Building our own Duck Pond

[Ramblin Rooster]

This summer we are hoping to build a decent sized duck pond for ducks and geese. We would like one that will be fairly decent sized (enough for maybe a dozen ducks and geese), easy to clean or not needed to be cleaned, and not too expensive. We would like to do it ourselves if possible as well. Thanks for the help!

 

[Amiga]

For a dozen, I would look into something that could be drained and refilled, with the drain water going to fertilize gardens. That material is very valuable!

Let me see if I can find a couple of projects from BYC members to give you ideas and encouragement.

 

[Amiga]

https://www.backyardchickens.com/t/911430/duckponics-system-with-a-grow-bed-aka-aquackulture/10

Some of the photo's are missing, but you might find out a few things on that one.

https://www.backyardchickens.com/t/320654/duck-pond-pool-pictures

 

[TLWR]

What do you consider not too expensive?

I built a raised landscape timber pond that is 7x11 (~1000 gallons) for my ducks. I clean it once or twice a year. It gets gross, but does not smell and the ducks don't care. When they had a pool, by day 3, it stunk and they avoided it like the plague.
not cheap, but not too very expensive either

https://www.backyardchickens.com/t/496237/building-a-pond-step-by-step-mostly-complete-post71

 

[Ramblin Rooster]

I suppose under a thousand dollars or so. Yours is very nice! Do you mind if I ask about how much it cost?

 

[TLWR]

I thought I had pricing in that thread - just found it in there:

Major costs - approximate
$100 - timbers @ $3 each
$100 - main pond liner (10x15 45 mil EPDM) - included shipping
$100 - pump (we upgraded here, but I think it was a wise place to be sure we had good stuff
$80 - 13 pieces of 10' rebar that we cut into 3 pieces that I think we could have cut into 4 pieces instead
$25 - filter liner (8x10 20mil pvc) - included shipping
$60 - plumbing (drain, piping, tubing for pump to filter, etc)
holy crap, I should stop adding now

$30 - underlayment for pond and filter
$40 - top boards for pond/filter
$20 - filter supplies (we have some stuff laying around we can use as well, so we didn't have to buy everything)
$15 - pool skimmer to get stuff out of it
$30 - prefilter box (box to put pump in and prefilter the water before going to the filter box
$35000 - sand

(ok, we had the sand left over from having the garage built this spring, so we didn't have to buy any sand for leveling or a base

)


So it's looking like it is around $600

 

[tdd2]

https://www.backyardchickens.com/t/911430/duckponics-system-with-a-grow-bed-aka-aquackulture/10

Some of the photo's are missing, but you might find out a few things on that one.

https://www.backyardchickens.com/t/320654/duck-pond-pool-pictures

I removed most of my pics a few months ago - my better half wasn't happy at all that they would come up on Google searches so easily - but I think I can get away with a few pictures of our pond set-up that were originally in the links Amiga provided above. . . the description of what I did, and what I used are also in the first link Amiga provided.

Installing . . .




Water testing . . .




Setting up the step to get in . . .




First use . . .




Happy duckies!




How it looks as finished - I used 3 plastic 'barrel' planters from Lowes hooked up to a PVC tube frame I made up, and some plastic water fittings to make it look as though the pool was being filled by rum barrels . . .




Hope that helps!! (and sorry again that most of my pics have been removed)

Cheers'!

Dan

 

[Miss Lydia]

I removed most of my pics a few months ago - my better half wasn't happy at all that they would come up on Google searches so easily - but I think I can get away with a few pictures of our pond set-up that were originally in the links Amiga provided above. . . the description of what I did, and what I used are also in the first link Amiga provided.

Installing . . .




Water testing . . .




Setting up the step to get in . . .




First use . . .




Happy duckies!




How it looks as finished - I used 3 plastic 'barrel' planters from Lowes hooked up to a PVC tube frame I made up, and some plastic water fittings to make it look as though the pool was being filled by rum barrels . . .




Hope that helps!! (and sorry again that most of my pics have been removed)

Cheers'!

Dan

What a great idea love the barrels, is the landscaping still there? last pic it doesn't look like it is, do you have chickens? that's where most of our landscaping has gone too.

 

[tdd2]

No chickens, the last picture is at the end of fall, and added to that, the area behind the pond is a wooded area with pine trees....it greens up quite a bit as in the earlier pictures, but it's still generally brown'ish.

Cheers'!

Dan

 

[tdd2]

. . .the rum barrel pond in action . . .

Cheers'

Dan