2006-06-07 P&R Packet - Laserfiche WebLink

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Ottawa Duck Club - President's Report more than one wood duck lays eggs in a single box. It is common to find more than a dozen eggs, but if you consistently have over 30 eggs, then dump nesting is a problem. This can happen if you place your boxes too close together. We don't have too many problems with this at the Duck Club. One of our members thinks that this is because we keep the boxes apart at a minimum distance of 50ft. . Is it too far from water? - It is true that in natural situations hens will use cavities up to ~ a mile away, but it is also true as the distance increases the survival rate of du'cklings decreases. We believe that our boxes at Shirley's Bay which are exposed and surround the man- made ponds are successful because there is a lot of vegetation close by where ducklings can hide from potential predators. Make Regular Inspections During the Nesting Season Part of your Maintenance Routine Ifpossible, the best way to address predation problems and uninvited house guests is to monitor your nest box during the breeding season. Monitoring once every two weeks is ideal, but if this is not possible, checking your box at least twice during the nesting season can increase your success rate. Hopefully, the location you chose for your duck box won't make it difficult for monitoring. Monitoring our duck boxes improves our hatching success because we can: . remove debris brought in by other animals . remove undesirable species (i.e. bees, wasps, starlings) . make repairs as needed . replace nest materials as needed (invaders may remove it) . clean out the nest box after early nest attempts for possible second nests . to keep the boxes available for Wood Ducks nesting http://odc.ncf.ca/ duckboxmaint.html rag\:: J Vi V 6/19/2005