Home Forums Birds & Dogs Waterfowl Our wood duck houses are finally up!

My son and I just finished putting up our 5 wood duck houses this weekend. We cemented in 2" EMT conduit. We chose this to reduce or eliminate the potential for predators like mink and raccoons from climbing up and getting into the house.

We also made hinged sides to clean them out easy every winter to start fresh in spring. If you have ever seen inside an old wood duck house they are filled with moldy junk that makes them rather disgusting inside.

Nice work.

Great job. I assume that you put grooves below the hole on the inside of the box too similar to what is on the outside so that the young can climb out. You may still find that you need a predator guard below the box because snakes are amazing climbers even on metal surfaces like a metal post. Congrats to you any your son on a fine project.

Yes the interior is fixed for the ducklings to climb out.

I'm concerned about predators too, but mostly starlings nesting in them.

How does the photo get sideways all by itself? It was correct for the last two days?

Nice hobby, I remember raising 5 broods from 2 boxes in central Louisiana one year. Snakes down in that country would climb the conduit like it was nothing, if you have any snakes around I would agree with the previous poster from Pa.
You are putting wood shavings (not sawdust) in the box? We would fill to within a foot of the bottom of the hole...

Yes hardwood shavings inside.

We have snakes but they are not plentiful, and typically feed on rodents nod gophers. They are constrictors called bull snakes.

Our Woodies here wouldn't even come into that spot you have in the photo. No water, no trees, and no heavy brush around the edges. It is amazing how the same species adapts to different topography.

Nice looking boxes and glad to see your effort in putting them out.

JJHACK here is a small pond that gets a few Woodies, but isn't really holding what it could. So we put in 8 new boxes. The problem with this pond is just not enough timber or cover around the pond. But hopefully we'll get more to nest here this season.

What are the sizes of those boxes, and are they nailed, screwed, or other?

Screws on the few I built but I think my buddy may have used both nails and screws.

14" X 8" X 6" if I remember right. I will check to see, I have it down at the shop.

This is what it looks like when they use them.

A couple eggs that didn't hatch, and and hard wood chips.

We have woodies in our back yard.

Ours look worst then that. I put boxes up at another place that holds thousands of woodies. We tried to count one summer but there were so many. You lost count of which you counted and which you didn't. In the last 4 years we have put up over 150 boxes. Some to replace old broken ones and the rest to fill in areas.

Here is a Woodie from that place.

This is not really fair, but here is a wood duck, at "home".

I call him "Woody".

Jimy you in OK? If so my daughters live south of you close to the AR border near Ft. Smith.

That is a really nice mount.

Thank you, "Woody", resides in Wabigoon, Ontario.

I keep reminding the wife, the duck is foam, and feathers, don't let it get too close to the wood stove chimney.