Building Duck Nesting Boxes

Posted On April 8, 2025

A Rewarding Investment

I built my first set of duck nesting boxes over a decade ago, shortly after digging my three main ponds. Which was a story unto itself that nearly ended right there and then, with me buried underneath the cab of a tipped over still running track hoe.

I learned several important lessons from that experience. The first being that track hoes have seatbelts for a reason. The second being that I had no business running one. The third lesson being that it sometimes pays to have friends. Long story short, when those ads pop up on TV saying “Rent a Bobcat! It’s easy! Anybody can do it!” Don’t believe them. Sometimes it’s better to know a guy than try and be the guy. That’s all there is to it.

But I digress. Ever since I was a boy, I’ve been fascinated with ducks. Two of my favorite duck species are wood ducks and hooded mergansers (not to be confused with either common or red breasted mergansers, their larger cousins).

I call them “woodies” & “hoodies”.

I think their plumage is gorgeous. The hen woodie has a spooky, sad clown sort of painted eye look about her, while the hoodie hen always seems to look like she’s having a really bad hair day.

Below: (Top)”Woodies”, (Bottom) “Hoodies”

Both drakes are strikingly spectacular.

(Below: Top- Woodie Drake, Bottom- Hoodie Drake)

According to Ducks Unlimited & The Canadian Wildlife Service’s

“The Nest Box Guide for Waterfowlers”

Wood ducks and hooded mergansers (along with several other duck species), are both cavity nesters, building their nests:

“In abandoned woodpecker holes or natural tree cavities caused by disease, fire or lightning. These ducks will also use a constructed nesting box.”

It’s the last sentence of that statement which actually inspired me to begin outfitting my ponds with a network of duck nesting boxes.

I’ve constructed all of my duck boxes using the DU/CWS blueprints and instructions, which are depicted below and also readily available online.

I built my duck boxes a few at a time, using left over plywood from other building projects. Whether building duck boxes from cedar, as they recommend, or plywood, the dimensions are important, especially the size of the entry hole. It’s also important to remember to put drain holes in the bottom so the nesting material stays dry, and any accumulating water quickly drains out.

However, as I constructed my boxes, I deviated from the instructions in two noteworthy ways:

First, instead of a cleanout door, which I found a bit too complex, I hinge the roof, which seems far simpler to me and accomplishes the same thing; giving me access to add pine shavings, clean & maintain each box.

Second, once fully constructed, duck nest boxes are surprisingly heavy. So, as opposed to mounting them on a pole, which, considering their weight and the high winds and heavy winter snow in our area, seemed a daunting engineering task to accomplish in a manner that would ensure they did not lean precariously or fall over, I back each of mine with my own specially designed pressure treated 6ft. 2×4 mounts.

As can be seen in the above photo, I add a second 2×4 section below the box on the front of the 6ft back mount. The nesting box actually sits on this one for added support. I also affix a 2×4 cross beam to the mounting post a foot below the top. This allows the box itself to lean slightly forward once tree mounted, facilitating the exit of chicks once they hatch.

Once fully constructed and mounted, I spray-paint my duck boxes (on the exterior only) in a camouflage pattern. I think it adds to each box’s longevity. Plus, I think it gives them a more finished, professional look. I just like that aesthetic.

As I stated earlier, once completely constructed, duck nesting boxes are heavy! Finding the right tree to mount them to, a shoreline tree strong enough to support their weight through wind & weather, is a critical component. It sometimes can be tough. One of the techniques I have used if I don’t have an appropriate tree overhanging the water on my selected pond, is to find a nearby tree and manually sculpt out a cove.

I mount each box to its selected tree, overhanging the water and leaned slightly forward, using heavy exterior screws or nails through the post itself above and below the box, reinforced with two wraps of heavy-duty plastic (I used to use metal, but that rusts) pipe strapping screwed or nailed into the tree. One thing of note I’ve learned over the years doing that: don’t fasten the pipe strapping around the whole tree, otherwise, as the tree grows and expands, it will snap it.

Because they ARE so heavy, I have also found it far easier to successfully to have an assistant when mounting a new duck nesting box. Plus, involving family members makes the whole endeavor more rewarding and fun.

Once a duck nest box is constructed and mounted, it has to be properly outfitted. Wood ducks and hooded mergansers don’t bring their own nesting materials to the box, so I fill mine with pine shavings up to an inch or two below the bottom of the entry hole.

IMPORTANT NOTE: Use pine SHAVINGS, not sawdust, as sawdust will get in the ducklings’ lungs and suffocate them. I buy my pine shavings at our local TRACTOR SUPPLY store, but I’m sure any farm/feed store sells them.

Don’t be upset if your newly mounted duck boxes don’t get used the first year. Woodies & hoodies scout out & imprint spring nest boxes during the fall. So, it might be a season or (two or three) before a newly mounted box gets used. These ducks are also very spooky, solitary & skittish. I’ve mounted multiple boxes around each of my pond nesting sites to give birds seeking nesting sites a variety of options in terms of sun/wind direction. While I have my boxes mounted on my ponds in clusters of three, I realistically only have hopes that one of them on each pond will get used at most, each season.

During nesting season, I never know how many nesting pairs my duck boxes actually have. They are quick, once their chicks have hatched and exited the box, to sneak them through the woods to bigger water to raise them. I rarely if ever actually see the chicks, though once I ran into a hen with her brood sneaking down along one of my trails. That’s how I know for certain they do that.

The only way I can inventory each year’s level of success is after the nesting season is over, when I can inventory my boxes and count the number with empty eggshells. Usually, of my eleven boxes it’s two or three that get used. I have on occasion found evidence of boxes that got disrupted by predators, most likely culprit: raccoons.

I’ve tried using aluminum flashing predator guards but have determined that if a raccoon spots an active duck nest in one of my boxes on a pondside tree, it’s going to find a way to get at those eggs, no matter what I do. It’s disheartening when it happens, but one of Mother Nature’s harsh truths. There are detailed instructions on how to construct and install predator guards in the instructions above.

I have also had customers other than hoodies or woodies take up residency in my boxes, which I don’t mind, as I clean out and freshen up the wood shavings in each of my boxes early each spring, generally sometime in March. Red squirrels will frequently winter over in them, and a variety of birds, most notably blue jays, will nest in them come summer.

Probably the most noteworthy tenants I had occupy one of my duck boxes one summer was a honeybee colony. I noticed a high volume of bee activity going in and out of one of my boxes and when I got too near it, it hummed. I called a local beekeeper, who after advising me that a honeybee colony wouldn’t survive the winter in one of those boxes due to insufficient insulation, agreed to come over and harvest it. He came with all his gear. I donned my own ersatz beekeeper’s suit consisting of my CARHARDT snowblowing suit & a mosquito head net.

The beekeeper smoked the hive, taped over the hole, then slowly put a garbage bag over the whole thing as I took it down off the tree. He later returned the empty box, telling me he had successfully harvested and integrated the whole hive into his own, including the queen. I found that whole experience very interesting and considered it a successful box occupancy. Though I never did get any honey.

In conclusion, I have found adding a series of duck nesting boxes into my pond network to be a very worthwhile endeavor. Integrating that effort with my spring feeding program and my trail cameras is a has proven to be very rewarding.

Building duck nesting boxes is an investment of time, energy and labor the fruits of which the whole family can share and enjoy.

For me, it’s a labor of love.

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Until Our Trails Cross Again:

ADKO