Floating island for muscovy ducks
- Thread starter TreeDaddy
- Start date
The Fishman
5 year old buck +
How big do you want it? Do you want an island for them to rest and nest on or just something for them to rest on out of the water? If just something for them to get out of the water, they make floating animals that would serve this purpose. A park in Phoenix installed some alligators and hippos for the birds. Amazon sells small ones for less than $100.
The Fishman
5 year old buck +
A lot of fishermen around my area fish for tripletail in coastal waters by building fish aggregating devices (FADs) because the tripletail love floating structure. I saw this FAD washed up last year on an island. It is simply a 24x30" bread tray with foam. The tray sits upside down in the water with the foam underneath and something to secure the foam to the tray. In this case, the fisherman used old shrimp netting. You could buy or acquire a couple bread trays and tie them together for what I would think would be a large enough platform to support two ducks and a nest. If there are too many land-based predators, this would be a low cost way to see if the ducks would use it to nest. The ducks would definitely use it to rest. The trick is going to be finding the right foam thickness to float the platform at the correct height out of the water.
MadMadHoosier
5 year old buck +
I built a floating platform with a hutch and feeder for domestic ducks about 12-years ago. Basically made a 4'x8'x5/4" treated lumber flat deck and put a 4'x8'x2" piece of insulation foam under it. It worked great until a cold winter where the pond fully froze and the coyotes or other predators got to the ducks :-(
That thing is still floating and grown into the weeds on the edge of the pond dam. I leave it there for fish shade/structure, but will pull it out with the tractor some day.
If I ever decide to duplicate the effort, I'm going to install a bubbler or something that will keep a portion of the pond ice free in the winter.
That thing is still floating and grown into the weeds on the edge of the pond dam. I leave it there for fish shade/structure, but will pull it out with the tractor some day.
If I ever decide to duplicate the effort, I'm going to install a bubbler or something that will keep a portion of the pond ice free in the winter.
