Anyone else here made their own duck pond?

[tigerlilly2588]

hey! we are working on a pond for our ducks and I was wondering what type of (affordable) filter I can get to strain out the poo so they don't drink the dirty water and get sick....anyone have a clue????

 

[Squirtchy2009]

I have a platic fish pond that i have dug into the ground, what i am going to do is attach a tap like thing to the bottom of the pond and let the water drain out from the tap, im not going to use a tap as such but i have this thing which does the same job. ill post you a pic possibly today to give you some idea's!

 

[tigerlilly2588]

ok thanks! Im up for any ideas!

 

[geosheets]

I plumbed a bathtub drain into mine and ran the drain line to a lower part of the yard. I was going to plumb in a valve but it would have been too close to the surface and freezing in the winter would have been an issue so I opted for a rubber stopper. I've learned a few things on this one and will do the next one differently. Next time I will rig up a 2 inch or larger drain so that all the feathers make it out. With the bathtub drain I get an occasional blockage that I have to deal with. The other thing is that these plastic ponds will float up when you drain all the water out of them so, I put about 300 lbs of large rocks in the bottom of mine. All the rocks just hold more dirt and debris. Next time I will go with 2 inch or larger drain, I will bring it up about 4 inches off the bottom of the pond, then I am going to pour concrete 4 inches deep inside of the pond, sloped towards the drain. I figure the smooth concrete surface will be much easier to clean and still provide the weight so I don't have to worry about the pond floating up if there is a lot of ground water.

 

[chickensioux]

This is our pond. I just bail and clean frequently. Ducks are messy and it's hard to keep or expect the pond to stay 100% clean all the time. About the time they pooh in the pond, they take a drink. I just clean it ALOT.

 

[jmc]

Quote:
Ducks NOT drink dirty and poopy water!!!!????

That's their favorite beverage!

Give 'em clean water and they'll have it brown (or yellowish green!!!) in no time.............

Don't worry yourself too much--I am not suggesting being lax, but there is only so much we can expect


ETA:

Chickensioux: Lovely set up there

 

[chickensioux]

Oh yeah, and every morning when I pour them fresh water into their drinking bowl, I spill some on the ground accidentally and inevitably that's where they dabble first.....in the little mud puddle beside their bowl.

 

[duckface]

Quote:
We're in the process of constructing a pond, too, and were planning on lining the bottom with small stones. Would you advise against doing that?

 

[Chicks_N_Horses]

I keep my ducks at my dads. We are building a pond on our property in the back now but it has just recently been started. We are clearing the spot out for it on my DHs down time on the weekends....Then we will bring in the ducks and swans back over here. He lives on the river and there was already a goldfish pond built there in the water. Just a rock wall built along the banks to form a pond so he has the ducks out there.

I have a goldfish pond my dh made. He just dug a hole and we took black plastic (the big rolls) and lined the pond and placed rocks over it. You can put concrete in them too if you like. Making a pond isn't as tough as it sounds.....keeping the algae out of the ponds is the pain in the 'you know what' part.

I don't think you can keep duck ponds 100% clean....just do the best you can

 

[rainplace]

Wifezilla has this thread here which is very informative about duck ponds and filters:

https://www.backyardchickens.com/forum/viewtopic.php?id=146829

I also made a thread along the same lines, but I'm having major issues with all the poop and am starting over from scratch:

https://www.backyardchickens.com/forum/viewtopic.php?id=210532

How many ducks do you have?