Feed call?

[Iglow]

How many of y'all have actually heard first hand a duck make what is called a "feed call" made with a duck call when they were on the water?
We were talking about it the other day and nobody had. I've been duck hunting 41 years and been around wild ducks at night and on refuges besides in blinds I I haven't. There was probably 160 combined years of duck hunting experience in that blind and nobody could say they'd heard it. I've heard them chuckling in the air working decoys which sounds somewhat like what's called a feed call a lot but not once when they were on the water feeding, resting etc. Besides hens quacking I've heard what sounds like ticking and sometimes whining but never a rolling feed call.
I'm talking about mallards or black dux, I've heard pins/ teal / wigeons whistling/peeping on the water.

 

[Creek bottoms]

Feed calling is for contests.

 

[TAFKAP]

I've never heard ducks say "EAT EAT EAT EAT EAT EAT EAT" either, but those dudes up around Reelfoot can sure cup them up by doing it.

 

[Mud Creek]

Definitley not an expert, but I always assumed it wasn't so much about one duck making that sound but a group of them wadded up together sounds similar to it IMO. I'm not sure about the competition guys who do it really fast, but breaking that call up with short quacks in between sounds pretty realistic to me.

 

[RUGER]

I have heard it once. It was a mallard susie as she was flying over the blind.

 

[Bgoodman30]

Heard ducks make chatter on the water and that rapid fire feed only when flying. Feed calling is just noise to keep ducks engaged. It's really not necessary but I think it's good to have the ducks hearing something at all times to the water.

 

[TnKen]

I agree. The only time I hear it is when they are flying. I still use it in my call sequence when I just want them to hear something as they are working to me. I think it may seem strange to them they heard all the calling, see decoys, and then complete silence when they get close.

 

[Spurhunter]

I agree. The only time I hear it is when they are flying. I still use it in my call sequence when I just want them to hear something as they are working to me. I think it may seem strange to them they heard all the calling, see decoys, and then complete silence when they get close.

X2.

 

[Displaced_Vol]

 

[Displaced_Vol]

I forget where or who I heard describe it, but they said it seems that the chuckle or feed call is a way for them to communicate their space to the other ducks. I agree I hear it as often in the air as I do on the water. But I also don't let live ducks swim around in my decoys very long

 

[tickweed]

All the time. All a hen can do is cluck. Short single clucks, quacks, 5 or 6 note hail. She isnt doing machine gun style clucks. What you are hearing is multiple ducks cluckin. Single clucks. Guk, guk guk, guk. Simple short notes.

 

[deerhunter10]

On mossy oak game keepers instagram there's a videos of it there from a few hours ago.

 

[Iglow]

That sounds like the ticking and whining I was talking about.

 

[Levee Jumper]

The best use of a feed call is to let everyone know you've got ducks close. Especially the loud talkers on the other end of the blind.....

 

[Dodge Man]

I don't know what you are talking about but i have heard it hundreds of times. I have heard it a lot as ducks were flying over. I have watched ducks sitting and feeding making that sound. I have owned ducks a lot of my live and they all make that noise pretty regularly when you go to feed them. Most mallards i have owed, the hen will get excited and run around the pen making a chatter sound. I don't understand if you have hunted much and never heard ducks make that noise.

 

[Dodge Man]

It is not the stupid machine gun fast chatter that most people try to make. I is more of a broken up chatter. I think most people are doing it fast to make it sound like a flock if ducks with multiple hens chattering at once.

 

[Dodge Man]

The Feeding Chuckle | Ducks Unlimited

Trying different approaches can be the key to using this finishing call successfully

www.ducks.org

 

[Iglow]

I don't know what you are talking about but i have heard it hundreds of times. I have heard it a lot as ducks were flying over. I have watched ducks sitting and feeding making that sound. I have owned ducks a lot of my live and they all make that noise pretty regularly when you go to feed them. Most mallards i have owed, the hen will get excited and run around the pen making a chatter sound. I don't understand if you have hunted much and never heard ducks make that noise.

I've heard it but not as it's done with a call. I've heard it with dux overhead and I've heard ticking type sounds and whining on the water as I said earlier,

 

[Union Co. Boy]

I've never heard ducks say "EAT EAT EAT EAT EAT EAT EAT" either, but those dudes up around Reelfoot can sure cup them up by doing it.

Gonna tell a funny on myself from last weekend. I haven't hunted Reelfoot in years. Early the first morning I heard the guide start yelling "Eat, eat, eat, eat!" Heck, I had my gun up looking for the ducks! Saw none to shoot. After I did it the third time I told my buddy I'd love to shoot when he tells us to eat, but I can't seem to find the bird! He proceeded to tell me what they were doing. We had us a real good laugh! Never heard that before, but I did see it work several times over the weekend.

 

[TAFKAP]

I was with a group a few years ago that split up into two hunts. One on Reelfoot, the other in a field outside Dyersburg. Off the lake at 2:00, I had time to drop in on the Dyersburg guys. I walk up and the guide was out back of the blind doing some picking up, and some coonass was in the blind honking his calls at all the wrong time, and sounding like garbage when he did. Bart yelled at him "PUT THAT DAMN CALL AWAY!!" And he proceeded to work a group of 10 birds down, circle them three times, and finish them in the blind. He was standing out in the open, doing literally nothing but EATing at them.