Duck/Beaver Swamp - Millet Seed

Smitty010203

Twelve Pointer
Planning on helping a buddy work on his swamp this weekend up in the Norther Eastern part of the state. We were planning on busting the dam, installing a leveler, and planting some seed. From what I can gather atleast, its a good time to plant the seed. I have also gathered that Japanese Millet you cant really go wrong with. Since its such short notice, do any of you guys know where I could get some Millet of any type between Raleigh and 95?

Any other advice for doing prep work on a beaver swamp for ducks would be great. I havent personally seen the swamp but he deer hunts over it and usually sees ducks in it during the season, its just apparently really overgrown right. Gonna cut some trees and kill some grass this weekend as well.
 

Wildlifer

Old Mossy Horns
I don't know the condition of the swamp and what is already growing in it but if it already has a lot of grass in it drawing it down will really make it take off. It can be difficult to get anything else to grow since the native seed bank chokes it out. Personally I would evaluate what is there and draw it down to see what takes off then flood it back. All the natives will go to seed and provide ample food and save you the planting.
Do you know what the water control plan is? Clemson riser, 3 log drain? and what kind of access you're going to get?
 

shurshot

Ten Pointer
Make sure your "leveler" is built to withstand beaver rebuilding efforts. The "Clemson" leveler works extremely well against these beaver onslaughts.

As for planting, if it's as overgrown as you say, you'll want to make sure you have most all of that removed/burned/etc. in order to get to bare soil or mud, whatever the case might be. If you can actually drag and plant it as recommended above, that would be great. If not, then broadcasting it on the shiny mud flat will work fine too. But I'd want to know what type of "overgrown" stuff is in their first before killing it. If it's woody vegetation, get rid of it. But if it's stuff like smartweed or wild millets, you might not want kill it at all. But one fact remains. If you can control the water level and drain at will, you can manage it for moist-soil or planted production any way you all see fit.
 
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aron945

Guest
Planning on helping a buddy work on his swamp this weekend up in the Norther Eastern part of the state. We were planning on busting the dam, installing a leveler, and planting some seed. From what I can gather atleast, its a good time to plant the seed. I have also gathered that Japanese Millet you cant really go wrong with. Since its such short notice, do any of you guys know where I could get some Millet of any type between Raleigh and 95?

Any other advice for doing prep work on a beaver swamp for ducks would be great. I havent personally seen the swamp but he deer hunts over it and usually sees ducks in it during the season, its just apparently really overgrown right. Gonna cut some trees and kill some grass this weekend as well.


I'll be there as well helping Benjammin.
 

Smitty010203

Twelve Pointer
I'll be there as well helping Benjammin.

haha aron945 welcome to the forum and yep you got the right guy. Look forward to meeting you. Do me a favor... have Ben's technologically illiterate @$$ read the advice and questions these guys are posing when/if you see him this evening. This forum is a great resource of knowledge when used correctly and this is his deal so hopefully he takes advantage of it.

As for everyone else, thanks for the advice thus far. I wish I had more details but unfortunately I don't just yet. I will know more on Saturday and be sure to take note of exactly what is growing there now. The swamp is about 2 hours away from me and I believe the same for my friend(s) so trips will be minimal and I wanted to go ahead and get out front with yall's advice before making the (my) first journey up there (not my swamp, just helping out a good friend). As for the leveler the plan was to use something like a Clemson leveler.
 

darkthirty

Old Mossy Horns
Just personally speaking but a lot of those native moist soil grasses will draw birds just as good as millet. Millet is good but the seed itself also has one of the fastest rot times of anything you could plant. But even after its rotted, you still get the invertebrates that ducks love, but..........you will also have the invertebrates AND the seeds from the native grasses that are in there now. I'm not saying don't plant the millet, I'm just saying leave some of the moist soil grasses also.
 

Smitty010203

Twelve Pointer
Thanks Gadwall - actually a buddy of mine showed me that place and looking online we thought they only had grass type seed but he could have sworn they had other ag types seeds. I'll check them out.

Darkthirty and others who said it. I am starting to agree. I think the idea was to clear some of the grass out as I believe its pretty thick, atleast right now. Definitely will leave a good bit of natural as well.
 

shurshot

Ten Pointer
Thanks Gadwall - actually a buddy of mine showed me that place and looking online we thought they only had grass type seed but he could have sworn they had other ag types seeds. I'll check them out.

Darkthirty and others who said it. I am starting to agree. I think the idea was to clear some of the grass out as I believe its pretty thick, atleast right now. Definitely will leave a good bit of natural as well.

Below is a swamp FULL of smartweed. This is late October so chances are it won't be flowered out real well even though I've recently seen some in other places. If you have this, you're off to a great start.

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Hydemarsh

Six Pointer
Lake Wendell Agricultural Supplies just outside of Wendell has plenty of Jap Millet Seed. I was there a couple of days ago. If you have smartweed, just fertilize it some. It will draw ducks all season. Black birds get the millet. Drawing water down is a good idea, Just getting the grass in your spot will make a big difference in the attractiveness to ducks. Lot of rain in the NE part of the state, grass not getting a chance to get started. You may have a hot spot if you have some.
 

Smitty010203

Twelve Pointer
Alright guys here's the update. The swamp had plenty of water, there is in fact a good sized beaver dam. I didn't get to spend a lot of time looking at the "Hunting areas" as they are apparently a little ways from the dam and its super thick in there also there was a pile of poison ivy in my way after I had changed and wasn't going to mess with that (still got it on my arms though $@&$#). I could have, I just was more concerned about busting the dam. I will say this. Breaking open a beaver dam, was the messiest thing I have ever done. Extremely hard work atleast what we had to bust. I haven't been covered in water and mud like that in a long time. Everything.. was soaked and muddy. but we got it done. As for seed. I did manage to find Jap millet but we didnt plant yet because apparently the swamp in the hunting area is wayyy to thick with grasses and weeds. For that reason my buddy went back in there and sprayed on sunday. Were gonna go back in a week or two and plant seed now.

The beavers did come back that night and fix the dam but they were none the wiser of our leveler system :cool:

One thing is for sure. I have a new respect for beavers.
 
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Wildlifer

Old Mossy Horns
good luck with it. keep us updated with pics if you have any. Id like to see the progress. Anyone who tackles a beaver dam by hand has my respect.
 

Smitty010203

Twelve Pointer
Wildlifer I actually got some drone footage of the entire swamp. need to upload that sometime.

As for the leveler you could call it a clemson leveler, just a cheaper version.

50' of corrugated 4" pipe and a 5'x5' cage box. The pipe in the swamp was about 4' under water and sticks in as far as the middle of the cage. That runs through the beaver dam which we dug down about 2-3' deep. Pipe runs another 25' out past the dam and has real nice pressure.

We originally cut the pipe in half and wired them together so we basically has 8" of pipe instead of just 4" but it ended up being to short and the option was walk back out of the swamp soaking wet and nasty, go to lowes, buy more pipe, then come back. Or... Just undo the wires holding the pipe together, resplice the pipe, and go on with our lives and a 4" pipe..

Heres the cage where the pipe runs in. The hole size is awfully close to a beaver fitting in but it was free and I think we will be ok. Its hard to tell in the picture but there is a top on that cage as well as a bottom. This was also after I had cleaned up and gotten back in. Before this I had a white t shirt and those waders on when we were breaking the dam.that shirt went in the trash can.
View attachment 51554

Here are the 2 holes we ripped open on Sunday after the beavers fixed them. These jokers were flowing big time the day before. It was crazy how thick the dam was, not as in width, but just the density of material, roots, sticks. When I say roots i mean tree root sticks but I also mean string like root systems throughout the entire thing. I mean you had to use an axe and basically cut out chunks of the dirt to pull it apart.
View attachment 51555
View attachment 51556
 
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Smitty010203

Twelve Pointer
Interesting. They were working the other day. Oh well. Not going to take the time to repost them. Nothing special anyway.
 

Smitty010203

Twelve Pointer
Have you been back to check on the water level?

Yep. Actually went back yesterday. The water level was way up because the are has gotten a tonnnn of rain over the last day or 2 apparently. I think it we. I think our leveler is still working, just has a hard time to keep it up. If I had to do it all again I would say spend the time and money to put atleast a 12" pipe in the dam. We used a 4"
 

Smitty010203

Twelve Pointer
Couldnt make it work... Basically we got the dam busted a little bit but the pipe we put in wasnt big enough to make any real difference. Its not possible to get any equipment in the area either. The swamp perimeters are crazy thick so we really arent even able to plant anything around the perimeters. Its just a tough situation. Not like any beavers swamps I've really been around. We are going to take kayaks this weekend and see if we can work our way around the area. I think at this point we just have to do what we can hunting wise during the season and make a note of the water line and what not. Maybe next year we will have more time or we can do more work right after the season when its not hot as the devil.
 
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