Wood duck houses

[H20fwler]

It’s box cleaning time of year if you all haven't done it yet!

Cleaned ours out this morning and put new cedar chips in to get ready for new renters.
One nest had a woody chick mummy in it along with shell fragments, one had ten old eggs looked like a mix of woody/hoody so there must have been a dispute and both abandoned it? One of the capsule style in the woods had an old nest in it along with a few owl pellets...I would think the owl used it in winter. All the boxes had old nests with nests on top of them even though I cleaned them last in June, I guess I should have kept up with them better last summer.

 

[Tamarack]

I'm planning on doing that this week. Lots of times ours will have new "nests" in them...twigs piled all the way up to the entrance. Doesn't look too comfortable to sit on and doesn't really look like anything does, so not sure what is doing that. Will have to put some cameras on them over the winter unless someone here has the answer.

Putting up a couple of Duck Huts for the first time as well. Had to try them out.

 

[chucker66]

I had a paper wasp nest in one of mine and a bear decided he wanted to eat them. Tore the side board right off. WIll have to replace the this spring. It a pretty shallow pond so I might move it to a deeper one on the property.

 

[Tamarack]

Found some pics from a couple of years ago with the twigs in the house..

 

[fishin coyote]

Tamarack, That looks like the work of one very busy and energetic wren. Looks like some of my bluebird boxes except on a grand scale

 

[H20fwler]

I had a weird one a couple years ago too, some kind of bird took every piece of cedar out and put sticks and grass in it, kind of made two nest depressions.
I've seen where flying squirrels will put grass in them near trees also.

 

[Tamarack]

Tamarack, That looks like the work of one very busy and energetic wren. Looks like some of my bluebird boxes except on a grand scale

It does look it could be wrens. Thing is the pic is from April though and there's snow on the ground still, but I guess anything is possible. Last year two houses were like that. I thought maybe starlings or something. No sign of anything using them but maybe hadn't had a chance to yet.
April 6 is when they were taken.

 

[Tamarack]

Ok...just saw a wren in a marsh in SE WI. We don't see them around the house until May but I guess some are around or at least coming thru much earlier. If it's wrens then I feel bad for destroying all the work the poor little things have been doing up north further. I'll have to put up a dozen more wren houses to make up for it.

 

[Tamarack]

Interesting on the nest dumping. I read a article and it said NOT to put wood duck houses close together because nest dumping will happen. It said to put the houses up where one house isn't in view of the other. The article I read said nest dumping was not a good thing.

I spent some time reading this thread hoping to see some discussion about this. Debating whether to put my 2 Duck Huts on the same pole or spend more money on another.

I've been putting up single boxes on a winding creek 30+yds and out of view from each other but always thought what's the point when ducks fly around and each one probably sees every house I have out. Limits confusion I guess if that's really a problem. Nest dumping...maybe there's more research out there. Even natural cavities get dumps. I would think it has more to do with the limited # of nesting cavities or houses available. There aren't a whole lot of big oaks etc in this area and the 6 houses I've had up get used every year, with 1-2 getting extra eggs.

Anyone ever put a couple of houses right next to each other?

 

[R.E. Gould]

I put a lot of work hauling boxes and posts to a chain of backwoods beaver ponds way the heck out there, and the bears destroyed them all in less than a year! The wood ducks will have to make do with natural accommodations.

 

[fishin coyote]

Tamarack, I have a friend who has 20 plus boxes in his backyard. Almost every tree in the yard has a box on it. His wife kept a detailed log on which boxes hatched what and when. Their best year they had 232 little ducks fledge. He did tell me that every year one of the boxes on the edge of the woods would end up as a dump box and end up with 3-5 dozen eggs in it.
They live in the woods, have 2 small ponds and a small stream running through the yard.

 

[Tamarack]

fishin..thanks for that info,
They need to put up some cameras if they don't already. That is crazy...

 

[trampledbyturtles]

Just found one laying in the garage.
Figured I'd toss it up out back the house and see if I get any takers. Roughly 335 yards through a cornfield to water.

 

[H20fwler]

Tamarack, I have a friend who has 20 plus boxes in his backyard. Almost every tree in the yard has a box on it. His wife kept a detailed log on which boxes hatched what and when. Their best year they had 232 little ducks fledge. He did tell me that every year one of the boxes on the edge of the woods would end up as a dump box and end up with 3-5 dozen eggs in it.
They live in the woods, have 2 small ponds and a small stream running through the yard.

I used to work with our local refuge a lot woody/goose banding and cleaning checking nest boxes/tubs. We have some wood duck capsules here that have two on the same pole back to back and both seem to get used fine.
The state also uses a bunch of the mallard nesting cage/tubes...every now and then one of them would end up as a nest dump with twenty plus eggs. I think every species of duck nest dumps some, I know that redheads are really bad for nest parasitism laying one or two eggs for another species of hen to hatch and raise with her own.

 

[Tamarack]

H20fwler that all reminds me of cowbirds. They have so much work ahead of them.
I'm thinking of building something to try for mallards this year. Almost have to put that on a pole with a baffle/guard here as well.

Got the Duck Huts up. Requires a 2" post/pole so instead of paying over $40(with extra shipping $) for their predator guard I used a cheap one from Fleet Farm and used a drill/hole saw to make the hole bigger..then wrapped and Gorilla taped some rope to hold it on the pole.
Pros:
Super lightweight..great for carrying long distance. Carried everything in the box they came in.
Easy to assemble and install- comes with a mounting bracket for each house. Only needed to use one for both houses.
Will be easy to clean out.
Ventilation does seem to be a plus.
They look cool. Very important.

Cons:
Expensive.
Wish the mounting brackets were metal. With as lightweight as the houses are I'd just take them down every Fall and make them last even longer. I just don't know if those plastic tabs would last long from snapping them on and off each year. Didn't try taking one down so not sure how easy they slide back off(anyone here have one?) Since each house comes with a mounting bracket I do have a spare though.


BTW..I've got cedar houses that are 15+ yrs old. Left out all year. Do have the roofs solid deck stained. So their claims of theirs outlasting wood...I'm expecting 20+ yrs out of them.

 

[buckdeer1]

I need to get out and get mine filled,thanks for the reminder,also need to get goose tubs out

 

[trampledbyturtles]

I need to get out and get mine filled,thanks for the reminder,also need to get goose tubs out

Thought I was the only one that still cared about those guys, have a few of the old school brown tubs ready to roll.

Giant Canada geese take up a big piece of my heart.

 

[Tamarack]

First visitor at this house :

 

[TreeDaddy]

^^^^^^^^^^^^
never gets old!!

bill

 

[H20fwler]

First visitor at this house : View attachment 33896View attachment 33897

Buddy of mine gets a lot of owls in his in winter too.