Pond Boss Forums POND CONSTRUCTION Creating habitat Put Up a Wood Duck House UPDATE

Another neat thread here about wood ducks.

I was able to get mine mounted today. I'm going to try in the water this year. My water level is so far down that I have to take a guess at what the height will be from the box opening to the water level once pond goes back to full pool. I think the jump height for little ducks (hopefully they will come) at full pool will be around 5-6 feet still.

I have 'DUCK HUT' brand houses and really like them. But their mounting brackets are designed for thin wall electrical conduit of the galvanized metal type. They call for 2". By me, a 10 foot piece of this runs $35! I wanted to make two set ups. So instead I went with PVC. The problem is the 1.5" PVC is too small for the mounting bracket and the 2" is too big. For PVC the 2" must be the inside diameter and outside is a bit bigger. So I ended up getting longer bolts and the two halves of the brackets that grip the poles are not quite touching nicely but they are gripping tightly. A sheet metal screw from the bracket into the PVC pipe will keep them from falling down.

I hope the slippery surface of PVC will keep predators from climbing as well as the metal conduit pipe would have been.

I had some left over 2"x2" wolmanized garden stakes. I rounded over the corners so it would slide inside the 2" PVC. I took a 4' piece and pounded it about 2' into the ground with 2' sticking up. It ended up about 4" above the water level but soon that will be 2-3' under water. I then slid the PVC pipe over about 2' of wooden stake.

I had some metal pipe that I could have used for a stake but the 2" PVC with duck house on it would have rotated round and round on a metal post. I figured with the wooden stake it was a pretty tight fit and the direction the duck hut is facing should stay the same.

This way I can easily slide the pvc mounted hut off it if we get no takers this year and it won't end up being a visual distraction. The mounting stake should stay under the ice and we can reuse it next year. If we don't like it the stake will eventually rot or fill in with silt if I can't pull it back out.

It looks kind of stark white against the pond colors. Hopefully the woodies don't mind. I hope I have it in soon enough after ice out as I've read the wood ducks kind of pick their spring nests in the fall!

I tried to choose a spot about 10' out from shore and in the corner of the pond with least traffic from kids and pets and still see it from the house. I wanted the opening pointing east or NE to keep winds from hitting the front of the box as well. I used my 90 degree angle level that straps to a 4x4s that helps get both sides level at the same time on the wood stake. And even though I stopped to level multiple times, the post still ended up in a bit on an angle. Add the white pole and you really see it isn't straight. Not sure I can get it back out and do it over at this point.. Hopefully the ducks don't mind that their pole isn't laser straight.