I want to have more shallow water structure for young BG to survive longer before getting eaten by LMB. After looking at some of the ideas I had an idea to make one reasonably affordable and functional. I'll be interested in your "verdicts" on the functional part.
I started with a 1' square concrete form using 1x4s and plywood from around the house (NOTE to self-Use Screws, NOT nails as you will need to disassembly form to get concrete out!):
Then cut a piece of mdf a little bigger than the form and drilled about 30-40 holes in it. I put 4 8" legs on it to keep it about the concrete form:
Then cut 50' of 1/2" irrigation tubing into about 30 20" sections:
I mixed about 1/3 of a 40# bag of concrete and put that in the form. Then put the "holey" mdf above it, then insert the 30 pieces of pipe into the concret through the mdf:
After about 4 days of curing I pulled the MDF over the tubing which was not as easy as I thought. One piece of irrigation tubing is very flexible but trying to straigten 30 simultaneously is a different story. A little back and forth action on the mdf piece worked well.
I tried to take the concrete out of the form which also turned out to be difficult because I used nails in the form instead of screws. I broke off a piece of the concrete because I was too rough trying to get it out of the form. I've already changed the form to use screws:
I sank him in about 3' of water near one of the feeders which (hopefully) will draw the little-uns.
In hindsight, the things I will change:
1) Use screws, not nails in the form
2) Only use about 20-25 pieces of piping; I think 30 is cluttering over-kill and makes pulling the mdf off the form difficult
I estimate that each "bush" costs about $5.00; $2 for the concrete and $3 for the tubing.
Are these "bushes" significant to make a difference without adding 100 of them?
