• Crenshaw, William J.
  University of Maine Graduate School
  

Methods of stocking marshes by moving wild hens and their newly hatched broods to new areas were studied. The hen and her brood were released from a box with a drop door operated so as to gently place the birds on the water together.  Careful release helped to insure that the hen and her ducklings maintained the visual and audio contact considered necessary for successful release of the birds as a family unit. Survival for released broods averaged 42 percent for wood ducks (Aix sponsa), 50 percent for goldeneyes (Lophodytes cucullatus). Eight (9.2 percent) of an estimated 87 female wood ducks released as day-old ducklings were known to return to nest on the release marshes next year. Fifty percent of 30 adult wood wood duck hens moved with their broods to new area returned to nest in their original nesting marshes in following years. Two of five goldeneye hens and three of seven hooded merganser hens, relocated with broods, also returned to their original nesting marshes.