has anyone used a bathtub as a duck pond???

[erin_2121]

I have this idea in my head...
as an artist, I tend to only do things that are visually appealing, and so of course these messy ol' ducks are a fun challenge!
I know the blue kiddie pools work great, but I was thinking they'd be 1) kinda ugly and 2) difficult to lift up/drain when full of water.

Has anyone used an old clawfoot tub and outfitted the drain in such a way that you can drain the duck tub directly into your desired area (in this case, my vegetable gardens!). I know that tub would have to be on higher ground than the beds, which is doable I think... I'm picturing some kind of hose welded to the drain pipe that you can plug/unplug and just let flow! Has anyone used a method like this before?

 

[Ozarkhomesteader]

Haven't used it, but love the idea! The worst part about keeping ducks w/out an actual pond is the pools...all the water just gets dumped into their yard (which is a waste of water) and turn it into a muddy, poopy mess. I may steal this idea and build something similar. Hoping someone who has done this posts.

 

[CMRDucks]

50 Ducks in a Hot Tub has a bathtub set up for the ducks -

He showed how he set it up in a previous video, not sure which one. If I remember correctly he set up the drain with standard fittings from the hardware store. His isn't pretty, but you get the idea and watching some happy ducks never hurts

I have a kiddie pool that my niece donated - it's a smaller one and it's easy to dump if you get the water rocking back and forth first. The ducks drill in the ground and wash a mouthful of mud in the pool, for hours. Using something the height of a clawfoot tub should reduce the amount of mud in the water I would think. It would look gorgeous, until the ducks actually used it

My set up is all from found/reclaimed/recycled materials so I haven't gone for pretty yet. The kiddie pool is easy to move when they tear up the ground too much in one area I can relocate it so the ground can recover and I can fill in those ankle breaker holes.

 

[alscatS]

That tub looked really clean - I like the set up - is there a place that is described how the tub was set up and how the water constantly refills?

 

[katiedarling]

I have this idea in my head...
as an artist, I tend to only do things that are visually appealing, and so of course these messy ol' ducks are a fun challenge!
I know the blue kiddie pools work great, but I was thinking they'd be 1) kinda ugly and 2) difficult to lift up/drain when full of water.

Has anyone used an old clawfoot tub and outfitted the drain in such a way that you can drain the duck tub directly into your desired area (in this case, my vegetable gardens!). I know that tub would have to be on higher ground than the beds, which is doable I think... I'm picturing some kind of hose welded to the drain pipe that you can plug/unplug and just let flow! Has anyone used a method like this before?

I'm so glad you posted this. I had thought of doing the same. We have a claw foot in our home and I thought it would be cool to find one for use with ducks. I'm also glad you led in with " as an artist...". I was trying to explain this very reasoning to my husband when he questioned why the coop we built had to "be so fancy". I didn't do a very good job advocating my reasoning and plan on stealing that explanation for future use.

I didn't quite articulate it as well as you did and he just thinks I'm a little bit crazy. I think all I could come up with was, if we have to sell the property, I don't want anything to be a possible eyesore that's off-putting to buyers. I will follow this thread to see if anyone who's done it posts! Can't wait to hear all the ideas!

edit: I did see something on youtube where a man installed a drain on a kiddie pool and had it raised enough to drain it quickly and I believe he had pvc pipe that extended out enough to direct water to the garden. Sadly, I don't think I bookmarked it.

 

[alscatS]

I will send pics - we have one and used it last summer, as the cold water set in the stopper, stopped working and leaked, however this spring we are setting up a filtering system - ducks are super messy

 

[Pagoda88]

Here's mine. The ducks love it. They hang around it day and night. I adopted muscovy ducks from RSPCA, 1 of them have wet feathers, so not as swimmy as the one that's almost perfect. I have now added astro tuff to the front part. i think it keeps the mess down.

 

[DuckyDonna]

Just thinking. Do you know what might be even cooler? People are always giving away hot tubs on Craig's list. The bath tubs are great but if you've got more ducks than just a few the tubs might be too small. A hot tub would be like a regular pool. The only thing would be the depth would be way too deep which is unnecessary. IDK what does everyone else think about this?

@katiedarling I saw that video with the guy that had the pool drain and I tried it but was not very happy with it. I found the smaller pools are much easier to deal with. I just bale it out with a bucket and then tip it. It took forever for the bigger pool to drain into the garden and with the little pools, it takes me about 1 minute. I do clean my pools every day though.