Wood Duck Houses

Saw 4 woodies today. Must have been a migration of some sorts as I saw them, red wing blackbirds and more robins than normal.

REM,sounds like a coon tried to get in.

I checked the wood duck houses over the weekend.

We had successful nest in 4 boxes. One box looked it had 2-3 nest hatched out of it. All of the boxes had acitivity but the other 7 boxes looked like they were blue jays, small owls and other birds.

We did have one box that had bird nest built on top of a wood duck nest. So it looks like the wood duck had a successful nest and then another bird came in build a nest on top of the wood duck nest.

1 nest looked like a cat or another clawed critter tried to get in, had claw marks on 3 sides of the box. The box is on a steel pole about 6 feet of the ground so what ever critter it was, it had some hops to it!

That time of the year to put up new houses and clean out last years.

Very important to clean out old eggs, wasps and bee's nests.

Working on new land this year to add to my collection. Very pumped with prospect of good water this spring.

Good luck to those that share the same interest in helping the Woodies.

My buddie and I put up 11 houses this year. I took a trip up to see how things were going so far. Real hard to tell for sure but 3 of the boxes had a pair of wood ducks close by. Looking forward to see how they do.

Ended up the year with 17 of 31 houses being used. Only a few unhatched eggs and 1 additional house with 0 eggs hatched. I thought it was going to be worse with the warm march and cool april and may last year. And yes, all houses were checked a couple weeks ago as I know some pairs are already laying eggs. Did others experience much success last year?

Humble you have a terrible attitude!! As said before,you don't own the ducks!!Sometimes putting houses up causes more bad then good.I see that in your case.Grow up and do it right,or don't do it at all!!

Humble1,

First of all I think your response is unnecessary for someone trying to help you. Next, do you have screens on the inside of the houses for them to climb up? Over 40 some years of having houses up I have only found 2 dead checks. Also, you say 3 clutches did not hatch? I have numerous wood ducks currently in houses so I would not check yet. There are other reasons, 1 being I have seen major bee hives inside a house I would hate to come across. Additionally I see late into the summer hens attempting to nest again so you don't know how old the eggs are. You have till next april to check your houses so why take a chance now? Much safer to check over the winter plus then you can take care of any maintenance that happens throughout the year. Also I would not take a picture by opening a house when a hen is in there. Any added stress can cause them to abandon a house. You can get defensive but the fact is you had very very very bad success which should cause you to rethink your practices. Lastly, just my two cents, it is your land, they are your houses, but they are not your wood ducks rather mother natures. Let her do her part.

That was something positive for the ducks.Don't even waste your time putting them out if that's what you are going to do.You obviously don't have a clue!!!!

My input is that nothing good can come from messing with them now....so leave them alone!!

Still waiting for some one to answer duckwidow's question on how to keep the starlings out. I have the same problem. They took over five of my six boxes this year. When I cleaned out the boxes last year, I even found starling nests built on top of duck eggs. BB guns are a no no in this town, so that leaves that out.

My guess would be something happened to the first one.

My dad has a total of 6 boxes up in his back yard all of which are being used and the other night he seen 12 little ones jump out of one of the boxes only to find another 11 eggs underneath the ones that hatched...anyone else ever see this? are guess is a hen layed first then got pushed out and another hen layed on top.

thanks mallard. I did not know that.

It is pretty common for hooded mergansers and wood ducks to lay eggs in the same nest. They will get reared by the same parent. That is why it is so common to see hoodies mixed in a flock of woodies and vice versa.