Trigger wrote:Hen houses are a great project for 10 year old boyscouts. Not a legitimate replacement for breeding habitat. We would need millions of them to make any significant impact, but I guarantee we don't have the people who have the desire to do the upkeep on them.
A 100,00 would have an impact... just saying.
As for the people not doing the maintenance - spot on. I loathe the leaders of the Boy Scouts as they put them up on trees and never maintain the Woodie boxes. Notice I said the leadesr--not the kids. The ADULTS are to blame with no follow through--so what ARE they really teaching the kids?
tornadochaser wrote:your one nest per 40 acres seems low in regards to nesting density, as that might be an appropriate density for mallards, but different species nest at different times, and a hen mallard won't get very territorial with teal, pintail, etc.
Well if you had paid attention and actually read what I wrote, I said it was for Mallards (remember the topic was mallards, eh?) and I also mentioned the benefits for other ducks and wildlife too on having habitat.
Nershi wrote:What are the use rates for hen houses? I've seen hawks and various song birds use them but never a duck.
The use rates on my wood duck houses is pretty high. I've never crunched the numbers but I would bet it is close to 50%. I'm curious how hen houses compare.
Well if had read what I wrote on the 1st page, I covered the usage rates for ND, W MN and west metro.
Funny that I've rarely had a song bird nest in a MHN. I never had a hawk or raptor nest in one of my MHN. Just saying...
50% is actually medium average for usage on WDB from my experience - but it really depends on the surrounding habitat or the lack there of, placement, etc... I have a 70% use rate which is medium, anything over 80% is considered high usage.
And usage is also about are you where they are? Meaning there is a 115% usage of MHN in ND due to back to back nesting by Mallards as there is a high density of Mallards there. W MN is closer to 80% for MHN. Where as here in the W metro, we just do not have the Mallard population numbers, thus a lower usage of 65-70%. This principle can be used for Woodies too. I've heard repeatedly that in the Northern pine tree country of low usage of WDB by Woodies. Where as in the central MN area in the hardwoods, I hear 80+% which is one of their main breeding areas in the US. So if the Woodies or Mallards are not present, it does not matter how many boxes or nests you put out as many are just not going to get used if they are not there. In comparison to a friend of mine that runs over 150 WDB in the west metro, I have a higher % of use because he has a higher density of boxes. I have a lower density of boxes per acre which translates into a higher use.
So there are variables in all this when it comes to usage.
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God, help me be the man that my dog thinks that I am.