So, Hopefully soon I will be moving to a property where I can finally have ducks and geese! I might be awhile before I even get them but I'd like to ask now so I can have everything sorted out when we get there. I plan on digging a pond for them and want to know what a good size would be for them to be happy and not get too dirty. I'd also like to know people experience on cleaning them/keeping them clean. I planned on having about 20 ducks and 3 geese (I was going to only have 15 ducks but then I saw how awesome muscovies were, and well..ya..lol) So, what would be a good size for that amount? Length width and depth
Big, lol! I don't know for sure but that's a lot of ducks. Let's just say I have a kiddie pool and it has to be refilled daily with 6 ducks. Are you going to just fill a hole with water or try to filter it? Ducks make huge messes of water so be prepared that it's going to get messy fast. You will fall in love with the ducks once you get them. Do you have a housing plan already?
Our pond is 10' x 15' x 2.5', with a filter running on it (which pumps back through a bog area with plants to filter out the nitrates). Or at least that's what it looks like when there isn't 8' of snow on the ground. That houses about a dozen gold fish (probably still there under the ice), who got ignored by the ducks until they got to be too big to swallow, a very large bullfrog going on year 2 in the pond, and about half a dozen green frogs. And 3 ducks. Ducks poop *a lot*. I probably wouldn't want too many more ducks and critters than that in the pond. Maybe it could handle more ducks, but not 20. If you're going to go not much bigger than that, I think the only way of keeping it clean and running well would be to limit numbers and time in the pond. Don't let more than 5 or so in at a time, and don't let them spend all day in there. A small garden fence around it, perhaps, so you can control duck access to the pond. (We stopped at a depth of 2.5' since deeper then starts to hit various zoning/tax/liability issues – it moves into the category of pool. Check with your town about regulations.)
Well it would seem that keeping 20+ chickens is easier than keeping 20+ ducks I've only got 5 acres to work with so I will just have to lower my numbers a bit. I just saw all the different breeds I would like and got carried away lol I'm just curious what these breeders with lots of duck/geese do and how they house them. Also, do muscovies get in the water a lot? I heard they are not as much of a water duck like the others. Thanks for all the replies so far
There is a poster that goes by "Wifezilla" I think. She has made some very informed posts about ponds and pond maintanance. She sounds very experianced and has done her research. Try to find some of her past threads.
Hello, I'm looking at doing the same for my flock of 21 ducks (currently). So far I've purchased a pond liner from Lowe's to build a 16'x9' pond, but not much else. I will not start digging until I have all the materials (stone, pump, filter, landscaping) to include a small solar system to power the pump. Thankfully, after the significant expense for materials, much of it is just DIY labor and not rocket surgery! From personal experience, expect DIY to cost twice as much and take twice as long as expected. Good Luck, Rich