# Hunting > Game Bird Hunting >  The birds are back - feeding a pond?

## Pointer

How many of you are feeding up a duck pond? Never done it before, how are you guys going about it?

Got a good resident population, want to improve on that in the coming months

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## upnorth uplander

NOSLOC Poultry & Gamebird Feeder Nozzle | Trade Me

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## Baz

The last NZ Hunter magazine had a good article about feeding ponds and a few different approaches to doing it. I made a couple of feeders last year

I made my own NOSLOC feeder nozzle out of some medium tensile wire. works mint. also tried a maize silage feeder. cut the bottom out of a bucket and put some 75mm x 75mm reinforcing mesh in the bottom. packed the maize silage in tight and the ducks feed through the mesh. Hung both bucket feeders on steel posts around the edge of the pond.

The other thing highly over looked is duck predators (rats, stoats, cats etc) I have used the inner tube core off of silage wrap (the plastic they but around silage bales), cut it in half to make 2, drilled a small hole through the middle and slide a rat bait on some wire through the holes (to hold the bait in the middle of the tube). instant bait tube at no cost.

Cheers

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## Nathan F

Hunting partner has just brought a feeder. As Baz says we will be feeding up as per Pauls article in the last mag.

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## Breda

Be careful with feeding. You may turn your resident population into a bigger but night feeding one. So many people destroy great small roosting ponds by feeding. How many people chase a gazillion ducks off first thing in the morning and wonder why the shooting is average to poor considering all the duck activity??

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## upnorth uplander

now you will know why i shoot 100+ pheasants a year *pointer*, i use 3 of the nosloc type feeders on my duck pond and another 10 scattered around my pheasant grounds.

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## Nathan F

> Be careful with feeding. You may turn your resident population into a bigger but night feeding one. So many people destroy great small roosting ponds by feeding. How many people chase a gazillion ducks off first thing in the morning and wonder why the shooting is average to poor considering all the duck activity??


It would be better to feed small amounts several times a day would it not Tim?

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## upnorth uplander

when i fed by hand (for many years) i always fed my pond on sunrise, the birds wud fly off and circle in the distance then start coming in just as we fininshed feeding out, back then there was 8 shooters , so it didnt matter if the ducks wud return in big numbers come opening

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## Breda

> It would be better to feed small amounts several times a day would it not Tim?



Yes. My perfect situation would be to have a big central roosting pond and feed outlaying pot dams, leaving the roost undisturbed and allowing birds to drift back to roost in the morning...... as the perfect situation is difficult in most situations I would either feed with a pre dawn routine or use an electronic feeder to meter small feeds through the day. You'd want compitition for food, not excess laying about.

I haven't fed with any consistancy for years. Find em and hunt em :Thumbsup:

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## Nathan F

> Yes. My perfect situation would be to have a big central roosting pond and feed outlaying pot dams, leaving the roost undisturbed and allowing birds to drift back to roost in the morning...... as the perfect situation is difficult in most situations I would either feed with a pre dawn routine or use an electronic feeder to meter small feeds through the day. You'd want compitition for food, not excess laying about.
> 
> I haven't fed with any consistancy for years. Find em and hunt em


Yeah that sounds about right. Very small amounts throughout the day. Ive heard of guys putting a sheet of tin next to the feeder so when it spits out the grain it makes plenty of noise hitting the tin. Be like an alarm clock to come and get a feed .

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## Pointer

Sweet thanks for the pointers team, had aread of the atricle in NZhunter, and will look into the nosloc feeders, but given my situation I 'm not sure if feeding will help now, it is an evening pond for them so they have probably fed elsewhere

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## upnorth uplander

> Sweet thanks for the pointers team, had aread of the atricle in NZhunter, and will look into the nosloc feeders, but given my situation I 'm not sure if feeding will help now, it is an *evening pond* for them so they have probably fed elsewhere


why didnt you fucking say that at the beginning, now ive passed on my knowledge for no fucking reason. In another thread i said you were a good c**t, youre pretty close to having the good part of that removed, still feed the pond bro, will fatten the ducks for you

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## Pointer

hahaha I go away from the internet for a day and you get needy?   :Psmiley: 

There are 3 small ponds in succession, they favour the one with most cover which suits a maimai setup. They seem to come into it on dusk, yet sit on the others which are about 1-2 km away out in the open. Would like to bring them into the closer one with feeding yet I'm not sure if it would work as they onyl seem to come at dusk, at a guess after feeding?

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## Breda

> hahaha I go away from the internet for a day and you get needy?  
> 
> There are 3 small ponds in succession, they favour the one with most cover which suits a maimai setup. They seem to come into it on dusk, yet sit on the others which are about 1-2 km away out in the open. Would like to bring them into the closer one with feeding yet I'm not sure if it would work as they onyl seem to come at dusk, at a guess after feeding?


It sounds like the ducks are roosting on the open ponds and feeding on the one with cover. My pick would be choose one of the open ponds to shoot opening morning. Use a layout blind if need be. Feed the other two ponds. Don't disturb the ducks off the pond they mainly use during the day at all if it can be helped and don't feed it. Shoot the other fed ponds in the evening. Have a quick read of my first post in this thread :Have A Nice Day:

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## Pointer

Thanks Tim, a similar approach to what I was thinking, cheers

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## Philipo

You make a good point Tim about turning ya spot into a night pond, Ive fallin into that trap before  :Sad: 

Last year I didn't feed at all & had a below average opening so I might fire the feeder up again this season ( but just 3 or 4 short bursts early morning ) 




I use to shoot with a guy that would weigh down a sack of maize with a slit cut in it & chuck it in his pond. A basic feeder that seemed to work

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## MassiveAttack

I am looking for tips on feeding a small wetland as well.  It's close to ellesmere so as you can imagine a million birds that aren't ducks ready to eat the feed.  So far I have two 20l nosloc feeders.  I am thinking of getting another couple.  How would I prevent the night feeding mentioned?  Buy a auto feeder which is set to only feed in the morning?  It makes sense to invest a bit more in good feeders than throw out a huge amount of food and waste most of it I feel.

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## redbang

You could probably attach a timer to the other feeders ????

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## MassiveAttack

> You could probably attach a timer to the other feeders ????


Two different kinds of feeders red.  The nosloc is a nozzel on a bucket of feed that the duck pecks and the feed come out - on demand feeding.

The automatic feeders throw feed out at set times.  By the sounds of this thread it's better to set that time to be morning not night.

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## puku

heres an idea from Redbangs comment, how about attaching a little flap inside a bucket that is on a timer, prehaps set every 24 hours and to stay open for about 4 hours.

This would stop them feeding all day and night.

Im sure someone could make it work (not me im only and Ideas man!! haha.)

Wheres Gadgetman??

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## upnorth uplander

for this to work it would have to be on the outside, as the weight of the feed would prevent it working if placed in side the bucket/drum

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## skeet72

not if is was a sliding disk across the hole as aposed to a flap over it 
flap need very power full motor and steel gears
disk could use a window motor with the limiter 

just an idea

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## upnorth uplander

still dont think it will work , with the amount of feed stuck in the top of the spring it wouldnt close, mite depend on the type of feed you put in it

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## MassiveAttack

> still dont think it will work , with the amount of feed stuck in the top of the spring it wouldnt close, mite depend on the type of feed you put in it


upnorth, on your pond with the nosloc feeders.  Do the ducks feed at night time or in the morning?

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## Breda

> I am looking for tips on feeding a small wetland as well.  It's close to ellesmere so as you can imagine a million birds that aren't ducks ready to eat the feed.  So far I have two 20l nosloc feeders.  I am thinking of getting another couple.  How would I prevent the night feeding mentioned?  Buy a auto feeder which is set to only feed in the morning?  It makes sense to invest a bit more in good feeders than throw out a huge amount of food and waste most of it I feel.


If possible feed before light. Start by only putting enough feed out that the birds will finish it in the morning. Slowly build up the amount of feed going out as duck numbers start to increase. You want to create some competition for food available not have food still about by evening otherwise that is when the birds will arrive. You are trying to upset their normal feed routine, roost during the day, feed at night. An electronic feeder would certainly make life easier.

Everyone uses barley or peas. Use maize if a little extra expense is tolerable :Wink:

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## upnorth uplander

> upnorth, on your pond with the nosloc feeders.  Do the ducks feed at night time or in the morning?


have no answer for you as i top up the feeder and usually head back to the big smoke

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## Nathan F

We put our feeder out last night. It spits out barley for 3 seconds at 7am , 10 am , 12 pm , 2:30 pm , 5 pm and 6 :30 pm . Two months out in should get the birds into an all day feeding pattern and competing for food.

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## upnorth uplander

im going up north on the weekend and will set up 2-3 spring feeders on my duck pond and another 5 on my upland grounds

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## Nathan F

Topped up the feeder today and changed the timer to 6 bursts throughout the morning.

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## Nathan F

The feeder appears to be working. 38 mallards and 2 parries on the pond last night!

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## upnorth uplander

> The feeder appears to be working. 38 mallards and 2 parries on the pond last night!


good shit bro, will set mine up when we go up north for a goose shoot in a couple of weeks. *pointer*, have you set up your feeder yet ???

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## puku

Yea Nice work Nath,
I have been feeding a little pond up the gully behind the sheds (about 800m up gully).  Its about 7kms down to the Tairei River so I think if I can get them near they will want to stay up here.
Last year there were 4mallards there all season.
Started splashing some feed around a month ago and it went to about 15 frequently to now 28mallards, im just putting a small amount out every second morning at the moment.  Should prehaps be doing it every morning now.

Oh and did I say Im shooting near Hinds this year.....  The pond should shoot fairly well through the season Im thinking

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## Philipo

Yeah good stuff guys, I cranked up the auto feeder last weekend ( just wheat & Barley ) running 3 short bursts early first thing, there were about 30-40 Mallards happily floating around  :Cool: 

One thing to watch with disk style auto feeders is that theres not any lumps of shit in ya grain, I had a small turd sized lump of hard dirt wedged in the feeder for about two weeks & screw up my feeder one year  :Oh Noes:

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## Pointer

Nah *Uplander,* a few complications  :Have A Nice Day:

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## Dundee

Started my haul on acorns today............more collecting to be done so bloodt time consuming.

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## Dundee

Fed out 20kg of acorns today....ponds holding good numbers of birds .19 days too wait.

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## Baz

> Fed out 20kg of acorns today....ponds holding good numbers of birds .19 days too wait.


Acorns.........? didnt think birds would eat them??

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## Dundee

The ducks love em.......watched my kids pet ducks eat them its hilarious how they turn the acorn around and scoff em hole.
Beats putting tonnes of barley or wheat out for sparrows too enjoy.Acorns are a duck feast and the other birds find them too big too eat.

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## Nathan F

not long now......

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## Dundee

> not long now......


No birds?

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## Nathan F

> No birds?


lol generally not when you have been walking around the pond.....

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