I have a small pond on our hunting property. I recently purchased a woodduck house to put near the pond. We have seen many woodducks in the area and I have always wanted to put up a house. Should I put it up so that when the chicks jump out they will land in water or should they land on grass? I would like to get this up before fall so that it can weather over the winter and hopefully the ducks will use it this spring. Thanks for the help.

I place most next to or close to the water ,they don't have to land in the water but the boxs will get more use if it is very close or on the water . I put my boxs up and chech the old in the winter so I can walk over the ice to all of them 50 or so this year.
put a few inchs of saw dust or wood shavings in the bottem
if you use a metal stake ,put the stake through a 3' piece of plastic pipe to serve as a predetor gaurd
I like to place the boxs in the edge of creaks , ponds ect in afternoon shade if posible to keep the box temp down ,don't know it helps but can't hurt

I have two doz up and It's best if they are over water

Thanks for the help guys. How high do you put them? I forgot to ask that. I have some trees that are right on the edge of our pond so I will put it there.

I place them from 4' up over water on up ,depending on the lay of the land . Just don't forget the predator gaurd .

I have a couple dozen up on my place. they like them close to water but I know some nest a mile from water and walk all that way. Problem when they are that far from water they are exposed to a lot of predators on the way to water. I have some up near my house and they nest in them every year. I know another person who has one up on the edge of his deck and a hen usually nest there every year.

The longer they have to travel to water across land the greater risk they face to predation. A couple of cats can make short work of an entire brood so I would put it as close to the water as possible. We use to have good luck with our houses but the last few years have not been good. It seems like only one house gets used and that is just an egg drop box that never gets sat on. We will find probably 20 eggs in it but no hen will sit on them. Does anyone have any ideas why this happens?

The rick, Usually it happens if the houses are set up too close to each other. But having said that there is always some dump nests in all species of ducks.

That actually makes sense because it started happening after we added more houses. It's probably worth a shot to remove a few and see what happens next season.

If you place the boxs so they are slightly hidden,not so deep in that it can't be seen at all but like under some branches or between clumps of catail , they can be closer together ,hens don't like to see each other IMO