Can my ducks go out on a "normal" pond?

[LoveLakeview]

I live on a pond. It's not big (but bigger than a man made one). Its stocked with large mouth bass by DNR to help with the mosquito population. There is a flock of geese who come regularly. A flock of ducks that come occasionally. And a great blue heron that will stop by from time to time. My yard is fenced so my kids and pets dont have access to it unless we allow it.

Will it ever be safe for my domestic ducks to go out there? None of the waterfowl that fly through nest here, not that I'm sure that matters.

They're only 4 weeks old now, so it wouldn't be for a while, but if they cant go on our pond we would plan to do a large/filtered pond in their run whereas if they can I'll probably just use a kiddy pool till they're big enough.

 

[LoveLakeview]

To give a general idea of the size, this is an aerial shot...

 

[Miss Lydia]

Beautiful area and nice pond. Do you mean let them out there all the time or just during the day and home and locked into a secure house for night time?

Actually letting them out on a pond with other homes around may cause trouble with neighbors if your ducks begin hanging around at other peoples houses pooping on grass walkways etc. Plus if they have dogs then most likely your ducks won't live long. Plus snapping turtle are a big predator to wild and domestic water fowl, herons will eat ducklings. If me I would keep them home where they can live a nice long life.

 

[LoveLakeview]

Beautiful area and nice pond. Do you mean let them out there all the time or just during the day and home and locked into a secure house for night time?

Just during the day! They'd still have a house to get them in every night! And still have a run in case we needed to keep them contained for whatever reason.

I guess I'm afraid it's too big for a domestic duck? Or like, if the wild ducks are out there they might fight or something, haha.

 

[Miss Lydia]

You also have to take into consideration How you will get them home at the end of the day. I have read of so many on here that let their ducks out on a pond and posted how to get them off to come home. lol

Always chances fights could break out drakes can be testy during breeding season. Geese too.

 

[lazy gardener]

I would build them a run which included a bit of your shore line. IMO, letting them loose on the pond would not be a kindness to the other home owners on the shore line. The ducks would also be at risk from overhead predation, and even from snapping turtles.

An other consideration: Do you swim in this pond? Ducks are an intermediate host for the parasite that causes swimmer's itch. If I planned on swimming in that water, I certainly wouldn't let my ducks swim there.

 

[SniperGoose]

I don't think it would be a good idea to let them out there. I'm sure they would enjoy it, but it would be a safety hazard for your ducks!
I feel that it would be hard to get them out of there too. We have a pond near our house here (not nearly as big as the one in question), and when I had ducks, I had to take our canoe out on the pond to shoo them out lol.

I'd go ahead and go with the large/filtered pond in their run! They'll love it.