Mallard Nesting Tube

Here is how we built a mallard nesting tube last season. My the father, who we refer to as the  the duck whisperer was up to his shenanigans one afternoon. He was spending more and more time at the pond trying to get the ducks that come to our pond to take some bread out of his hand.

Our family as a whole enjoys having the ducks around, so I figured I would try and see if I can get them to stay and hatch some ducklings.

So I went and grabbed some supplies

I proceeded to mix up a bag of cement.

I had a extra five gallon bucket so I filled this full of cement to act as my base, it would be water proof and sturdy.

I took a scrap piece of 3/4 osb and drilled out some holes and inserted the anchor bolts I had bought.

I flipped it over, inserting the bolts into the cement and worked the board back and forth for it to grab the cement, once the cement sets up it will be secure.

I took some  left over chicken wire I had and laid it out on the ground.

I rolled over the edge creating a 12 inch tube and spread straw on the rest of the wire.

I then proceeded to  roll it up all the way, I folded the loose ends back into the roll to keep it from unrolling.

I set the tube onto the board, straw side up and stapled the tube onto the board, and used the twine to tie it on each end.

I used some extra straw and built a bed in the tube, I stuffed one end, and filled any gaps on top.

Time to test it out in the pond.

I have seen statistics of a 50/50 chance of these working in the wild and 100 percent chance in a farm pond of a mallard couple using it, so now it was time to wait.