Wild plants that mallards and geese love

[Fella]

Hey guys, waterfowl season is just about over, and I'm beginning to plan for next year. The field I hunt in primarily is very marshy with an average of 4 inches of standing water and full of long thick grass and a couple different ponds. What I'm thinking of doing is planting a variety of wild plants that ducks LOVE in order to attract more ducks and maybe even geese. Anyone have any suggestions?

[f350ps]

I would plant some type of millet, ducks love that stuff! Once seeded it will grow year after year. K

[pnbrock]

Corn!!They will come.

[f350ps]

Corns great too but Millet re-seeds year after year, google it, it's bird seed. Can't get no better than that! K

[lorneparker1]

^^^ agreed. Millet or wild rice. pretty hard to plant corn in a swamp as well.

Lorne

[Fella]

Thats what I was thinking Lorne. Wild rice sounds like it would make for some dang tasty meat too!

[f350ps]

Thats what I was thinking Lorne. Wild rice sounds like it would make for some dang tasty meat too!

Wild rice can be a bitch to grow as it does not do well in an area that dries out during the summer months and it's a poor pollinator, trust me, Millet is your answer! I've been playing around with a patch at of land at work for the last few years and the Millet is like a magnet and it just keeps on giving! K

[Fella]

thanks for the tip f350! My buddy and I have a lot of plans for the off season to make the field more productive next year.

[Kudu]

Where can one get millet seed?

[f350ps]

Where can one get millet seed?
I got mine from a local farmer, I'm not sure where he purchased it but I can find out. I'm sure it's also available at Buckerfields in Abby. K

[shotgunjohn]

Ducks that have been eating wild millet have very white fat and are better tasting IMO than ones eating corn. We had a side by side taste test one year as
we didn't get all the corn planted due to a wet spring. The unseeded field grew up in millet and the ducks using that field had white fat where the ones across the road had yellow fat.
They seem to like the millet just as much as the corn and other critters won't bother it as much.

[edgy]

do ducks eat popcorn, cause I own a kettle corn company, and take 5-10 garbage bags of unpopped kernels and broken popcorn to the dump every week, maybe I should be using it in the field,lol, anyone want to try it, let me know :)

[f350ps]

Just to be clear on one thing, baiting is a no-no for migratory birds. The place I'm experimenting with is an area we don't hunt, it's also full of nesting boxes. K

[edgy]

Just to be clear on one thing, baiting is a no-no for migratory birds. The place I'm experimenting with is an area we don't hunt, it's also full of nesting boxes. K
Good to know, that was a question i had written down to ask when i take my CORE, I can scratch that one off the list :)

[heyblast]

Just looked up Millet. It is primarily a cultivated crop in India, Korea, China and Africa. Grown in North America for bird seed. It is not a common plant in the wild. If your wanting to plant this to attract waterfowl then your baiting.

[lorneparker1]

Just to be clear on one thing, baiting is a no-no for migratory birds. The place I'm experimenting with is an area we don't hunt, it's also full of nesting boxes. K

True, but planting millet ( not harvesting it ) isnt baiting IMO

Lorne

[Johnny G1]

I don't think there would be a law about dumpin your old corn out in the field, who says your baiting, just planting some corn???

[heyblast]

Only two reasons to plant millet or any grain crop, for harvest or baiting, baiting a serious no no in the world of waterfowling. As for just dumping some corn in a field, better have a damn good excuse how that corn got there, one year suspension upon conviction,gun,decoys and even vehicle confiscated, was it worth it?

[lorneparker1]

There are LOTS of hunters and clubs that plant crops and dont harvest them for the sole reason of attracting waterfowl around the globe. Think flooded unhravested corn fields. It is my understanding as long as the crop is not manipualted in anyway. knocked down, harvested then left on the ground, stepped on etc. you are gtg. As far as planting and shooting over it, i think you are a ok. I know that's the rule in the US, but i cant find anything online to support that for canada( or discredit either) When in doubt ask a CO as i am just going by what ive heard from others and seen. I have zero experience myself, but it would be pretty hard for me to by why you cant hunt over millet unharvested, when laying in any harvested field where stuff is left in the field is ok. Frick in Alberta we set up in barely swaths 4 feet high! We had a field this year that we hunted that was 50 acres of unharvested barley planted as a late cover crop. As you can imagine it was FULL of ducks. Is that baiting?

Lorne

[Foxton Gundogs]

I don't think there would be a law about dumpin your old corn out in the field, who says your baiting, just planting some corn???

:confused:The law would be my forst choice:mrgreen:

[Panic]

http://www.habitatnow.com/store/shop/shop.php?pn_selected_category=19

[lorneparker1]

http://www.habitatnow.com/store/shop/shop.php?pn_selected_category=19

That is virginia,

Here is something alot more defined. But yes stil states that if this fella (no pun intended) wanted to plant millet and not harvest and hunt over it, it would be ok within THIS law. This is no canadian law, andi cant find anything on it...

http://www.fws.gov/le/waterfowl-hunting-and-baiting.html

[Panic]

do ducks eat popcorn, cause I own a kettle corn company, and take 5-10 garbage bags of unpopped kernels and broken popcorn to the dump every week, maybe I should be using it in the field,lol, anyone want to try it, let me know :)

Buy yourself a couple of young goats or piglets...they'll fatten up right quick on that waste corn :)

[Panic]

That is virginia,

Here is something alot more defined. But yes stil states that if this fella (no pun intended) wanted to plant millet and not harvest and hunt over it, it would be ok within THIS law. This is no canadian law, andi cant find anything on it...

http://www.fws.gov/le/waterfowl-hunting-and-baiting.html
OP asked what foods Ducks like to eat in the wild...I just gave him a list on that page...Doesn't matter where the store is, he can source it local once he knows what he wants! :)

[f350ps]

There's a big difference in sowing a crop for harvest and sowing a crop to hunt ducks over. If a farmer leaves a crop for whatever reason he wouldn't have a problem explaining himself to a CO, us on the other hand would have some splainin to do and good luck with that. K

[Fella]

Hmm you're right f350, I didn't think of the whole baiting thing. I'll have to do some research to make sure this is legal before I go ahead and plant anything.