Sumter outdoors columnist Dan Geddings: Hoodies, woodies and teal

The chest-type incubator was as big as a refrigerator, and I had it full of mallard and wood duck eggs. It was early in the season, and the other ducks were just beginning to lay. I had red heads, pintails, blue winged teal, black-bellied whistling ducks and more in my duck pen, or aviary.

Wood ducks will start laying a clutch of eggs in late February, and mallards will start in early March. The others will start laying in late March or early April. Some, like the redheads, will wait until May. I usually waited on the hens to start incubating, then removed the eggs after a week or 10 days, placing them in the electric incubator. The hens will usually renest and lay another clutch of eggs.

The incubator was in my living room, which provided a constant temperature and made the incubator's work most efficient. I had an excellent hatch. The mallard eggs hatch in 26 to 28 days, and the woodie eggs take 30 to 32 days. I got mallards hatched first and had a batch in the brooder when the little wood ducks started hatching.

The mallards are easy to raise and start eating readily. The woodies are another story. They are the wildest things you can imagine. They will not survive on their own in a brooder. The trick is to introduce them at a day old to the mallard ducklings already in the brooder. There is a slight size difference, but it really doesn't matter. The mallards are already eating and drinking, and the little wood ducks will notice the food and water. They may peep loudly but will soon settle down. The mallards will outgrow the woodie ducklings and can be removed to another brooder. Additional woodies can be introduced to the older bunch if there's not too much size difference. I raised several hundred wood ducks from that incubator in my living room. It's my opinion that woodies are the most difficult to raise.

I've raised hundreds, probably thousands, of mallards. Most were banded and released. I've also raised black ducks, pintails, widgeon, gadwall, whistling ducks, red heads, hooded mergansers and teal. Most of these were also released. I've sold a few and used some to trade for other species. I've raised exotic species like mandarins, rosybills, ringed teal and others. I've raised Canada geese. I've had other ducks and geese that never bred for me, like canvasbacks, mottle ducks, Bahama pintails, Indian spot bills, Philippine ducks, falcated ducks, cinnamon teal and graylag geese. I've also raised other game birds such as pheasants, quail, peacocks, pigeons and doves.

I bought ducks from breeders in the Midwest that shipped them here by air freight, and I got mallards from a breeder in Minnesota that shipped them through the post office.

My good friends Hans and Gordon Swygert had bigger collections of waterfowl than I did and had great success raising a huge variety of ducks and geese. I made friends all over the state with other people that kept waterfowl and got to know Mike and Ali Lubbock at Sylvan Heights Waterfowl in Scotland Neck, North Carolina.

I got my first pair of ducks for my birthday when I turned 10 years old. They were mallards. I've had some waterfowl ever since - until recently. I sold some of the last batch of ducks that I had and released the others on my ponds in Clarendon County. I've had a federal permit since I was 18 years old. No permit is required to possess them in captivity, but the federal permit is required to sell or transfer ownership of them.

There is an empty aviary in my back yard now with a series of concrete ponds that will spill over into the next pond. An underwater pump was used to circulate the water back to a small waterfall in the first pond. We are building a new house farther out in the country, and I will build a new aviary there. I hope to stock it with some more hoodies, woodies and teal.

Reach Dan Geddings at cdgeddings@gmail.com.