My Exotic and Migratory Ducks [Destinduck] (Photos)

[Boggy Bottom Bantams]

unfortunately, there aint many out there from a breeders perspective.

 

[waterdog]

Quote:
An informative book on raising wild waterfowl is Waterfowl A Guide To Management and Propagation by Simon Tarsnane, this is one of the few I have found.

 

[Boggy Bottom Bantams]

yep, they are few and far between aint they

 

[kangababy]

Thanks for posting the book!! of course I feel like I would rather get on here and ask questions!!

So from everyones experince.. we are trying to plan what we need to build.. how many babies would you expect out of 75 pairs of birds, knowing that all of these are breeders and have been successful expect 6 pair (3 Ruddies and 3 Merganers which are this years)

We have been closely watching them and out of the 72 left, at least 65 of them are with the right species! I only have 2 odd ball pairs which I know won't produce offspring but one of those will be moving soon.. Yeah 2 drakes together.. White and Silver Wood Ducks go figure!

We are thinking between 200-300 since we know double clutching some of them is possible.

next question, We have been told the Tufted and Ringbills are hard to raise to get to lay? and the Canvasbacks.. Any suggestion on these? They have eaten all of my tall grasses down but as soon as I can get some they will be planted

 

[destinduck]

Does anyone have Frank Todds bookHistory of waterfowl and if ya do is it mainly pics? You should get 300 easy Kanga. But too many varibles to know. Like for instance, first year treeducks may lay or not then second year birds may lay 6 or 14. And thats just one species. I had a can that didnt lay till fifth year. Stuff like the ruddies,canvasback,tufted,scaup, ringbills may need floating platforms out in your pond and at the very least all kinds of cover right at water's edge. I know I sound like a broken record but you need tons of cover in your pen.I dont think there's a thing called too much cover

They may eat most of your plants. Its getting down to the wire for lots of cover because for the most part the ones that are the most exspensive need not only need their own space but also feel hidden and secure. To me this is the time for everything to be in place so they have time to check it all out and see what they like. I would make this top priority before anything else. If you can post some pics once you "cover up" . Ill try to post pics of my pens tommorrow so yall can see my setups. Raining again today.

 

[Boggy Bottom Bantams]

yep Kanga,
I agree with what Destin wrote there.

Cover cover cover is the key. Even still, those divers you listed are tha hardest for anyone to get to produce. My tufted always did well, but all the others are northern breeding species for the most part. All our Great Lakes buddies never have trouble with them, but down south, yes they are a pain in the butt at times. Also like Destins said, many of the diver species can and do got 3-5 years before they will start to produce down here especially. So dont give up on them.
I did once on some at 3 years with still no eggs. Sold them and a year later the guy who got them all said they were egg laying machines, so it takes time on the divers.

Also too many variables to guess on your production for this year.
Mainly what species and how many are hens (I asume all the 75 or so are your hens right?) If so, just a ruff average, count on 5 per hen to make it to adulthood. In that case yes you'd be a little over 300.
Agian, even thought they are breeder age, you are going to have some that just arent going to lay, some may be sterile, some may only give you 1-2 per pair, some may give you 30 (like woddies and tree ducks and ring teal)

Just all varies. But I'd count on 300+ to be safe for now. You'll know by end of March what the years shaping up like. Great I hope for all yall.

Think you asked about wet brooding on one of the threads too a while back.

For most of them it's not really nessicary, but is very helpfull on stuff like the stiftails, goldeneye family likes it too.

Sylvan Height last time I went was massive. Was basically a large covered barn divided into individual pens with a flowing concret pond inside the barn running threw all the single pens. They had a large heated dry area up inside the main barn, that gentelly sloped down to the flowing concrete pond (river to me)
This way they could get in the water as they wanted, but easily get out too.

On our low budget side of things ( LOL)
A source of water they can get in and out of at will in the brooder is all that's needed. For the most part, wet brooding is just giving them to oportunity to have swimming water at birth. Excellent feather conditioning is the main plus of this (but God it makes a mess) (that's why Sylvans was flowing and filtered)
You can do this make shift version of one in any brooder with a shallow pan for them to get into. As everyone knows, when they get into the water, their first instict is to clean and preen. This stimulates the oil gland and gets them in great feather condition from day one. I'm sure yall have all seen dry brooded ones the first time in water, they virtually sink on some cases. This is because they havent been preening and adding oil to their fuzz a lot being dry.

That's your main plus of wet over dry. Again with just the exception of the ruddy's and a few of the other akward on land species who just do better being on water all the time. For them, a pan would be hard to get in and out of and a more (Sylvan ish ) style wet brooder it a big plus.

I have dry brooded many a ruddy duck though, but they do fair better wet brooded.

 

[waterdog]

Destin, we have Frank Todds history of waterfowl it has some awesome pictures as well as alot of info on each species such as distribution, nesting, migrations, and diet it is a really nice book hours of reading. We were fortunate to win in at an APWS convention a few years back.
Kanga,
We dry brooder all our ducks even the ruddies I agree with Aubrey they do a little better wet brooding but unless you have a really good set up it can be a real MESS. As far as numbers of birds you can raise there are to many variables things you never imagine can go wrong. We had coon troubles a couple of years ago that pretty much destroyed our breeding season never lost any birds but had alot of nests destroyed and birds stop laying because of the disturbance. Thats what keeps the prices on the birds what they are. We keep about 100 pairs of waterfowl and average about six duckings per pair it all depends on the species you can get mandarins to lay 2-3 clutches of ten eggs where a single clutch of 6 is the normal for Bufflehead.
As far as the divers mentioned everyone hit it right with cover the more the better, and Aubrey even us great lakers can struggle with ring necks and cans maybe not as hard as the southern states but they can be difficult as well.

 

[kangababy]

Thanks!!

So all the nesting boxes by the water I should just cover with all types of branches. Any suggestions on types??
I have a few large branches I've put in there and stuck the boxes right in the middle of them.

Right now the end of our water looks like little condos... Box after box after box

yes Aubrey we have 150+ birds and 75 pair. I have even pairs except for in the silver teal because I had a drake die an the Bahamas pintail where I lost 2 hens and have only been able to replace 1 of them. I have an extra white eye hen and an extra hawiiain hen.

So much to learn. We won't give up easy... My dad is already talking about building another pen just for the dabblers with a swallow pond and having the dabblers in one and divers in another. I guess that will happen when we put the new well in and start getting ready for the big divers and cranes! I just enjoy sitting in th pen with them. They are actually getting so used to us that when my dad laid down on the ground to get a picture from a view on their level after 5 mins the mandarins came over and where perching on him and the tree ducks came over and sat about a foot from him..

 

[Boggy Bottom Bantams]

yep, that sounds like what I did, sit for hours seemed like just watching them.
Tell ya something cool, when I'd drain the ponds and clean them out, obviously they all had to come see what the heck I was doing, but in these south Georgia summers, once they were filled back up with clean fresh water, well, I'd usually get in there with them to cool off. Mine were all pretty deep for duck ponds, 3 foot on average.
Would just kinda sit still for a bit with my head out, and they just swim right past you like you were part of the pen. Sounds silly I know, but it was pretty cool actually, out of the water, you know they can be a bit skittish, but when you got in with them, they'd just go right up to you.

Get you dad to do that next time he takes pictures, oh and get one of him doing it too, LOL


Waterdog, oh yeah, I didnt mean to say they werent hard for yall too, but it seems that the vast majority of the birds produced do come from yalls area in general. Kinda like the treeduck here. I got tons of birds, my originals, from Willard Henson and Charles Kamm there in Minnesota, and those 2 could flat breed some waterfowl regardless of what kind. Willards, I know was about 7 acres of natural ponds all covered with thick heavy grasses (like shawn says). Another very successful one up north was Ed Jordan in Maine, he and his wife always did some excellent production too. Just something about those northern climates especially with the North American species.
Dont think they like 110 and 99.9 % humidity too much

 

[destinduck]

Hey waterdog If you want to sell that book PM me with a price. Kanga, I use cedar branches mostly and pine. Make some piles without the boxes. Spread em out out or better yet make more and fill in the gaps