Can using duck water in garden kill us?

[furbabymum]

Figured you guys would be the most knowledgeable on the subject. I'm going to move my veggie garden over next to my duck pond and pump the pond water into it. Can this spread e-coli and salmonella to us?

 

[SJUDD]

I don't use mine on my vegetable garden but I do on my fruit trees and my flower beds. I figure as long as everything is washed properly it should be fine... but that is just my opinion

 

[cooprunbuilder]

Hi there,

It will be fine,

all my ducks waste water is stored into water butts and spread throughout my orchid and garden and works wonders I even sell a lot it.

 

[Amiga]

This is one of those topics where I'll start off with what you already know, which is you need to be comfortable with whatever you do.

Illness and disease can be caused by a number of things, and certainly manure has been associated with problems in a number of cases. And. Having a fecal test might be something to consider.

Hot composting is said to get rid of pathogens. Consider that idea. I spread duck straw on my gardens. I do not spread it anywhere close to harvest time for things that don't get cooked. While the nitrogen in duck manure is more likely to go away over time (water and temperature and microbes can turn it to N2 gas and away it goes), the phophorus and potassium in it should remain in the soil until plants take it up (unless you put it on a steep hillside, in which case it will go away with the soil when it rains).

So one option that I employ is that during mild days in winter I spread some raised beds with duck straw. That helps charge up the P and K in the soil. Cold and light - this is my opinion - take care of pathogens.

And by the way, the really ugly e. coli if I recall correctly, is not in every animal. I would think healthy ducks would have pretty healthy poop.

 

[LightningTFarm]

I used some of the water from my ducks' pool in my garden last year and on my fruit trees, and it nearly burned some stuff. So, now I dump the water and the poop I pick up when cleaning the house and run on the compost pile. It keeps the pile moist in summer and all that poop just supercharges it. It seems to me that the leaves are rotting down faster since I started doing this. I have one larger kiddie pool in with the geese that my dad and I put a valve on and a place to attach a hose. The night before I am going to clean it out I just turn the valve and it drains out through the hose right into the compost heap. Talk about easy!

 

[animalz11]

As long as the poop water doesn't go on what you eat then you should be fine, from what I know plants don't absorb bacteria...

 

[Nicko]

Another option might be to water a comfrey bed with the poopy water. Comfrey is one of the only plants that can take a big hit of raw nitrogen like that found in bird poop. Comfrey is a dynamic accumulator which mines nutrients from deep down in the soil and brings them up into their leaves. It needs nitrogen to do this. The leaves can be cut(I cut mine 4 or 5 times a year) and used as a mulch or made into a nutrient rich 'tea' to water the plants.
If you do do this, use Bocking 14 as this variety is sterile and won't spread everywhere.

 

[CrunchyDoc]

Bad pathogenic bacteria is bred in CAFO (confined animal feeding operations) where animals are given large amounts of antibiotics to allow them to survive in-humane and un-healthy living conditions. Antibiotic resistance is selected for in those environments. The bugs are bad, scary.

If your ducks are eating a normal plant based duck diet and not standing in their own manure all day, their poop will probably not have those scary bugs we hear about in the news.

 

[destinduck]

Thats exactly what I do furbaby. I have used the duckwater for a long time for my garden. No problem as long as you wash everything good before you eat it. Just use common sense. Kinda like Im nott going to eat any of it after I just got thru watered it with it. Although one time I did eat some collards the day I watered with the poo water.But i washed them real good later that day in clean water. Never burnt nothing with the poo water BTW not even little started plants. collards tomatoes corn peas kumquats, orange.trees etc. Never been sick from it ever. You might burn your plants with straight duck poo from the ground. However with all the water mixed with it. It aint happening

 

[furbabymum]

Thanks everyone! My bosses were the ones who were against it but they had only information from commercial businesses. I'll be using my poo water! lol