase the pressure too much so the grain doesn’t flow, but it’s been a long while since A level physics…. I did think of ‘doubling up’ and putting two spirals on each feeder- the increased ‘flow’ may prevent things getting stuck….

Any ideas?

 

[Bo Diddley]

I'll watch with interest... spiral spring feeders are a PITA.
I have thought of using some sort of garden griddle thingy when I top up, to literally sift the chaff from the wheat.

 

[Andy seatrout]

I'll watch with interest... spiral spring feeders are a PITA.
I have thought of using some sort of garden griddle thingy when I top up, to literally sift the chaff from the wheat.

Yes I use Wright feeders on all my pheasant feeders ( there’s a few pan feeders I’ve inherited) but neither are ideal for a ducks bill….. you are quite correct, spirals are a pain. I haven’t got time to riddle the wheat when we top up, just not practical when you’ve limited time and it might rain….

 

[Bo Diddley]

Yes I use Wright feeders on all my pheasant feeders ( there’s a few pan feeders I’ve inherited) but neither are ideal for a ducks bill….. you are quite correct, spirals are a pain. I haven’t got time to riddle the wheat when we top up, just not practical when you’ve limited time and it might rain….

I was thinking of using an old galvanized garden riddle with an added layer of finer mesh laid in the top, just place it over the feeder and pour the wheat in, might not be any good for the duck feeders though like you said.
might rain... that's all it's done in Norfolk for months great for ducks....

 

[Lancaster]

Swap one or more of the springs for autos, perhaps directional ones which spin the feed along the margin rather than out into deeper water, for ducks I always fed Barley rather than wheat.
Never had any success with spirals for ducks, they feed, dip for a drink, feed again, dip again, there is always water going to be around the spirals.
Cheaper wheat means more chaff and more chance of blockages.

 

[Freeforester]

OTOH- set up a camera to see whether it is keeping the duck occupied, or are the feeders completely and hopelessly gummed up? If not, the time spent persisting at them is at least keeping the duck where you want them to be?

 

[Stalker-of-the-deer]

We use the springs you can remove and de gum. Put a key in the top, pull them off and empty. Seem to work well on our little shoot.

We have one auto feeder we through clean barley through and throw a bucket around the edge every other day

 

[countrryboy]

Personanlly i dont see the point of feeders/hoppers on a duck pond, just throw the barley in the shallows, saves any hassle or worry of hopper getting blocked.
I did try fancy auto hoppers once but just more hassle than there worth, simply throwing it in shallows has worked very well for decades for me, esp when u figure out the right ammounts, which will vary from week/fortnight as duck numbers increase
At this time of year u dont need to worry about it going sour or 'off' with the heat. In the summer u need to be feeding a bit less and more often

When i ran my diy shoot with 3 decent flight ponds ponds we fed just once a fortnight, just before they were shot, had a bagged barely stored at each pond and which ever guns were shooting that pond were told to check if any left and how much was put in last time, if none left chuck an extra bag in if plenty left chuck less in. Early season u might only be 1/2 a bag a week till numbers built up, later on u could be 5 or 6 bags at a time

And even in the past when i worked as a FT keeper on a very decent duck shoot both wild and released ( and beat and picked up there for decades after that) at this time of year ponds were only fed ideally once a fortnight, day after shoot and left in complete peace the rest of time unless a serious volume of ducks on it and u simply couldnt fit enough bags in the trailer so u had to feed weekly.
Ive seen quite literally thousands of teal and widgeon and wild mallard come of many of the ponds and then the reared duck also

 

[nick.308]

what about a bottom pan with the legs a bit shorter for duck?

 

[arron]

I have a duck feeder on one of my ponds , and use a metal galvanised pan feeder , I modified it a little ( opened it up ) , took 60 seconds to do with a grinder , it works a treat , but gets emptied quick as ducks are greedy pigs !!

 

[Rhodesianjess]

Any spring hoppers that I use have the spring pushed through the hole in the drum from the inside.
If you bolt or screw the springs on from the outside, then you have to empty the hopper when upending it to clear springs. Pushing through the hole from inside means the hopper can be half full,tilted over and you can reach the springs. No need to find something to put the wheat in.
Obviously the less chaff/straw etc in the wheat the better. I have hoppers, spring ones,stood on the banks of ponds and wild ducks have no problems using them. No need to stand in water.

 

[Andy seatrout]

Swap one or more of the springs for autos, perhaps directional ones which spin the feed along the margin rather than out into deeper water, for ducks I always fed Barley rather than wheat.
Never had any success with spirals for ducks, they feed, dip for a drink, feed again, dip again, there is always water going to be around the spirals.
Cheaper wheat means more chaff and more chance of blockages.

Yes I’m trying to avoid another £100 or so for the autos - mech plus battery, I’ve tried barley but it’s more difficult to get hold of round here for some reason

 

[Andy seatrout]

Thanks for the answers- they’re stood in water at the moment just to safeguard them a bit from the pheasants that are in two adjacent woods…. I want the pheasants to be up the hill, not by the lakeside…. But there’s a couple of islands with bridges I might try to use…

I think I’ll look at a method of unblocking from the bottom- using maybe a mounting with a tray with the spring beneath.

I’ve also just had some deer pan feeders from Keith Watson…. Might work ok for the duck as they’re larger in proportion / harder to block?

I can’t get there more than twice a week so making sure the feed is free flowing is vital…

 

[Stalker-of-the-deer]

Thanks for the answers- they’re stood in water at the moment just to safeguard them a bit from the pheasants that are in two adjacent woods…. I want the pheasants to be up the hill, not by the lakeside…. But there’s a couple of islands with bridges I might try to use…

I think I’ll look at a method of unblocking from the bottom- using maybe a mounting with a tray with the spring beneath.

I’ve also just had some deer pan feeders from Keith Watson…. Might work ok for the duck as they’re larger in proportion / harder to block?

I can’t get there more than twice a week so making sure the feed is free flowing is vital…

Just replied the prings with the removable ones as said before. You don't have to empty the whole hopper then

 

[old 30-06]

The enemy of spiral springs is chaff in the corn. Moisture will make this much worse. The more little bits of stem in the wheat the more trouble you will have. In order to overcome this :- (1) When filling the hopper I would try to pour the wheat in from as high as you can, as the wind will blow some of the chaff away. (2) Do not over fill the feeders, put in just enough to get you to the next feed, as it is much easier to clear out a blockage that way. (3) If the corn is very "chaffy" it would pay you to sieve it first. It is a pain and will take time, but it is well worth doing. Lastly, I think 18 inches is just a little bit a bit on the deep side !

 

[Andy seatrout]

True 18 inches a bit deep but it was six inches in July! I’ll look at repositioning them

 

[Bo Diddley]

True 18 inches a bit deep but it was six inches in July! I’ll look at repositioning them

When I did a lot of carp fishing I found Mallard are quite happy to dive to depths of 3- 4 feet to get a feed on seeds, pulses, nuts, and boilies, blasted things wiped me out numerous times

 

[countrryboy]

If ur up there as often as twice a week just throw it directly in the shallows, using hoppers is just over complicating things and more to go wrong/block in my opinion. have a big storage drum on the shore with either bags or loose so u can use a bucket, so u dont ned to lug bags up with a quad every time,
Althou i'm also of the opinion the best duck ponds are left in peace as much as possible, so i'd be throwing enough in that i didn't need to be there 2 times a week.
Mallard will cope with anything up to welly deep to be ideal, althou slightly swallower would be better.

 

[unicorn71]

We use a mixture of pan feeders and springs over 10 feeders for our driven duck , they tend to empty the pans quickly and take more time with the springs, we haven’t had much of a problem with clogging but loads of problems with the feeders getting washed away in flooding ffs.

 

[Andy seatrout]

I think I’ll try some wide pan feeders - maybe experiment if I can find one of our feeders is a big empty ( we filled them all two weeks ago….) the issue is whilst I can sometimes get to them twice a week. Other times it’s not at all….. the autofeeders seem reliable tbh…. But costly to install…

I’ll see if I can find an optimal solution!