Frozen ducks for training?

[Leddyman]

Who uses frozen ducks? Do you thaw them? and how many do you keep for training? How often do you work them in?

Do you use them like bumpers? (O.K. after I typed that I realized how stupid it was) Of course you use them like bumpers Idiot! What else would you use them like?
No...I wipe my butt with them!

I'm trying to find a reasonable supplier of live ducks in Georgia if anybody knows anybody.

[Angie B]

We use frozen ducks everyday. Some days they're thawed, some days not so thawed, depending on if we remember to pull them out of the freezer in time. Frozen ducks last way longer.

Angie

[DEDEYE]

Whistling Wings in Illinois is who some of us in Alaska use. 815-591-3512

I can order 12 and make them last all winter by freezing them. Angie is definitely right! Some days they are more thawed than others, and some days they become even more stiff...

[Illinois Bob]

Whistling Wings in Illinois is who some of us in Alaska use. 815-591-3512

I can order 12 and make them last all winter by freezing them. Angie is definitely right! Some days they are more thawed than others, and some days they become even more stiff...

They ship all the way to Alaska?

[HiRollerlabs]

Use ducks on marks.

Use bumpers on blinds. A dog may get birds on blinds too, if more enthusiam is desired.

We have a big chest freezer (for birds only) and after field trials and hunt tests, workers get to take home extra ducks. We store up a bunch at the end of the season, and use them the following summer. We also shoot flyers during the week.

So, get a freezer, join a club, work an event and be sure to get some ducks before all the good ones are gone.

[DRAKEHAVEN]

Once a live flyer is no longer alive in goes to the freezer. Is thawed for use to varying degrees. It is then refroze and dried with fans until my bird boys refuse to touch them.
9 of 10 birds, be that marks or blinds in my program are a bird. Pigeons are used and reused also. They do not last as long as a duck but I raise about 200 a year so they are cheaper.
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Rambler Six history

[2tall]

I get birds left over from club trials and hunt tests. I stick them in the freezer and try to remember to thaw one or two out a week. Kind of yucky when you have used the same ducks about 5 times, but it is a way to get birds for my dog! BTW, I try not to use them really frozen, because it seems to make my dogs mouth problems worse.

[Teri]

I do not use thawed birds nearly as much as many people. I use them far more in the winter than the summer as they do not last long in the Texas summer and fire ants are a huge problem. A lot of it depends on where I am training, if I am slipping into a park or a field in a populated area, I do not use birds. I am taking enough risk with dogs off leash and using a winger, do not wish to create a myriad of issues with GQP seeing dead birds.

If I am going to do a longer day of training on a friend's ranch, then I always thaw birds. In the winter I often will set my bumper boys and shoot the bumpers to a pile of birds so dogs still pick up birds but I do not have to go reset a winger or if a youngster needs help, I can shoot another bumper.

The other issue is the needs of my dogs. I am lucky as my dogs have great attitudes for birds or for bumpers. I want the youngsters to have enough bird exposure ( assuming decent mouths) I will thaw birds for local training if the pups need more momentum; need work on staying in the area for the hunt or some other specific situation. If I had a dog who was 'more opinionated' with birds, then I would use them as much as possible. It is the proverbial 'It depends" (LVL).

What I do need more of, is fliers. All the dead birds in the world wont give teach the dog about fliers.

I have a large chest freezer full of birds that I obtain after tests/trials. I use pigeons quite a bit as I raise them and I do not thaw them at all for the dogs/pups. Ducks I do thaw--if I have young or inexperienced dogs, I thaw fully...with big dogs, I thaw enough so they are not duckcicles but can still be rather icy in the middle.

Teri

[DEDEYE]

They ship all the way to Alaska?

Yep. It's the shipping that gets us. If I get a big enough group order together we can git it by air freight, other than that, we get them 2nd day air.. PS. I thaw them out overnight and then back into the freezer they go.

[Warren Flynt]

not trying to hijack the thread, but out of curiosity- are there small freezers a guy like me can buy that arent as huge as a deep freeze... the wife doesnt like having one frozen duck in the kitchen freezer, much less a dozen.