Eurasian Wigeon

[Boggy Bottom Bantams]

No problem THunter

Currently I dont have any migratory waterfowl, had to move a few years back and taking 2000 some odd birds just wasnt possible.
I am now back on my family farm though here in Hahira and do plan to get them all back as time and money will allow.
I do currently have wild turkeys, peafowl, domestic waterfowl, and about 400 show bantams.

The migratorys will be next on the list, been clearing land for the new aviaries this past fall waiting for it to cool off a bit to continue.

On my migratory waterfowl thread in the duck sticky forum, I think around page 50 are a few of the only pics I have left of some of my old pens from the old place.
Those were from when I was around 14-18 though, but can still give you an idea of what to shoot for.

Water area in the pens is a big deal, even more improtantly is heavy thick cover and shade. These will not do much but pase the fence if you have them in a domestic bird style set up.
You know, 4 corner post and a bunch of wire, wide open and barren in the middle.
They are captive raised yes, but are still wild birds at heart and feel much more natural when they have lots of cover, they breed better, are less stressed and thus less prone to disease etc, all in all, that's the big trick to keeping them.

Big pens, cover, lots of water and clean water. Add some logs sticking out over the water, rock piles around the ponds, plenty of small trees and plants they wont eat (good luck with that one)

will be glad to help you out any that I can on them. Any tips you may need or breeder contacts, just name it. Do you live in Georgia too?

 

[THunter]

Yes sir. Gainesville.

 

[Boggy Bottom Bantams]

great,
Hope you do end up getting some. We need more folks here in Georgia keeping them.
Back in the 80-90's everyone had them here seemed like, then over time all the "old guys" got out, moved or just died off and fewer and fewer folks had them any more.
Getting kind of sad actually. There used to be tons of folks especially up your way with them. There are still quite a few pheasant keepers but we need to work on the waterfowl.
I have kept both, love the pheasants too, but I have waterfowl in my veins, they'll always be my number one love in birds, cant beat them.

as for those like you wanted without the permit from the USFWS
Try a lot of the south american, and african teals, they are very nice and there's about 20 species of them. Also most of the tree ducks are off the list and do best in our climates anyway. None of the shelducks need one. They are pretty mean for a duck though and really need to be penned 1 pair to a pen by themselves, or with ornamental geese.
There's quite a large amount of birds you can choose from though.

You might want to look into joining the Georgia Gamebird Breeders Club too. Can meet a lot of folks around this area in the hobby. There are also a good many breeders in Alabama and Florida. A road trip to pick them up would save enough in shipping to buy a lot more birds too that way.

 

[THunter]

I know there used to be a lady in south Georgia that kept wood ducks and pintails. She advertised occassionally in the Market Bulletin but that was the only one in the state that I knew of.

 

[Boggy Bottom Bantams]

yep I used to keep an ad in there when I had them, sold birds like crazy out of it.
There used to be several ads in every issue from all over the state in it, then they just slowly started to fade away, even a lot of the game bird keepers are gone, but there are still some around at least for them. Not so much on the waterfowl though.
Let me know when you're ready, I'll be glad to point you in the right direction on some. There's several big breeders in TN too.

 

[THunter]

Did you have any diver breeds? I've always thought the redhead was the prettiest of the waterfowl and am still trying my darndest to get one for the wall. I've heard the divers are hard to raise. Did some reading one time about Hooded Mergansers and how one guy finally figured out how to raise the ducklings but even then it was tough. Never heard much of folks keeping those either.

 

[Boggy Bottom Bantams]

I had virtually every species available
close to 100.
Yes had tons of divers, they were some of my favorites, everything from red heads to eiders.
The pochard and scaup families are the easiest in my opinion, red heads especially.
All the merganser and smew (saw bills) need is some meal worms to get them started eating dry food.
Floating catfish food supplemented daily helps a lot too when they are grown.
They arent for beginers though, no I'll give you that. They and the golden eyes and buffle heads can be tricky
I also kept minnow traps out in our pond and gave them all the critters I'd catch in it every day or so as a treat. Was pretty cool watching them dive and catch them all.
You should see a golden eye crush up a crawdad.

but yes had them, the teal, all the puddle ducks, tree ducks, pretty much everything except some of the super rare million dollar ducks like the harlequins and oldsquaw. If it was a grand or less per pair, I had them though.

The first 5-6 pages of that migratory waterfowl thread I mentioned has all the "how to's and not to's " in it if you 'd like to read up on them some. I broke them down by groups and kind of just gave the basics on their care in it.

 

[KansasKid]

If i may..

Quote:

 

[THunter]

That is some cool stuff right there!

 

[Boggy Bottom Bantams]

that took me a while to write didnt it, thanks for the copy Kansas

here's the link to the full thing

https://www.backyardchickens.com/forum/viewtopic.php?id=345303

my wife told me I needed to write a book when I was doing it all, LOL