Advice Needed About Ducks !

[MauriceMynah]

Honest, I need some advice about ducks, Mallard in this case.

Recently we built a pond in the back garden. We soon received the attentions of a kingfisher, so I stocked (and restocked) the pond with really small goldfish. Now we have the honour of a pair of visiting Mallard, who are, even as I type, sitting in the garden looking at the pond, which they've been in and out of all morning. We would like to encourage this and are wondering what food is best to give them. We are strictly rationing any bread we give them to two slices per day. This is homemade bread, made with wholemeal flour, granary flour, sunflower seeds, poppy seeds and pumpkin seeds in it, and I say "per day" as they came yesterday as well.

Our pond being new, has as yet little vegetation in on or around it, so I reckon I'll need to build a duck house. I need advice on that one too.

Can anyone advise please?

[johnm]

Cherries would be good.

As for the duck house, if you add a couple of levels and a thermostatically controlled fan you can ensure a nice even 200 degrees which is perfect for both the duck and associated roast vegetables!

[thingamybob]

You could try dipping the bread into orange sauce.

[Siddy]

We had 3 ducks on our pond on Elland Road (someone thought them little yellow fluffy things looked nice & didn't grow) forget vegetation they stripped ours so had to removed the planters which were 5 foot down. We made a house like a rabbit hutch with a door to close them in to protect from foxes overnight if they'd go in and shade during the day. buy a large rabbit hutch.

Can't remember what food they had but need small grit as well for them.

ps they make a bloody mess pooping all over.

[thingamybob]

Seriously though, try these people:

www.arkwildlife.co.uk

 

 

[Timbo]

Uncle Albert took me as a kid to Selby livestock auction. At the time I bred silver sebright and barbu d'uccle chickens. At the market they were auctioning off ducks...in a shoebox. Encouraged by Uncle Albert I placed a bid...50p for a box. I was asked by the auctioneer how many boxes would I like. Thinking..you'd only fit one duck in a box...I said two boxes. I got the boxes, opened them to find fifty Khaki Campbell ducklings...in each box.

So from experience I can tell you MM that the best thing to feed ducks is...

Duck pellets from the pet shop, feed merchant or online. Scraps from your fresh greens such as lettuce, cabbage etc, oats...mine preferred ready Brek but Quakers will do and grain...common all garden birdseed. I used to feed my ducks on poultry 'mash'. Boil up your old veg peelings and add several handfuls of poultry 'mash' from a feed merchant, make sure you add the water you boiled the veg in and make a porridge from the peelings and 'mash'. You can add sweetcorn, tinned, fresh or frozen (defrosted) as well as defrosted frozen peas.

[16E]

You've done it now Tim.  All I can think about is the smell of 'poultry mash' being boiled up by my dad when we were self-sufficient in the 1950s.

[Vaughan]

I would stick to common or garden barley.

That is how duck flight ponds are "fed" by wildfowlers.

Mallard duck are basically nocturnal, so they will fly off in the dusk to their favourite place to feed and will then return in the dawn to rest up during the day. This is why the gunboat on Thorpe island was called Morning Flight.

[addicted]

Our next door neighours from a few years back were keen gardeners their garden was their pride and joy. One day we were just going out and our neighbour seeing us on our drive came over to show us a little gift her son had just brought round- 2 ducklings She was thrilled. You won't be p!eased for long said my husband, whichever part of your garden they don' t c**p on they'll eat . A few days later we met her outside again having  just returned from returning the ducklings ,from whence they came having swopped them for a pair of lovebirds. We hadn't the heart to tell her that their racket would drive her nuts. We figured she'd find that out for herself They lasted a week!

 

 

Carole

[Vaughan]

This reminds me of a true story.

In the 50s, Southgates' main yard was on the Swan corner at Horning and behind it were about 30 acres of waterlogged marsh, going right back to the Wroxham Rd, on Upper St. Nowadays it is developed by modern houses with their own marina moorings but in 1949, my father rented about 2 acres from Southgates, to use as a duck flight pond.

As the years went by, the war wound in his knee began to handicap him more and more, so he didn't spend so much time standing in a marsh, in the winter! One day the phone rang at Hearts and it was old Trory, one of the painters at Southgates :

"Is that you Commander? Thass Trory hare."

"Hello Trory, how are you?" (They didn't "do" christian names in those days!)

"Well" he say, "Thass loik this hare. Oi keep a' goin' up the pond with a sack o' barley, loik what you pay me for, an oi keep a' hullin' on it in an them duck they keep a' tairkin' on it out. But you never come down hare a' shootin' on 'em and that int roit."

"Oh, I'm so sorry Trory, I will do something about it." So he called up Gilly Tallowin, from the New Inn, and Ray Bondon, from South Walsham, and they went and had a very effective "evening flight"!

While he was there one day, he found a lovely old yacht with a counter stern, sunk in an old dyke behind the boatyard. Boats were often found abandoned after the war and their owners were sometimes hard to trace, if they had not made it back, but he bought the boat from Southgates and had her towed round to Thorpe. After a serious re-build, we enjoyed sailing her until he sold her in 1960. She is still going strong today, as River Cruiser No 53, "Crystal". 

[TheQ]

So your Dads To Blame for the Potty...

 

 

[Vaughan]

1 hour ago, TheQ said:

So your Dads To Blame for the Potty...

No, actually that was after our time! The potted geraniums on the counter stern were introduced by "Crystal Jim" in the 70's. A great character, who seemed to live for most of the time on Crystal, or in a converted ambulance in the car park of the NBYC on Wroxham Broad.

[JennyMorgan]

Crystal is possibly not in a good state right now. She was moored on Oulton Broad for a few years until recently where she was somewhat sadly neglected whilst on loan. Thankfully she's now back with her owners although I don't know whether they are throwing an open cheque book at her or whether she's just back in storage. Perhaps someone has some up to-date information on her.

[Vaughan]

Surely that must be a front runner for next year's calendar.

Stunning photo Peter!

[JennyMorgan]

Thank you, Vaughan, just lucky being in the right spot at the right time.

[Vaughan]

I am sorry to hear what you say about Crystal nowadays but she was always a survivor. My father's rebuild was not the only one, as it happened again in the 80s.

I was was privileged to attend her 100th birthday party a while ago, where her owners had assembled as many as possible of her previous owners on Barton Broad, to take her for a sail, followed by a memorable pub lunch.

There was a fresh breeze and one of her ex owners got caught out when she heeled and he fell off the counter, still holding the mainsheet. He had been brought up in the hunting tradition, that if you fall off your horse, never let go of the reins. I was on the helm, and managed to luff up quickly enough to swing him back on board again!

She is a very lovely old boat and I hope she will continue to survive whatever the future may hold for her.

[JennyMorgan]

Her hull, apparently, is still pretty good but above her sheer plank upwards, when on Oulton Broad, she was rough plus.