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Thread: Hen Houses Overflowing with Mallards

  1. #1
    Join Date
    Jan 2003
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    SC
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    24,411

    Default Hen Houses Overflowing with Mallards

    https://deltawaterfowl.org/hen-house...with-mallards/



    Hen House Supersite Overflowing with Mallards





    By Paul Wait

    If you were a hen mallard looking for a nice rental place last spring near Colonsay, Saskatchewan, to lay your eggs, you might have found a duck’s version of a “No Vacancy” sign at Delta Waterfowl’s Hen House supersite there.

    When Travis Quirk, Delta’s Hen House delivery specialist, performed maintenance checks this winter at the 200-structure supersite, he found use rates of more than 100 percent in some areas.

    How can that be?

    Quirk reported that several Hen Houses were used twice, and others, even three times by nesting hens. Overall, the site’s usage rate checked in at 87 percent.

    “Considering this was only the second nesting season for this supersite, that usage rate is phenomenal,” said Matt Chouinard, senior waterfowl programs manager for Delta Waterfowl.

    Many of Delta’s Hen House sites boast use rates of 60 to 80 percent, but it often takes a few years to build up to a high occupancy rate. Delta places Hen Houses in areas where nest success is low because of limited nesting cover and high predation rates. In some intensely farmed areas of the prairie, nest success of ducks laying eggs in the grass is less than 5 percent. Hen Houses dramatically improve nest success, with studies showing 60 to 90 percent hatch rates.

    Clearly, the Colonsay area attracts a lot of nesting mallards.

    Several structures from the supersite established in 2015 were damaged by shifting ice. Quirk and Delta fixed or replaced those, and then installed 100 new Hen Houses to ensure the area will produce even more ducks for this year’s fall flight.

  2. #2
    Join Date
    Sep 2001
    Location
    Wateree, South Carolina
    Posts
    48,811

    Default

    The same we knew 15 years ago. That is the problem with Delta. They refuse to get out of the butt sniffing stage...

  3. #3
    Join Date
    Nov 2011
    Posts
    2,566

    Default

    When Travis Quirk, Delta’s Hen House delivery specialist, performed maintenance checks this winter at the 200-structure supersite, he found use rates of more than 100 percent in some areas.

    More than 100%...

  4. #4
    Join Date
    Sep 2001
    Location
    Wateree, South Carolina
    Posts
    48,811

    Default

    More than 100%...
    Yep. Just like summer duck boxes.

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