AUTiger

Has anyone ever tried to raise Mallards for hunting purposes. I dont want to do it commercial style - i was thinking around 200 so I could shoot a few each time i hunt. here is what i have so far - i am looking to building a flight pen appox. 100' x 20' and once the birds can fly (around 6 weeks) move them to the fish pond - i guess the problem is how do i get them to fly to the duck pond????

Thanks for any help that you could provide or links to websites.
AuTiger

Huntinman23

So your pretty much saying you want to raise a bunch of ducks, let them fly around and shoot them...Why don't you just go duck hunting and shoot wild ducks instead of one's that were raised in a pen there whole life? That is like raising a deer in a pen for its entire life and having it walk in front of you and shooting it...Don't get your logic here.

AUTiger

I am sorry Huntinman23 that i am not as blessed as you are to have an abundance of mallards flying around - and you must also have an abundance of quail and pheasants to hunt at your disposal. in my opinion these ducks are not pen raised they are released as soon as they can fly (just so you know a lot of people make a living selling guarenteed duck hunts how do you think they do it?) the pen is just for their safty so they are not eaten up by predators like racoons, bobcats, ... i also guess by your response that you are to big of a man to go on a quail shoot (you know how that is done i am sure)- unless you have around 5,000 acres of quail habiat and can shoot all the wild birds you want?? if so you are the man - Thanks for your contribution to my question on how i can ejoy my time outdoors with my friends and family - i hope you have a great day

Huntinman23

I didn't mean to offend you in anyway I just didnt get why you would want to do this, I am not trying to be mean, and no I dont have an abundance of quail and ducks and pheasant. But what I do have is the ambition to go out and look for them so I can shoot them in the wild. Again I am sorry if i offended you in any way.

Also, if you are going to raise ducks I would not let them out as soon they can fly, they may stick around for a while but they are not going to stay around for a long time. (or at least as long as you plan on having them there). I am no expert but I know ducks migrate, so they will leave (unless you feed them and you live in a place they can stay all of the time). Check with your local DNR station also and even see if it is legal to do this, because if it is not and you are doing it and get caught, you will be in for a big fine and maybe a loss of your hunting privilages. Just a suggestion. But if it is allowed go ahead and do it.

Ducks are animals they dont have the brain capacity you and I do, If you feed them till they can fly, they will sit around and wait for you to feed them again, and if you dont they will either die, or go look for someone else to feed them. If they are not taught to feed by themselves they never will.

Again I am sorry for my above post if I offended you in anyway.

deke12ga

I have no idea how to answer your question. But it sounds like you want to do something similar to a preserve hunt. Maybe contact a hunting lodge that does this and see if they will help you. OF course dont expect one close by to help as it would hurt their business. Dont know where you are but Feather Creek Farms in NC does preserve hunts on mallards. They have a website...

AUTiger

No problem - just egdey - work and all and no more deer - but turkeys will be here in 5 weeks - It is not against any rule to raise and shoot ducks - actully you can shoot raised ducks until april as long as you can prove they are raised ducks (they get a toe clipping as a chick) I have a duck pond that has a lot of natural food that grows - acorns, jap. milliet, sesbania, ... - to keep them but during the summer i would feed corn and different seed for them in the duck pond - i dont think they would migrate as they would be raised here and imprint here - if they left - i think they would come back - i would hunt them wild if we had them but we dont - im just looking for some help and have contacted the Miss. ST poultry dept to see what i can fiind out and they are working on it as well. beleive it or not the people who do the guarentee hunts around here will not help even though i tell them it is for personal use. so i turn to hunting net to see what i could find. thanks

AUTiger

Thanks Deke I will look them up
AuTiger

slayer_54

u can't really call it huntin, more like shooting, JMO. do you plan on training a dog with them? otherwise you should just put a stake in the ground, tie a 30 ft string on it, tie the other end on the duck. let the duck fly around in circles till you shoot it or untiil it falls to the ground laughing at you cuz you cant shoot wild ducks. POSER

Ideezy5

theres not alot of ducks here either but that dont mean i want to grow my own. wouldnt they be considered pets or tame? just sayin, thats kinda rediculous. i agree with slayer

mulvany

I think AU poses a good question here. Think about it, geese come back year after year to the same pond/lake...or at least I've always heard that...Well suppose you get some and start raising them on your pond/lake. After 2 or three years, your flock of 30 starters has grown and now you have a relatively good size of WILD geese that you started, but let grow on their own. As long as he doesn't try to make them tame, then they aren't really tame, he just started some groups where there wasn't any before. Isn't that similar to releasing turkeys into an area and letting them reproduce and grow? I don't know if I would ever try this, but suppose you did own some land and wanted to turn it into a wetland? If he practiced conservation and let them grow for a year or two and get some coming back rather than releasing them and shooting them in the same day or season? If it was stretched out over time, would that be better?

Just something to think about....