Duck Poop Holds In Pond Water???? WHAT????

[Preservation Acres]

An old local guy I spoke with swears by this...if you want to keep water in your pond and not have it all seep into the ground, just keep ducks. Their poop seals the bottom of the pond and keeps water from seeping into the earth.

Can anyone substantiate this or is he nuts?

Thanks!

 

[Amiga]

Having worked a little bit with designing and building ponds, I can tell you that, yes, livestock was used sometimes to form a "seal" on the bottom of the pond before filling.

One animal used in eastern Ohio many years ago was hogs. After the pond area was dug out, the hogs were penned in there for a while. They would root around, and leave what animals leave in a place . . . . Their feet would work the manure into the top several inches of the soil.

Then the hogs would be removed, and after some bit of time, I am not sure how long or short, the pond was filled.

Perhaps ducks would have the same effect - they root around in the soil, and leave their waste, and if there were enough of them for long enough, their manure might be able to form a seal. There are all kinds of organic carbon chains in their feces, and those might just bind with soil enough to form a kind of liner.

In your post, it sounds like ducks could be handy after-the-fact, as their waste settles to the bottom of the pond it could bind with the soil at the bottom and reduce the likelihood of leaks. Sounds plausible.

Fascinating, low-technology, biological approach, yes?

BTW, have you ever heard of a "sheep's foot roller?"

 

[Preservation Acres]

Thanks for the info! I really appreciate the details.

I have an old "abandoned" pond that's on property I just purchased. It's very overgrown and holds very little water, but I did want to get ducks for the pond and have it professionally restored.

Your info really helps.

 

[Clay in MS]

We have two old chicken house lagoons that were constructed on some very sandy soil. They hold water very well. They were constructed about 35 years ago behind an egg laying farm. The three chicken houses were "cleaned out" twice a week using lagoon water that was pumped through the "pits" in the houses. Needless to say there was a lot of poop flushed into these lagoons over the years. I don't think they would have held water without the poop lining the bottom. So I think it works with a lot of poop, I can't say if a few ducks will help seal a pond or not. I would think your gonna need a lot of ducks.

 

[Wifezilla]

You can also use bentonite
http://www.pondsealer.net/

 

[Preservation Acres]

Thanks! That sodium bentonite sounds like good stuff. I just sent them an email asking for a quote.

 

[Chickies-duckies-etc]

Some feed stores have sodium bentonite for sale. It works great for the clumping cat litter also.

 

[Swamp Roo]

The process is called glaying. I recall having a conversation with a pond enthusiast where he said the Scotts used to use hay. I think you have to let it get a bit "slimey" or use it in combination with clay (bentonite is a "proto' clay) and/or manure. I've never done it, so you would need to do some researching. You live in Tenn? There is a clay mining company that is in Tenn called Old Hickory. They produce amongst other things a bunch of ball clays. If they are close enough, you may be able to get some at a very reasonable price. You may have enough clay in your soil to make the correct mix as is. Clay has some interesting properties (I'm a potter BTW), if you put a completely dry clod of clay into water, it will slake down in short order. However, if you take a chunk of "wet" plastic clay and put it in water, it will not really fall apart, it will get really soft after a while, but won't slake out. It is not water proof but it takes a very long time. Ponds don't have to be water tight, just not loose water faster than they can get it replenished. Let us know if you try it.

Swamp

 

[todd walker]

www.pondboss.com

 

[Kimmyh51]

I know this is an old thread but yes it works! I started with a large pond which was dug out and a liner put in. It held about 10,000l of water.
It was lined and filled up at the start of last summer. At first, the pond would need a top up every couple of weeks of an title water due to evaporation. Then some water was leaking from an irrigation pipe orn ome thing nearby and collecting in the pond under the liner. This caused the liner to bubble up and made a right mess of things as the ducks were then standing on the liner and putting holes in it.
Right after this happened, the pond would drain down really low in a day or so, due to the holes, which Id spend hrs repairing. But the problem with water coming under the liner had not been diagnosed or fixed, so the liner kept coming back up and getting more holes.
This of course as well as pond drainage resulted in pond wate full of duck poop leaking under the liner and sitting there on then sol, creating what I have recently found out is the right environment to 'gley' a pond, letting stuff degrade in an anerobic environment.

Anyway over winter the liner got more rips and tears and as well as water undr it there was air and liner bubbling up all over the show, a complete mess. However, the water levels stayed constant.
I thought it was maybe just because it was winter and damp ground etc.
However i eventually decided, after trying to drain it and remove the muck, that Id just get rid of the liner (which had so many holes and rips it was like Swiss cheese, with hardly any cheese!) and then it would drain easier and Id be able to clean it out and replace the liner and refil.
However it is now mid to late summer, one of the hottest in recorded history. The ground has been parched dry, temperatures well into the 30s(C) most days and I have already cut up and removed huge chunks of the liner, leaving around 1/3 or more of the pond totally unlined. Last summer this would have basically emptied the pond within hours, a day tops. This summer, the water levels are remaining as constant as they would if the pond had a complete, hole, rip and tear free liner. The pond muck has very effectively waterproofed the pond.
There is a lot of it on the bottom which needs removal, and I am planning to test it in two ways:

1: dig a small indent in the ground and cover it with this muck, let muck dry and test for waterproofness. If I am feeling energetic enough, I'll dig a similar sized indent right beside it and not treat it and fill both with water to see what happens
2: line hole with duck muck, then cover with some of the Old pond liner to facilitate an anerobic(no oxygen) environment for a couple of weeks. It's the anerobic breakdown of muck and poos that creates the waterproof layer I read. Test one, is because I know the pond muck has already been created in an anerobic situation (due to the nasty sulphur smell) so im testing my theory that it doesn't need to be covered and left for the anerobic bacterial process to occur, it already has.. So test 2 won't happen if test one results in a waterproof pond.

Anyway the moral of my long winded post is that yes, from personal experience I am sure that duck poo will waterproof a soil pond. But it has to be allowed to build up to a reasonably yucky state, to ensure its being broken down anerobically, not aerobically. So you probably need to intentionally get kinda slack on the cleaning lol.

I should also note that where I live the water table is a long way below them level of my pond, as in about 20-40+ metres and the pond is less than one metre at the lowest point. It's water holding ability is dramatically different from a year ago, where it simply woupd not have been possible to retain any water in it over summer without the bottom covered with a complete, and100% hole free liner. I plan to remove th rest of the liner as time allows ndc up sides and bottom with sand to minimise the muddies of it. I read that a gleyed will stay waterproof for a couple of years. however that was referring to ponds without ducks. I am hoping mine will keep the pond permanently waterproof.

i also reckin the muck on the pond bottom, could be used to make one of those primative mud dwellings, and it's great on the vegie garden, but only mixed with plenty of soil or sand, else it of course, won't drain