Duck Pond/pool pictures

[sadies chicks]

Great looking ponds everyone!!

 

[mystkblu]

Such beautiful and innovative ponds and pools!

We live in the high desert of SW CO so we don't have year round water. Our farm doesn't have water rights but we get run off from a ranch above us and winter snow melt so we have dug ditches throughout the pasture to help distribute what water we do get. We got the ducks to help maintain the ditches as we have crawdads that just burrow and destroy the ditches. We have one ditch that runs right behind the house where we have our chicken/duck/goat coop/paddock so we widened the ditch into 4 little ponds for our ducks. They aren't very deep and we don't often have water in them but it allows us to fill a hole from the hose when we need to. The ditch is on a slight grade so the ponds will fill and overflow down into the next and so on until they flow out the ditch into the bottom pasture. When we get floods it's amazing to see the amount of water rushing through the property but the ducks take advantage of it! The bottom pond empties into a straight ditch that is about a foot wide and a foot deep and runs straight for 100 yards or so until it hits the pasture. When the flood waters are running the ducks hop into the ditch below the last pond one after another and body surf the entire distance to the pasture in the racing water! Then they hop out, waddle back up to the pond and do it again! It is hysterical and you can just tell they are having a blast!

View down the ditch ponds:

View up the ditch ponds:

Ponds/coop/paddock as seen from our back porch:

 

[Fawkes]

LOving these pics!

Great ponds mystkblu!

 

[mystkblu]

Thank you! Keeping water fowl in the desert is a challenge but doable! Our ducks love the snow! They get up on 3 or 4 feet of snow and flap around like body surfers! We've never lost a duck to snow and two years ago we had 8 feet! They were always out in it quacking and playing! My ducks are way more tolerant and hardy in snow than my chix are!

 

[ducks_rcool329]

This was the first pond we had when I was still building the poultry area. Hence the tarp around the coop, and ex-pen as part of the fence lol). For the pond, I just used ACE Plastic Wrap, it comes in huge rolls, its meant for construction, but it worked just as good until the pond liner came.

 

[ShuckyDuckyQuackQuack]

Lovely ponds look so clean i could've sworn you don't have ducks!!!

LOL

 

[savingdogs]

Make sure your pond has a good way to drain and filter. Ours did not and we had some duck DEATHS. We have gone back to a simpler, smaller, easy to dump pool.

 

[ChickInDelight]

Hello baby pool owners !

Has anyone tried cutting a hole into a baby pool to make a drain? I am afraid my baby pools are going to crack this winter.

All tips to drain are welcome!

 

[Hixnstix]

We bought a regular kitchen sink drain, cut the hole in the bottom of our $10 plastic pool, used silicone on the inside & out and it has made it through one PA winter so far. Easy to do except you must make room for the drain when you place it on the ground, either a hole in the stones or place on a plywood platform with a hole in it big enough for the drain. We've done both as we move the pool from time to time. No problem to drain & clean with a hose. I highly recommend this method!

 

[tdgill]

Quote:
This winter I will probably be downsizing to one of the large black mixing tubs or as big a Fortex rubber tub as I can get. They make great waterers in the winter, just flip them over and stomp on the bottom to get the ice out