I need some help trying to make a goose pond

[kathiej4455]

I live in FL - have a pair of 1+ yr old African geese, and 4 3-month old Sebastopols. I have been searching the internet everywhere for info on how to make a pond for them - I have a large blue plastic kiddie pool from Walmart, but I have to literally empty it every day - and even tho I am on a well, that's a lot of water - but have had no luck getting any information that would be of any help.

We are moving all of our birds into an area of our back yard, due to the area where we had kept them up to this point, becoming basically a lake from all the torrential rain we've had (even too much for the geese), and I am going to work on making the area really nice - bought a book on chicken gardens, etc., and would like to think about either buying a free-form actual hard black plastic pond, or getting the flexible liner and making one - although I've heard that you have to be careful with the flexible liner due to the geese's claws on their feet being quite sharp.

We have a small pump that came with our above-ground pool that has never been used (bought a better one to use with the pool), and I am wondering if it is possible to install some sort of skimmer in one of those hard-shell ponds - to keep the water circulating so that it might hopefully clean the pond of as much of the goose manure as possible, so that I don't have to keep dumping the water out all the time.

I'd like to be able to plant some nice small shade-type tall shrubs (aka, small palms) around the pond area to help keep the water temp a little cooler, but if I have to keep emptying it all the time, I'm afraid the area would just be saturated all the time and would kill any vegetation I tried to put in.

We do actually have a pond (a real pond) out behind the back of our horse fencing, but there are water moccasins and alligators that live in it, so there's no way I'm letting my birds go out there.

If worse comes to worse, I guess we'd have to try and build the pond up higher and put a drain in the bottom, with a water pipe that would take the water out a ways from the back yard, but that still doesn't take care of the problem of using so much water, and having to dump it on just about a daily basis.

Any suggestions would be more than welcome!

 

[Miss Lydia]

I live in FL - have a pair of 1+ yr old African geese, and 4 3-month old Sebastopols. I have been searching the internet everywhere for info on how to make a pond for them - I have a large blue plastic kiddie pool from Walmart, but I have to literally empty it every day - and even tho I am on a well, that's a lot of water - but have had no luck getting any information that would be of any help.

We are moving all of our birds into an area of our back yard, due to the area where we had kept them up to this point, becoming basically a lake from all the torrential rain we've had (even too much for the geese), and I am going to work on making the area really nice - bought a book on chicken gardens, etc., and would like to think about either buying a free-form actual hard black plastic pond, or getting the flexible liner and making one - although I've heard that you have to be careful with the flexible liner due to the geese's claws on their feet being quite sharp.

We have a small pump that came with our above-ground pool that has never been used (bought a better one to use with the pool), and I am wondering if it is possible to install some sort of skimmer in one of those hard-shell ponds - to keep the water circulating so that it might hopefully clean the pond of as much of the goose manure as possible, so that I don't have to keep dumping the water out all the time.

I'd like to be able to plant some nice small shade-type tall shrubs (aka, small palms) around the pond area to help keep the water temp a little cooler, but if I have to keep emptying it all the time, I'm afraid the area would just be saturated all the time and would kill any vegetation I tried to put in.

We do actually have a pond (a real pond) out behind the back of our horse fencing, but there are water moccasins and alligators that live in it, so there's no way I'm letting my birds go out there.

If worse comes to worse, I guess we'd have to try and build the pond up higher and put a drain in the bottom, with a water pipe that would take the water out a ways from the back yard, but that still doesn't take care of the problem of using so much water, and having to dump it on just about a daily basis.

Any suggestions would be more than welcome!

Not sure what alls on here but maybe someone will have some ideas you can use. https://www.backyardchickens.com/t/...tures-here-ponds-pools-aviarys-coops-runs-etc

 

[Miss Lydia]

Destin lives in Fl maybe he can give you some idea... https://www.backyardchickens.com/g/...waterfowl-images-aviarys-ponds-and-waterfowl/

 

[JJRS]

QUOTE:
"If worse comes to worse, I guess we'd have to try and build the pond up higher and put a drain in the bottom, with a water pipe that would take the water out a ways from the back yard, but that still doesn't take care of the problem of using so much water, and having to dump it on just about a daily basis."

Best idea for the birds, and the most common arrangement for those of us who do not have access to creeks or irrigation water. Keeping waterfowl requires a lot of water use when well maintained.

 

[RURU]

I live in FL - have a pair of 1+ yr old African geese, and 4 3-month old Sebastopols. I have been searching the internet everywhere for info on how to make a pond for them - I have a large blue plastic kiddie pool from Walmart, but I have to literally empty it every day - and even tho I am on a well, that's a lot of water - but have had no luck getting any information that would be of any help.

We are moving all of our birds into an area of our back yard, due to the area where we had kept them up to this point, becoming basically a lake from all the torrential rain we've had (even too much for the geese), and I am going to work on making the area really nice - bought a book on chicken gardens, etc., and would like to think about either buying a free-form actual hard black plastic pond, or getting the flexible liner and making one - although I've heard that you have to be careful with the flexible liner due to the geese's claws on their feet being quite sharp.

We have a small pump that came with our above-ground pool that has never been used (bought a better one to use with the pool), and I am wondering if it is possible to install some sort of skimmer in one of those hard-shell ponds - to keep the water circulating so that it might hopefully clean the pond of as much of the goose manure as possible, so that I don't have to keep dumping the water out all the time.

I'd like to be able to plant some nice small shade-type tall shrubs (aka, small palms) around the pond area to help keep the water temp a little cooler, but if I have to keep emptying it all the time, I'm afraid the area would just be saturated all the time and would kill any vegetation I tried to put in.

We do actually have a pond (a real pond) out behind the back of our horse fencing, but there are water moccasins and alligators that live in it, so there's no way I'm letting my birds go out there.

If worse comes to worse, I guess we'd have to try and build the pond up higher and put a drain in the bottom, with a water pipe that would take the water out a ways from the back yard, but that still doesn't take care of the problem of using so much water, and having to dump it on just about a daily basis.

Any suggestions would be more than welcome!

No matter what you try to do for a pond for you geese, ect it is going to take a lot of water. We have two man made ponds and we drain the top one in the winter. Well our geese hope in it anyway and made a hole in the thick liner. We got the thickest liner we could and they still put a hole in it! The lower pond we keep water in all the time. Yes we have a $500.00 pump and cleaner and it can not keep the pond clean. It gets the feathers into it and clogs up. We have to make sure to keep pulling all the leaves out that come down and are blown into the ponds. It is a big mess.
So if you are going to put in your own pond there will be lots of work for you to do cleaning out the pond and the pump and filter.
Also remember Gators go where water is!!!!

We do not have gators but there are snakes around here and turtles snapping turtles. We have a baby snapper in there right now and need to get it out of there before it starts to grow too big.

We use a sump pump to drain the water down as far as we can so we can clean the pond good. Then pull all the leaves and poo and whatever else might be in there. Then refill the bottom pond. This year we did not full the top pond. My husband tried to patch it twice last year and the patch kept coming off.