drinking from pond

[berdlips]

I am a new duck keeper. I dug them a pond deep enough to dip and dive in with a rubber liner, they swim underwater the length of it. --- 4x8 feet which I partially overflow with a hose every couple of days. But I am worried because they do most of their drinking from it. They have water bowls but prefer the pond. Should I be worried about this? They are a pair of sort of runner ducks. I have learned that ducks love slugs and japanese beetles. They love to dabble around with their bills--I made a leaf compost pile for finding worms. I call them out of their yard to forage and when their crops(?) are full they run back on their own to have a drink. So far they are only comfortable when I am with them in their foraging--it is a wide open field, but are getting more comfortable being with the chicken flock. I am loving watching them and figuring them out. Any advice on ducks is appreciated. thank you

 

[FenDruadin]

Of course they'll drink out of the pond--what good is clean, fresh water when you have mucky, pooped-in, disgusting smelly water to play in and drink??

Don't worry about it for a minute. Just make sure you're changing the water out periodically (I use kiddie pools instead of installed pools, because it's easier to clean them from time to time), and they'll be fine. I don't even change the water daily--every three days or so. Letting it overflow is probably fine--you have fewer ducks and a larger body of water than mine, so you probably don't have to worry about it as much. Just make sure it's not stagnant and putrid. But it will get mucky and gross, and they will be fine drinking it.

My ducks completely eliminated a really serious japanese beetle problem for us. The year we moved in, every leaf surface was covered with japanese beetles. The grape vines were completely devastated, and the garden was hopeless. It was amazing that the apple tree survived. I put in the ducks that summer, fed them on Japanese beetles in the mornings when I could shake them down out of the trees onto a sheet. By fall, they were digging up beetle grubs and eating the beetles, and by the next summer--no problems. No beetles at all. We do get occasional Japanese beetle visitors, presumably coming in from surrounding areas, but we have had VERY little plant damage from them, because they simply can't thrive here. Ducks are great.

As your ducks mature, they will become more comfortable ranging farther from you and farther from home. But they will always feel most secure close to home and close to you.

Have fun.

 

[monarc23]

believe me, ducks in the wild drink from some NASTY ponds which everything including them poos in.

As long as they aren't sick or wormy i don't see an issue with it

 

[Goat_Walker]

Your ducks sound happy to me

I mean heck you dug them a pond! Maybe you should buy a few shiners from the bait shop, slip em in there and see what you ducks do

Buy the medium kind thouhg as Im not sure if the large would get your ducks nervous on first glance. Heck, everytime my ducks see the fish bucket they go CRAZY! And I mean crazy. Were as usually they are pretty wild and stay away from me they now run and stand on my FEET!

 

[berdlips]

Thank you all , I am relieved. It wasnt too hard digging the pond. I dug down a little more than a foot then piled up the dug earth all around,put the liner in, put the rocks around it that came out of the hole, and then put the grass, moss pieces all around that. I planted tall grasses around it to give them places to hide. Then i brought a chair to sit and watch the fun.

 

[smurfboe]

Gee if I were a duck I'd want to live the good life with you.

 

[Wifezilla]

If you are really concerned you could put a biological filter on your pond. It will also mean less water changes.

I have a modified version of one of these...
http://www.skippysstuff.com/biofiltr.htm

Here is my set up with growing trays. The bio-filter is on the right. The water spills out of the filter in to trays that have plants growing in pots filled with garden soil with drainage holes. There is a layer of pea gravel in the trays too.

Those trays act as additional bio filters. The plants pull nutrients out of the water as well. Other than draining out sediment (and cleaning the screen on the pump) from time to time I seldom have to mess with it.

 

[berdlips]

Thank you for the biofilter idea. I will look into it. That looks like a beautiful pond.