On March 29, volunteers from the Provo Bay Chapter of the Delta Waterfowl Foundation installed 25 new henhouses for waterfowl living on Utah Lake. They also serviced and/or repaired 25 existing henhouses.
The goal of the Utah Department of Natural Resources, the Utah Lake Authority and the DWF is to eventually have 100 henhouses around the lake. Permits for henhouses go through the ULA and DNR, while DWF monitors and services the houses. The ULA provides funds for materials through the Utah Watershed and Restoration Initiative (WRI).
Each nest can be used one to three times for a clutch of eggs, with each clutch being between 10-12 eggs. These henhouses can create an 80-90% success rate for eggs to reach adulthood compared to the roughly 10% success rate for eggs in nests on the shores. These 50 henhouses are expected by DWR biologists to increase the waterfowl population by 500 individuals. While mating season starts as soon as the snow and ice starts to melt, one waterfowl couple got started early and a nest was found to already contain 14 eggs.
The nests are raised above the waterline to deter predators and have reflective tape to make them visible to boaters. DWF is monitoring if the tape scares waterfowl from using the nest, in which case, it will be removed.
