O the many pains of providing water for our ducks, lol. The original goal was to move our ducks from our back yard to one of our stock tanks once they were old enough. After many trips back and forth (they would usually beat me back to the house), I gave up and bought a kiddie pool. I started with one big kiddie pool, then decided we needed more so everyone could swim at the same time. Then came the back pains from emptying the pools. So, my DH added drains with on/off valves. Then came the algae. We lost one of our ducks to I believe a snapping turtle in the stock tank so I convinced my DH to dig a small duck pond closer to the house and near to the duck pen. We plan to line it with our old swimming pool liner and put stones and landscape around it. I have already started with the landscaping
Duck pen looking down to pond
The finished hole
Purple Pampas Grass and Chaste Tree
9-13-14 Rain delay
We got some much needed rain today.
9-19-14 Lots more rain. The ducks are enjoying the pond already, lol. We haven't even lined it. If it continues to hold water I don't guess we will line it after all.
Ducks are loving their new pond and I'm loving that I don't have to clean it.
Added some Pink Muhly Grass
10-05-14 DH took down a dead tree so we moved the trunk of it to the pond for shade
9/5/15
WOW, I can't believe a year has gone by. I didn't keep up well with this article and the duck pond is still a work in progress but here are some pictures. We didn't use the pool liner at planned so it is all natural. With out the liner, the ducks were able to nibble at the dirt and therefore made the pond bigger than we planned. We finally had to put landscape fabric around the edges to protect the edges. We added a fountain, new plants and some fish. Hopefully the fish will eat the algae and the ducks won't eat the fish
We extended our fence to include the pond in our 'backyard' and allow the G. Pyrenees to circle the pond on their patrols.
(the fountain was destroyed one day when I saw a water mocassin crawl under it. I made my DH tear it down trying to get the snake
)
9/12/15 pictures
7-24-16
So, now it's 2016 and we are re-digging the pond. I got tired of the green sludge and the ducks started going out to the stock tank so we drained their pond. (I'm not sure if it was the sludge or the introduction of Muscovy ducks to our flock but something drove them to the tank that I tried for months to get them to use before building them a pond.)
This time around we are doing it much differently. BIGGER and DEEPER and we are going to put in a biofilter. I've had two more ducks get bit by a snapping turtle in the stock tank so we'll pump that water into the new and if we don't trap him hopefully he'll move on.
Here are pictures from the beginning of the new pond.
And, we are adding another section. Hopefully the ducks and the Muscovies will stay away from the stock tank once completed.
And we got some rain....
8/18/16
Now all we need is to plant the submerged oxygenating plants and add the Skippy Filter.
11-17-16 Updated pictures. Still needing to add the skippy. My DH is working on getting a balance between the two levels so the water flows down as it is pumped from the bottom back up to the top.
Duck pen looking down to pond
The finished hole
Purple Pampas Grass and Chaste Tree
9-13-14 Rain delay
We got some much needed rain today.
9-19-14 Lots more rain. The ducks are enjoying the pond already, lol. We haven't even lined it. If it continues to hold water I don't guess we will line it after all.
Ducks are loving their new pond and I'm loving that I don't have to clean it.
Added some Pink Muhly Grass
10-05-14 DH took down a dead tree so we moved the trunk of it to the pond for shade
9/5/15
WOW, I can't believe a year has gone by. I didn't keep up well with this article and the duck pond is still a work in progress but here are some pictures. We didn't use the pool liner at planned so it is all natural. With out the liner, the ducks were able to nibble at the dirt and therefore made the pond bigger than we planned. We finally had to put landscape fabric around the edges to protect the edges. We added a fountain, new plants and some fish. Hopefully the fish will eat the algae and the ducks won't eat the fish
We extended our fence to include the pond in our 'backyard' and allow the G. Pyrenees to circle the pond on their patrols.
(the fountain was destroyed one day when I saw a water mocassin crawl under it. I made my DH tear it down trying to get the snake
9/12/15 pictures
7-24-16
So, now it's 2016 and we are re-digging the pond. I got tired of the green sludge and the ducks started going out to the stock tank so we drained their pond. (I'm not sure if it was the sludge or the introduction of Muscovy ducks to our flock but something drove them to the tank that I tried for months to get them to use before building them a pond.)
This time around we are doing it much differently. BIGGER and DEEPER and we are going to put in a biofilter. I've had two more ducks get bit by a snapping turtle in the stock tank so we'll pump that water into the new and if we don't trap him hopefully he'll move on.
Here are pictures from the beginning of the new pond.
And, we are adding another section. Hopefully the ducks and the Muscovies will stay away from the stock tank once completed.
And we got some rain....
8/18/16
Now all we need is to plant the submerged oxygenating plants and add the Skippy Filter.
11-17-16 Updated pictures. Still needing to add the skippy. My DH is working on getting a balance between the two levels so the water flows down as it is pumped from the bottom back up to the top.
