Thread: Carolina Wood Ducks?????

Does anyone have any info on acquiring breeding stock & rearing of these beautiful quackers in New Zealand????

I have heard rumours that they have been spotted in the wild in the vicinity of Ngaruawahia/Huntly area of the waikato????

ive seen similar to wood ducks at the wgtn zoo
harliquin/mandarin ducks???
damn theyd be a prize if we could ever establish them here tho the flooded timber is there favourite aint it??

Wood Ducks

The Wood Duck is well known in aviculture, it is considered by many to be North America's most ornamental and most colorful duck. The Wood Duck and it's close relative the Mandarin are often the first ducks a beginner obtains. They are extremely hardy, easy to care for, and will get along well with others in a mixed collection.
Wood Ducks are cavity nesters and will require a raised box for nesting. A ratio of three boxes for every two nesting pairs is recommended. They can breed their first Spring, however fertility is usually better their second year. While their cousin, the Mandarin will commonly trio, I myself have had no success at breeding Wood Ducks in trio's. The breeding season is in Spring, and begins in March in my region, however I have collected eggs as early as February and once in December. Clutches range from 10-16 eggs and are incubated for 28 to 30 days. If the eggs are removed early in incubation the hen will often produce a second clutch. Second clutches will normally consist of less eggs than the first.
While most experienced waterfowl aviculturist find wood duck ducklings fairly easy to raise, many people attempting it for the first time find them quite challenging. For the beginner excessive losses of ducklings at about 4-6 days of age is common, and usually results from the fact that they did not settle down enough to begin eating, or did not like the food or the way it was presented.



At Mallard Lane Farms we start our Wood Ducks on Mazuri Waterfowl Starter. Listed below are a few tips that we commonly use to get these ducklings eating.
Sprinkle foods on brooder floor and onto the ducklings themselves
Smear moistened food onto sides of brooder
Place food in small containers of water (we use pickle jar lids) mazuri will float
Put a duckling of another species (of about the same size) in with them. This duckling will help teach them to eat.
Feed live meal worms
Wood ducks are available in several different color mutations which include the apricot Wood Duck, white wood duck, and the very beautiful silver Wood Duck and the rare platinum wood duck, all are currently bred in the US.

these guys could be helpful they have mandarins

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The forest wetlands area has been extensively vegetated and provides shelter and breeding sites for a range of native and introduced waterfowl including Mute Swans, Canada Geese, Graylag Geese, Grey Teal, Brown Teal, Scaup (Black Teal), NZ Shovelers, Mandarin Wood Ducks, Grey Ducks, Paradise Ducks (NZ Shelduck) and the Australian Shelduck.

Originally Posted by gsp follower

ive seen similar to wood ducks at the wgtn zoo
harliquin/mandarin ducks???
damn theyd be a prize if we could ever establish them here tho the flooded timber is there favourite aint it??

these guys could be helpful they have mandarins

Thanks for the info gsp. Someone else on the forum may well have info of the waikato river sightings & know a bit more about where they came from ( apart from the obvious--Carolina!!!) I'll contact the people you mentioned.

You're right, they are almost too beautiful to shoot, bit like male spoonies!!!

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They are in the BOP too, small numbers on the Wairoa River just north of Tauranga.

They would be 100%awesome to see on ellesmere .even if we had em protected to give em time to build up a decent population. that colouring is nature at its grandest eh!

Originally Posted by Bonecrusher

Attachment 43836
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They are in the BOP too, small numbers on the Wairoa River just north of Tauranga.

Is that the Carolina one or the Mandarin jobee???? & do you have any idea how they got there ( apart from flying,ha ha????)

Originally Posted by Bonecrusher

Attachment 43836
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They are in the BOP too, small numbers on the Wairoa River just north of Tauranga.

mature mallard drakes are awesome spoonies are gorgous but that woody is just the dogs bollocks

I'd like to find out where to get some eggs for breeding purposes. I have heard that they're quite difficult to rear in captivity???? But it'd be nice to see them
around the countryside a bit more,eh???

Small scale breeder near Hamilton, supplies the zoo

I would be just as happy to see good populations of Mallies and others doing their thing....

Saw them years ago whilst duck shooting of the end of Gears rd Atiamuri, around 20yrs that is

Saw one at Lake Rotoiti yesterday... First time I've ever seen one in NZ. Got photo.

@Greenhill has some

Originally Posted by 7mmwsm

I was at a cafe just south of Roxburgh in March. They had about thirty in a pen for sale. I would have bought some but the logistics of getting live ducks home was to hard. I'd be very keen to get some eggs if anyone has some.

Hi 7mmwsm I realise yours is a very old message but do you remember the name of the Cafe in Roxburgh?? Thanks!