Pond Boss Forums GENERAL QUESTIONS Help Waterfowl question

For my birthday, my wife gave me 4 mandarin for our lake. For hir birthday, she got two black swans. needless to say, we love spending time at the lake watching these beautiful creatures. I built a feeder box for the swans very similar to the one shown here . The swans have gotten used to the feeder, because I see them eating from it all the time & each morning it is empty.

Today I discovered that the little mandarins are hopping into the box and also eating the feed. That is perfectly OK with me, except for one (potential) problem. I am worried that the mandarin may be defecating in the feed. I have never seen any scat, but the tray is usually empty in the morning, so I am not 100% sure.

I was thinking of various ways to adapt the feeder, but don't want to do anything unless there is actually a problem.

Any fowl experts, please chime in.

(BTW, there are several nest boxes for the mandarin - they are using those fine.)

I haven't raised those exact types of waterfowl but I've raised others and one thing I can tell you as that waterfowl are bulletproof in terms of tolerance for dirty water and food. I wouldn't worry about it at all. It is well known that waterfowl very rarely get sick from dirty conditions. I sure wouldn't worry about it unless someone else tells you that the swans are not like other waterfowl and are particularly vulnerable. If you are really worried about it find a way to put slats over your feeder so that the birds can only reach their heads into the feeder and not their whole bodies. That's what we do with chickens since they are somewhat sensitive.

Here's what I know about the mandarin. You will need to pinion one wing on the ducklings to keep them from flying off when mature. Also don't mix them with wood ducks unless you pair them up first. There is a chromosome difference between the two species and even though they will pair up and mate for life the eggs will be sterile and not hatch.

Thanks everyone. The ONLY things I have read about the swans and feeding is that moldy feed will kill them. Well they eat so much that the feed never gets a chance to get moldy.

As far as pinioning the mandarin, I was thinking of just keeping them wed fed enough so that they would keep coming back each year. I was concerned that if I pinion them, they wouldn't be able to fly into the nesting boxes. The two pair stay together always, so I feel that we will have good breeding success when they are old enough - when would that be BTW ?

The swans came pinioned (I wouldn't want THAT investment flying away), but it turns out that the black species of swan isn't migratory, and stays put for its lifetime.

Even pinioned the manderin can still get off the ground high enough to get in a nest box, but can't get leveled out for full flight.