Duck pen project from scratch.

[Radioflyer97]

Greetings everyone.

A friend of ours with chickens convinced my wife that she wanted ducks for eggs. Our yard started as pretty much a open field so we had plenty of options. The original plan was to simply do the kiddy-pool and cleaning every other day, but with winters here reaching the negatives, that wouldn't be an option even if we could get liquid water. I opted for a much nicer looking genuine pond with a self-cleaning filtration system (originally i wanted it to do an aquaponics filtration, but that was veto-ed for it's cost/complexity at the time)

The final plan called for a 11x7 pond with a shelf around most of the edge about 8" deep and 12" in for aquatic plants. A 100 gallon trough would sit on one side and serve as 1) an easy-to-heat winter pond if needed, 2) starting point of the waterfall, 3) wetlands filter with aquatic plants.

The plan:



We purchased a 10x12 shed to serve as a duck house as well as storage for the filter system, food and bedding. It is VERY nice and will serve as a winter shelter for the ducks when temps get too cold for them. For the summer, we can circulate air through the 4 windows, ridge-cap and functional capula vents.




It's worth mentioning that the shed was delivered with one of the coolest dollies I've ever seen:


The filtration system will be 3 stage:
1) 44 gallon swirl filter,
2) 55 gallon bio filter with bio balls, 7" of medium media and 4" of fine media
3) Wetlands style filter with plants from one of our local lakes.

Water is pumped from the pond to the duck house with a Syncra 3.5 DW pump. It flows just under 700 gph but is quite durable. From the bio filter, water is pumped into the trough/wetlands filter with an 800 gph adjustable pond pump from Home depot. Although adjustable, This pump is on a float switch to ensure safe water level and protect the pump. Both swirl filter and bio filter have emergency overflow drains that come out the side of the duck house just in case.


Breaking ground:
I got to play with heavy equipment for the first time digging the pond. It made the project a piece of cake.






Trenches were dug for water lines to/from the pond. A 3rd trench was dug to provide power to an outdoor outlet box as well as serve as protection for the air lines from the aerator pump that will be in the duck house.






The pen was constructed from 4' cedar fence panels/posts from Menards.






Trough has a drain line that will be used for flowing water until the waterfall is completed. It can also be used for maintenance purposes on the wetlands filter





We purchased some blue slate rocks for the pond beach area and the waterfall:


Because I am a nerd, I installed a remote-control duck door on a swinging hinge. The setup has several advantages over a vertical sliding type:
1) It effectively "locks" the door in the down position to prevent predator entry
2) The hinge mechanism is powered both up and down so there's less possibility of it getting stuck in the up position
3) The inward opening door will not be hampered by snow during the winter months.





The "quack house" is equipped with a 12" shop fan, Webcam with 2-way audio, an LED shop light and an external motion sensor LED floodlight.

This is how it is now:








More photos to come.

 

[Birdlover 13]

Looks really cool! Wish I cold get ducks but I don't have the space. Good luck with your ducks!

 

[Radioflyer97]

Oh, the woes:

This being my first major landscaping project (much less one with fowl), there were a few things i overlooked)

I neglected to put a solid base or liner behind/under the rock waterfall. As a result we were losing a fair amount of water into the dirt behind where the pond liner stopped. This required dis-assembling half the waterfall, installing the liner then trying to play the worlds most difficult version of Tetris without falling into the pond.

The ducks started molting and as a result clogged up the pump in the pond. Initially I was relying simply on it's hard filter, but that gummed up almost instantly. I tried putting it in an a makeshift enclosure (5 gallon bucket) with coarse rocks and pea pebbles, but this clogged up within a week. I finally bit the bullet and installed a pond skimmer. The relatively cheap tetrapond in-pond skimmer was an interesting install. The skimmer is designed to float in the pond and has spaces for pea pebble weights. As you can imagine, the first thing the ducks did was knock it over. I rigged up some aluminum bars that bolted to the skimmer and anchored into the ground about a foot outside the pond then covered it over with a large rock to keep it in place. So far this seems to work.

The Sicce Syncra 3.5DW pump died and I am still in the process of working with the warranty dept to get a replacement. In the meantime, We are crossing our fingers and using a 560 gph pond pump from home depot in it's place.

The algae here is horrible especially combined with the duck poo. As a result, we have just completed the upgrade to make our pond a 5-filter system

1) Pond skimmer with basket&coarse media mechanical filter
2) Swirl filter
3) Bio filter with bio balls, coarse and fine media
4) Tetrapond UVC 9w clarifier
5) Wetlands style filter above waterfall.

We are also using a combination of microbe lift PL and Barley extract on a weekly basis.

Today marks the first 24 period in which all components of the system are running. I'm hoping to see clear water in about a week.

 

[needlessjunk]

Wow, what a great job! It looks amazing. What do you do about areal predators during the day?

 

[JanetS]

Wow! You must have some very happy ducks! We have a Koi pond that we used a UV light to help with the algae. Bought it on amazon. It works great.

 

[Sfraker]

Are you worried about daytime predators with that fence? I had to get a six foot chain link fence with avian netting over the top to stop the hawks from circling and stray dogs from knocking down the fence. grrr....

It is a beautiful set up. I may look into your filtration system. We currently use a round stock tank that is 8' in diameter and 3' deep with a ramp leading up for the ducks. I believe it holds close to 1000 gallons. I end up having to dump it every two weeks or so, then pressure wash it out and refill. Our goal is to sink it into the ground and have a filtration system for it. First I need to run electric out to the duck pen.

 

[DisneyDuckies]

How adorable! My babies would love to live there. Awesome job.

 

[Radioflyer97]

Are you worried about daytime predators with that fence? I had to get a six foot chain link fence with avian netting over the top to stop the hawks from circling and stray dogs from knocking down the fence. grrr....

It is a beautiful set up. I may look into your filtration system. We currently use a round stock tank that is 8' in diameter and 3' deep with a ramp leading up for the ducks. I believe it holds close to 1000 gallons. I end up having to dump it every two weeks or so, then pressure wash it out and refill. Our goal is to sink it into the ground and have a filtration system for it. First I need to run electric out to the duck pen.

While we do live on the outskirts of a small town, we also live in a small neighborhood where everyone is on 2 acres of field. The nearest treeline is about a half mile away.

Our duck pen is about 20 feet from the back of our house. During the daytime, I my Shiloh Shepherd "Kiyah" keeps an excellent watch out for anyone or anything that sets foot on the property. She's very good about it.






At night, the ducks go into the "quack house" at night. The duck door locks into position and there is a VERY bright motion sensor light.

 

[Sfraker]

Beautiful Shiloh! Sounds like you have a ducky Fort Knox!