I have no idea what I am doing

[mobius]

I know chickens LOVE to peck at and and destroy insulation in any form known to man or woman. It is an insulation fetish. Therefore if insulation exists, we, the chickens, are hereby bent upon eradication and removal from the earth. This is a chicken mission. It is not a joke. I don't know if this mission is shared with ducks.

I should note that my chickens' coop is not insulated. For good reason, although it would provide hours of endless entertainment and an early demise.

 

[Ravynscroft]

Good point, mobius... and yes, ducks are very similar in that regard... I had a juvenile Call that swore up and down styrofoam peanuts were ducky popcorn... and she was an absolute terror about finding them... and eating them... I honestly don't know how many she consumed before we were able to get rid of all the peanuts, but luckily she didn't have any adverse reactions to it... scared the beejeezuz outta me though, so you'll want to avoid a similar situation...

 

[WVduckchick]

My call's pool/boat is fiberglass. Rough fiberglass. I hear them under the hull, pecking/scraping away at it. I hope they don't actually dig a hole in it!

On the racoon issue, set some live traps outside Lucky's area.
I caught two coons early on with my big ducks. Their pen isn't covered. The coons would climb the fence, eat the duck feed and leave. But i still relocated them. (in ground relocation) but they never bothered the ducks. The ducks are bigger than they are!

(I'm not advocating an open pen, cause I'd hate to see someone lose an animal, but just sharing that coons never bothered my ducks)

 

[Suzi18]

It is a preformed black plastic pond. I'm hoping to fill the deep end with something and burry that part leaving the upper 18 inches above ground and add a valve to empty it easily.

As Shawluvsbirds said. I would put some rocks or pavers of some sort on the bottom of the deep part to help take up some space.

 

[Steven Mazzo]

I don't know what kind of foam you could use that wouldn't eventually disintegrate or she would likely pick at it. Maybe just some flat rock in the deep part to take up some volume?

I thought of the rock but the I would have a problem draining the last 12 inches of water where the rocks are and that would be the worst part with all the poop settling. I def need to fill that section completely with something maybe even concrete

 

[Suzi18]

I thought of the rock but the I would have a problem draining the last 12 inches of water where the rocks are and that would be the worst part with all the poop settling. I def need to fill that section completely with something maybe even concrete

True....but as I suggested a while back. If you use an inexpensive fountain pump and place it at the bottom of the pond with the rocks around it, then you just use some plastic tubing and attach it to the pump and run the tubing out into the yard, garden or where ever. Plug in the pump and it will do all the work and also act as a filter to filter out the poop and other debris. I do this every year with my Koi pond and it saves the backbreaking work of emptying it by bucketful.You can leave the pump in there and just plug it in when you need to. Just a thought.

 

[Flufferes]

I absolutely love this thread

 

[DwayneNLiz]

I thought of the rock but the I would have a problem draining the last 12 inches of water where the rocks are and that would be the worst part with all the poop settling. I def need to fill that section completely with something maybe even concrete

i would put some pea stone or pavers in the bottom and put a bottom drain in that has a gravity feed or pump, here is a site that talks about how to do it (though a little over kill for your size but will give oyu some good information,

http://theponddigger.com/bottom-drain-technology/

maybe youtube some different things

 

[shawluvsbirds]

True....but as I suggested a while back. If you use an inexpensive fountain pump and place it at the bottom of the pond with the rocks around it, then you just use some plastic tubing and attach it to the pump and run the tubing out into the yard, garden or where ever. Plug in the pump and it will do all the work and also act as a filter to filter out the poop and other debris. I do this every year with my Koi pond and it saves the backbreaking work of emptying it by bucketful.You can leave the pump in there and just plug it in when you need to. Just a thought.

Do you have your fountain pump inside a filter box or anything? I was wondering myself if that would work. I have a little fountain pond that I use one in but I had to get a filter box to put my pump in cause it kept getting clogged up.

 

[Suzi18]

Do you have your fountain pump inside a filter box or anything? I was wondering myself if that would work. I have a little fountain pond that I use one in but I had to get a filter box to put my pump in cause it kept getting clogged up.

I do have a filter box in my big pond but I only have the built in pump filter in my little pond. I do have to hose it of once in a while as it does get clogged with debris but it unattaches from the pump itself easily so the pump can just stay in the water all the time.