Mallard Duck Nesting Tubes Revised

Our mallard duck nesting tube project has been one of our most viewed projects on the blog over the past year.  As this was a project Bill and Mitch designed in house there were some aspects that we did not account for and so in order to prepare the nesting tubes for the upcoming nesting season we made some minor changes and improvements.

 

 The biggest issue that we noticed with the construction of the nesting tubes was that the large 2" x 3" openings in the coated garden fencing allowed the pine straw to become dislodged during heavy rain storms.  In order to compensate for this problem we decided to bring the nesting tubes in, disassemble them, and add a layer of chicken coop wire around the outside of the inner tube.

 New pine straw was spread over the remaining nesting tube fencing.

The nesting tube was rolled back up and secured with new hog rings.

Here's Mitch with the "new and improved" mallard duck nesting tube.  They also added a small platform on the front of the nesting tube for the ducks to land on or use as a diving board when it comes time to go swimming.  Even mallard ducks need a little fun, once in a while.

Mitch and Willie decided that today, even though it was only in the upper 20s, would be a great day to reinstall the nesting tubes in the irrigation lake.

The forethought of using the U channel road signs came in very handy as it made reinstalling the nesting tubes rather easy, although rather cold.  The tubes were refilled with broomsedge and straw from the surrounding area and the nesting tubes were positioned so the platform would be facing out to the water.

The nesting tubes have all been renovated and reinstalled in the irrigation lake.  We are hopeful for a successful nesting season with many little mallard ducklings to follow.


Thanks to Mitch, Bill, and Willie for all their hard work and dedication.