Wood duck boxes

Toad

Toad

Active member
Any of you have success with wood duck boxes? I have been thinking that building a few would be a fun Spring project with the kids, and we could place them along the river at the farm. The stretch of river holds ducks all year, in the little pools and eddys. Just wondering if anybody has built a box and had wood ducks use it. :confused:

I got some pretty easy plans off the DU website. I'm thinking we should be able to build two or three boxes on poles with the predator cone. Should be kind of fun and I love seeing the kids getting excited about wildlife.
:cheers:
 
Great project for kids. I have done many over the years. Boyscout troops did a lot of annual boxes for years. Make sure to clean them out each year and you will get man years out of them.
 
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Great project with the kids, made one last year with my 4 year old daughter. Sure I had it all cut and pre-drilled so we just glued and screwed it together but in her eyes we built that whole thing together.
I can't believe how well she remembered how the little baby ducks will climb out of the nest box they sure learn when it is something fun and iinteresting. get them interested now....... Future of wildlife.
The box is out on a small pond in the trees behind the house, nothing nested there last year but from what I understand it may take a few years for a woody to pick it out as a nesting spot.
 
I've got them in a lot of places in or near the marshes and they get a lot of use. Just checking them for egg shells after hatch is fun. Kids should really enjoy it. Do be careful everytime you open one. You never know what will be staring back at you. The cone will prevent some of that, but there will be a few surprises.
 
When do wood ducks choose their nests, and when do they start laying/sitting? Just wondering if I need to expedite the building process to catch them this year. I don't know what time of year they need to be out, though I'm guessing it isn't for a month at least.:confused:

I heard a report yesterday of some bald eagles at Tuttle that appeared to be nesting. I can't hardly believe a bird would lay an egg in February, but I don't know anything about bald eagles either. Maybe they do...
 
The longer its out before they need it, the more chance they will find it and use it. Expedite!
 
The DNR trail cam in ST Paul MN has a pair of eagles with eggs already. Same as last year. Eggs didn't hatch last year and they won't this year. Stange?

Google

MN DNR Eagle cam
 
Toad said:
Any of you have success with wood duck boxes? I have been thinking that building a few would be a fun Spring project with the kids, and we could place them along the river at the farm. The stretch of river holds ducks all year, in the little pools and eddys. Just wondering if anybody has built a box and had wood ducks use it. :confused:

I got some pretty easy plans off the DU website. I'm thinking we should be able to build two or three boxes on poles with the predator cone. Should be kind of fun and I love seeing the kids getting excited about wildlife.
:cheers:
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My brother and I built those same boxes. We've got a 17 acre lake on one of the farms that is a great duck spot but had very few nesting wood ducks. I think we did two dozen of them over a couple years.

first year we weren't sue if they were used but since then they have been and we have all sorts of wood ducks on the lake. Now that may or may not be because of the boxes but we do know that at least some have been used and some have been used multiple times.

I think if we had placed them on posts out on the water it might have been better but the lake is wooded right up to the shore so we hung them there. We have also encountered wood ducks in the woods browsing on the ground like squirrels. Never seen that before.
 
I have a buddy that built a wood duck condo. It has 16 nesting boxes. The woodies loved it so much he built a second one. He has found eggs in all 32 boxes every year. I should take a pic and post it. They are really neat looking.
 
Please post pics Gatz
 
Gatzby said:
I have a buddy that built a wood duck condo. It has 16 nesting boxes. The woodies loved it so much he built a second one. He has found eggs in all 32 boxes every year. I should take a pic and post it. They are really neat looking.
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Yes, please post a pic. That sounds really cool.
 
OKIEGunner said:
Please post pics Gatz
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I'll get some pics. It might be a while though, the dang snow is waist deep and it's about 1/3 of a mile back to the pond
 
Toad said:
Any of you have success with wood duck boxes? I have been thinking that building a few would be a fun Spring project with the kids, and we could place them along the river at the farm. The stretch of river holds ducks all year, in the little pools and eddys. Just wondering if anybody has built a box and had wood ducks use it. :confused:

I got some pretty easy plans off the DU website. I'm thinking we should be able to build two or three boxes on poles with the predator cone. Should be kind of fun and I love seeing the kids getting excited about wildlife.
:cheers:
Click to expand...
"
Toad, I have built over 100 of them from 1" rough cut pine. 1"x12"x10' will get you 1 box. 24" back and 22" front(sloped from back to front) Sides will slope 2" to match. Inset floor and 14" top. Hole should look like a football 4" long x 3" high. Usually about 5" from the top of lid to top of hole. This will help prevent Coons getting in just in case your cones fail. You can hinge from the back or front of the lid and lock down with eyelet locks. If you want to put them on tree's it is best to make the back of the box longer so you can screw with lags into the tree, thus get 12 footers. Use about 4-5" of wood shavings for bedding. When using rough cut lumber you do not have to do too much for the ladder. I just take a pick and hit it a bunch of times where the ducklings will crawl up. They can climb rough cut pretty easy anyway just not plywood. You should clean them every Feb. Earliest nest initiation here was April 1st, but they will secure a nest site before that. March 10th would be a good time to have them up. I found that if the nests were close together I would get a lot of dump nesting going on. Seasoned hens will establish first and then the first year hens will follow suit. I used 4" pvc pipe over my posts and that kept the Coons at bay instead of a cone. On the tree's I just put a face plate on the front about 10" wide that doubled the thickness to 2" at the hole, which made it impossible for the Coons to chew their way in. Best of Luck! Any Questions feel free to ask.:cheers:
 
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This is one of my first boxes made of plywood! These do not last long! This hen is just hatching out!


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BleuBijou said:
This is one of my first boxes made of plywood! These do not last long! This hen is just hatching out!


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Nice pic! I'm going to make some of these for our ponds. We have quite a few nesting woodies every year but maybe this will bring even more to the ponds.
 
Northern Flickers

Damn Wood Peckers do a number on the eggs before the hen starts sitting.
IMG_6838_zps14d3cbef.jpg
 
We put about 10 along a wooded river valley long time ago. The wood ducks really liked them.
 
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