Put in wood duck boxes

[wilwingswaterfowl]

I reciently made a couple of Wood duck boxes. Hopefully they will breed this season I still have one male Green wing teal left from last season.

 

[sourland]

Good luck on the reproduction - that's a good sized pen = well done.

 

[wilwingswaterfowl]

So far she laid three eggs but two laying in the pen and one in the coop. The first one a couple weeks ago wasn't fertilized. The other two I'm getting ready to incubate. I had to lower the boxes because she wore off some of the wing tip feathers somehow and being so fat she couldn't fly up to the box. last night was the first night she stayed in the box and also started putting feathers in the nest.

 

[Sgt_P]

Wonder how many more eggs she'll give??!
Now that she's feathering the nest, certainly the rest of her eggs will be laid in there...
Nice boxes!

 

[wilwingswaterfowl]

Wonder how many more eggs she'll give??!
Now that she's feathering the nest, certainly the rest of her eggs will be laid in there...
Nice boxes!

I'm not sure it's her first year but the first egg was almost two weeks before the second. The second and third were a day apart and now it's been three days since she laid. I can tell she still has eggs in her and she is spending most of her time in the box. One of the Cinnamons is looking a bit eggy too.

 

[deerraiser57]

Very nice pen let me know how your lady`s do I am just getting started and wonder how big my pen needs to be?
I live in Michigan and I am going to raise Mandarin if possible I think they are very pretty.
I have pheasants and quail plus some regular ducks oh and chickens had them for years.
I have a nice small pond that is about 60 by 60 feet I am thinking of inclosing if it is big enough looking for ideas?
Thanks Doug

 

[wilwingswaterfowl]

Very nice pen let me know how your lady`s do I am just getting started and wonder how big my pen needs to be?
I live in Michigan and I am going to raise Mandarin if possible I think they are very pretty.
I have pheasants and quail plus some regular ducks oh and chickens had them for years.
I have a nice small pond that is about 60 by 60 feet I am thinking of inclosing if it is big enough looking for ideas?
Thanks Doug

I wish I had a pond to enclose. Someday I'd like to build a bigger one but I heat the bigger pool now to keep it from freezing. This is one of the two eggs she laid in the pen the other didn't make it to first candle.

 

[wilwingswaterfowl]

I was setting up a camera in the morning to see her use the box Here is her going back in.

 

[wilwingswaterfowl]

We checked the box for eggs and chicks every night when she came out to feed but never saw any chicks and only saw 3 eggs but there were 5 eggs and only one hatched. We knew she was due any day and didn't see any chicks at night but the next morning I brought the camera in to check the memory card and missed the jump out.

 

[wilwingswaterfowl]

I thought about leaving the one duckling with mom as her and dad seemed to be protecting it but at night when I lock them in the coop I knew there would be issues. So I put the chick with the three Cinnamon teal that hatched the same time. Here is there first swim in the tub with luke warm water It's the first ducks I've had that didn't dive under water and go crazy.