My son and I have talked about this for a couple of years, we finally made these houses for the pond. He enjoyed it and we had a couple of fun family weekends to get everything built and installed. Ice should be off the pond in a week and hopefully a couple of Wood Duck hens, like our layout.
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Woke up to the tell-tale wood duck calls this morning on my pond below my house here in the Twin Cities. You got em’ up just in time!
Checked the pond on Saturday, 4 drakes flew out of there and it appears that they are holding vigil and waiting for the hens to check out their nice new digs. New boxes have not had any activity yet, but I am sure that will come soon enough. One good thing is the metal sheeting at the bottom of the posts is working well. Lots of muddy paw prints trying to climb up to see whats in the hole.
Nice work. I’m with you, building wood duck houses is a fun family project. I built one this winter with my youngest son, he loves to use the nail gun and the drill so for him it’s the best project ever.
What did you use for those metal predator guards? I ended up buying galvanized sheet metal in a roll, luckily I needed some anyway for a HVAC repair, but it’s hard to find a cheap option for this.
Grouse
Grouse, I used some metal coil stock that I picked up at Menards. Galvanized will work great too, just thought the brown would be a little less shinny.
Checked again over the weekend and no action yet (as far as nesting) Now, I am sure it will take some time for birds to locate and like their findings, but is there anything I am not doing or should have done to entice the hens in??? Is there something that the birds might not like about our pond?? Am I just being too impatient…. 
Maybe just not quite enough daylight hours for the ducks to start nesting yet. I just want the kids work to pay off.
I have not put any sawdust or mulch in the bottoms, I have heard and saw some pictures of people doing that, but it was optional but not required.
You definetly want to put bedding in the box
Yes, I would definitely put cedar shaving in the boxes. I replace mine every year in all my boxes. Just gives them a head start. Some times they don’t even add their own material. I put 4-6″ of the cedar shaving in each box.
Our Marsh Madness Chapter of Delta Waterfowl is volunteering at the St Michael/Albertville middle school this Friday for their activity day. We have around 30 5th graders signed up to build their own Wood Duck house to take home and put up. It’s a pretty fun day off.
Wood chips/cedar mulch will be in this weekend. Is it too late for the nesting period or are they still staging?
I think you will be fine adding it this weekend. I have seen a few in the boxes, but more are showing up at the pond each day. The new arrivals will need a nesting spot.
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