Wild Ducks: How to Rear and Shoot Them

by W. Coape Oates

I believe that this method is more satisfactory than buying eggs in the first instance, as in the latter case you cannot tell for certain how long the eggs you purchase have been laid, nor what the birds are like which laid them. We next come to the question of the proportion of drakes to ducks. On a small piece of water, one drake to every three ducks will do very well, but if you have at your disposal a large lake, I am strongly in favour of plenty of drakes, say fifteen drakes to every twenty ducks. Most of the birds will pair, though occasionally one finds as many as three drakes paying court to one duck, and one drake taking away two or even three ducks.

It will generally be found, however, that if any of your ducks are without mates, wild birds will soon come and pair with them, and this is, of course, just what you want. I have adopted this principle for some time, and practically all the eggs collected are fertile. It will be found that at times—particularly whilst the ducks are sitting—the drakes are a great nuisance, but at this period one can always catch them and shut them up.

The next point to be considered is as to what food is best for breeding birds, and I say unhesitatingly maize. There is practically no waste, and you have not the mortification of seeing crowds of sparrows swoop down on your ducks' food as you turn away.

Better still, ducks lay capitally on maize, and you may calculate on obtaining an average of twenty-three to twenty-four eggs apiece from your ducks if fed carefully.

You will find that strange ducks when they first join your own will not eat maize, though they soon take to it when they see your own birds feeding.

It is easy to tell the advent of a stranger by this peculiarity, and by his generally alert and suspicious manner.

I am a strong believer in the infusion of fresh blood each year, and this is easily done by catching a few stranger drakes and pinioning them. These birds, if kept up until their wound is healed, and then enlarged in good time, will pair with your own birds and often become very tame. I did not find that pinioning strange ducks answered so well, as they were very prone to stray and lay their eggs at a distance, and their young were always shy and difficult to tame; moreover, the ducks never bred the first year after pinioning, whereas the drakes did. It is quite a simple matter to catch these wild birds; you have only to construct an ordinary wire-covered cage, somewhere near the water, and with the face nearest the water closed by a door; you then accustom your own birds to feed inside this cage, and you will soon find that in winter they will come for food as soon as it is light, or rather just as day is breaking, always provided that you feed them at that time.

You have been careful to leave the door of the cage open over night, and have put some maize inside the cage. A strong cord attached to the door is passed across the doorway and round a wooden "runner" on the opposite post, and then to the back of the cage, where your man lies concealed. Often during severe weather, which is always the best for this kind of work, your own birds will be followed by one or two strangers, who in the half light come inside the cage before realising their mistake. Once you get them inside the cage with their heads away from the entrance, pull the string and shut the door. Care should be taken that the string is fairly high up, so as not to catch the duck's eye. Having got your birds safely inside, catch them quietly and quickly, and having pinioned them, take them, if possible, to a cage with some part of it projecting out into the water. You, of course, feed them regularly, and are careful to give them some artificial cover to skulk in, as for some time the pain of the wound and the fright they have had makes them terribly shy. This cage, once constructed, is most useful for such work, and can be built at trifling cost, and the size I would recommend is about fifteen yards long by five yards wide, with a height of five or six feet. Your own birds soon get used to their part of the business, and, if you are quiet and quick, soon get over their nervousness.

The advantage of confining your captives for a short time is obvious. They get used to their surroundings and recognise the lake as their new home, and soon take to their diet of maize, so that when you liberate them they rarely give much trouble, and readily mate with your own birds.