Get Your Wood Duck Boxes Ready Now

By Mike Faulk

As another duck season comes to an end, it is a good time to start thinking ahead to the early wood duck season next fall. We are all aware of the national conservation efforts of Ducks Unlimited, Delta Waterfowl and other organizations. But, frankly, there is no substitute for taking care of our conservation duties here at home. Placing and maintaining wood duck boxes in the first two weeks after the end of duck season will serve dual purposes of practicing conservation locally and providing more birds for the early fall hunt.

Wood ducks begin breeding and nesting here in the Tennessee valley in mid-February. It is common for wood ducks to produce two broods per season. Incubation takes about thirty days. The chicks leave the nest in about twenty-four hours after hatching. They become independent in 56 to 70 days and sexually mature in a year.

In nature, nests are built in cavities of trees near water and are lined with wood chips and down. About ten eggs are normal. Often nests will have many, many more eggs because other females will lay their eggs in the same nest. Biologists call this egg-dumping. One method that helps alleviate egg-dumping is the addition of man-made wood duck boxes.

While recommendations vary, wood duck boxes should be no closer together than fifty feet and optimally should be about 600 feet apart.

Prefabricated wood duck boxes can be purchased on any number of internet sites.

I prefer the plastic boxes available through Ducks Unlimited. Their color seems to match the color of many of the trees that overhang the stretch of the Holston River I usually frequent.

Additionally, the oval shape of the Ducks Unlimited plastic box, in my opinion, more nearly mimics shapes found in nature. How often do we find right angles in any of nature’s creation? Finally, the bulb-like shape of the top of these plastic boxes where the entry hole is situated looks to me more like a natural cavity in a tree.

These boxes have cotter pins that hold the two hinged halves of the box together. Inside there’s a tray for the fodder. This design diminishes the height one must climb to maintain the box and otherwise allows for easier access inside the box.

Ducks Unlimited has a link to an excellent set of plans and specifications if you choose to build your own boxes. Cedar is an ideal building material because of its natural resistance to weather and insects.

Site selection is very important with proximity to water as the key. For hatchlings there is an inverse relationship between survivability and the distance to the water from the nest. Ideally, a hen would like her chicks to drop from the nest into the water.

A forested area near slow-moving or standing shallow water with the natural protection of a cove and the existence of cover are essential. Log falls and other woody debris adds a degree of safety sought by nesting hens. Shoreline vegetation and availability of invertebrates that provide protein for the hens and ducklings enhance the desirability of a site.

A balance between the needs of the ducks and your needs as a manager of this wood duck micro-habitat must be struck in box placement. Face the box toward water so it can be seen by the ducks while swimming and flying. A clear line of sight will allow a clear line of flight. Trim limbs if necessary.

Place the box high enough above ground to avoid spring high water levels and curiosity seekers. But don’t put the box where it is difficult or dangerous to access for future maintenance. Six to twelve feet off the ground seems to fit this standard.

Boxes should be mounted vertically and, if possible, pitched slightly forward. Tiny toenails on their webbed feet allow wood ducklings to climb out of the box. A rough interior box or a wire mesh “ladder” inside the box fastened and below the entrance hole will aid the hatchlings in “flying the coop” so to speak.

Ready-made boxes allow for this exit strategy in their design but sometimes manufacturers of these boxes give inadequate instruction on affixing the boxes to trees. Through trial and error, I’ve found a backing board useful. As trees grow, boxes nailed to trees tend to come loose or come apart. Attach a backing board to the tree and the box to the backing board with lag bolts eliminates this issue and allows for easy removal for maintenance or relocation.

Cavity nesting ducks, which also include goldeneyes, hooded mergansers, common mergansers, and buffleheads, do not carry nesting materials. Wood shavings bought from the local pet or farm store will help them out. Chicks can smother on sawdust. A four to six inch insulating layer of small-sized chips should be about right. Too small a layer and there is not enough insulation. With too much of a layer, the hen sits too high on the nest. She may become the next meal of a raccoon or mink.

Predation is the number one enemy to healthy duck populations. Studies show eighty-five to ninety per cent of wood ducklings do not survive. Besides raccoon and mink, other predators include black rat snakes, great horned owls, and red and grey foxes. An easy way to minimize predation is the attachment of a two to three feet wide piece of thin sheet metal wrapped around the trunk of the tree.

Care should also be taken in placement so the box cannot be accessed from overhanging limbs and branches. A little extra effort in trimming overhanging and nearby limbs used by predators to access the box will improve survivability considerably.

Annual maintenance of your wood duck boxes should include the pruning of branches that allow access to the box by predators and prohibit access to the box by flying ducks. Clean out the box each season and refresh the nesting material. Move boxes that have not been used in a couple of seasons or first try adding predator guards to unused boxes.


Install and maintain your wood duck boxes with a partner. Most boxes will be placed in a remote location. More than likely you will be on a ladder installing or maintaining the boxes. If you place your boxes near a stream, natural hazards are plentiful. Wear leather gloves.

I learned this last safety admonition the hard way. To reach my box in a two-forked tree, I had to hold on to one fork while reaching into the wood duck box that was mounted on the other fork to clean it out. Unable to see directly into the box, I grabbed a handful of debris that turned out to be a small barn owl. I’m not sure which of us was scared more. I do know I tumbled out of the tree and rolled into the water’s edge!

From the very beginning of my hunting days, dad taught me “good hunting begins with good conservation.” Helping Mother Nature with the wood duck population will accomplish the dual purpose of improving duck habitat and proving an adequate excess for hunting purposes. Maybe more importantly, installing and maintaining wood duck boxes provides a perfect opportunity in the field to involve your youngsters in the outdoor business of conservation. Sons and daughters are perfect assistant wood duck micro-habitat managers.