Keeping My Pond Open

[MGG]

Hello! I hope this is in the right section. As winter is approaching, I am trying to figure out some things for my new setup. I currently have a 10x14' pond, which is around a foot deep. It's in a 36x48' pen, which houses around 30 birds. 17 of them are ducks. The pond has been amazing all spring/summer, it has a valve with underground pvc pipe that can drain the whole pond to my ditch. There's only a few feet of pipe the water fills before it reaches the valve. Water sits in that part of the pipe constantly. The rest of the pipe only has water in it when I pull the valve to drain the pond.
I would like to try to keep the pond open all winter, if at all possible. I was thinking about getting a large stock tank heater, but as the pond holds about 1,050 gallons of water, I don't know if the heaters can handle that. I also thought about an aerator, but I don't know much about those.
Our winters are cold, we usually have snow from the end of October through late April, and frequently dip into the negatives. It is not uncommon to get down to -30 or so. We also get a lot of snow. With this being my first year having this setup I'm just going to have to see how it works, but the pond is my main worry. I have a 10x16 shed with three separate pens inside, so if it gets bad I can house the birds in there, but I really want to try having them outside a lot. They're pretty cold hardy birds. The shed will be available for them to go in and out of as they please. I have a few questions on the setup for inside too but I'll wait on those. Thanks in advance for any help given. I will get pictures of the setup asap.

 

[All4Eggz]

I wish I could help, but I'm not sure.
Good luck

@U_Stormcrow ?

 

[Banana01]

Are you concerned about the pipe freezing to the drainage? Even heating the pond, that pipe is going to freeze. What type of heater do you have available? Just planning to float an electric heater? I don't see why it wouldn't work, it will float and thaw an area, if not the entire thing.

Recirculation heating is the best, where you draw the water, usually with a pump, out of the pool, heat it, and pump it back into the pool. But I doubt you have the proper equipment to set up a recirculating heater. If you can get a pump running, you would still need to heat the water which is energy intensive.

I think if your sheds are heated and enclosed that is most important. Whatver you do with an electric heater, you should be prepared for it to fail, or have a second one in case. In the industry we used propane to heat the water that circulates through coils of pipe.

Is there a way to move the pond indoors? I was imagining you had a roof over the pond, which would help because the wind chill factor will render your electric heater less effective, but maybe still effective enough to keep working. Another option is to put the electric heater inside a barrel of water then put that in the pond. It may stay warm enough to keep an area thawed on even the worst days. But again wind chill can make anything freeze.

 

[U_Stormcrow]

I wish I could help, but I'm not sure.
Good luck

@U_Stormcrow ?

I got nothing. We don't have winter here, just a few hours, on a few days, below freezing.

It was 18 last year or the year before, briefly, and below freezing from most of two days solid - I thought they were going to shut down the upper 1/3 of the State! (they DID close parts of I-10!).

 

[JacinLarkwell]

Are you concerned about the pipe freezing to the drainage? Even heating the pond, that pipe is going to freeze. What type of heater do you have available? Just planning to float an electric heater? I don't see why it won't work, it will float and thaw an area, if not the entire thing.

Recirculation heating is the best, where you draw the water, usually with a pump, out of the pool, heat it, and pump it back into the pool. But I doubt you have the proper equipment to set up a recirculating heater. If you can get a pump running, you would still need to heat the water which is energy intensive.

I think if your sheds are heated and enclosed that is most important. Whatver you do with an electric heater, you should be prepared for it to fail, or have a second one in case. In the industry we used propane to heat the water that circulates through coils of pipe.

Is there a way to move the pond indoors? I was imagining you had a roof over the pond, which would help because the wind chill factor will render your electric heater less effective, but maybe still effective enough to keep working. Another option is to put the electric heater inside a barrel of water then put that in the pond. It may stay warm enough to keep an area thawed on even the worst days. But again wind chill can make anything freeze.

What good would it do to move the pond indoors? It would still be inaccessible to the ducks

 

[MGG]

I wish I could help, but I'm not sure.
Good luck

@U_Stormcrow ?

Thanks anyway!

 

[Banana01]

What good would it do to move the pond indoors? It would still be inaccessible to the ducks

Enclosed like inside a shed or greenhouse, even temporarily, it is to cut down the wind chill.

 

[JacinLarkwell]

Enclosed like inside a shed or greenhouse, even temporarily, it is to cut down the wind chill.

Oh, okay. I thought you meant in the home like people do with expensive koi ponds

 

[MGG]

Are you concerned about the pipe freezing to the drainage? Even heating the pond, that pipe is going to freeze. What type of heater do you have available? Just planning to float an electric heater? I don't see why it wouldn't work, it will float and thaw an area, if not the entire thing.

Recirculation heating is the best, where you draw the water, usually with a pump, out of the pool, heat it, and pump it back into the pool. But I doubt you have the proper equipment to set up a recirculating heater. If you can get a pump running, you would still need to heat the water which is energy intensive.

I think if your sheds are heated and enclosed that is most important. Whatver you do with an electric heater, you should be prepared for it to fail, or have a second one in case. In the industry we used propane to heat the water that circulates through coils of pipe.

Is there a way to move the pond indoors? I was imagining you had a roof over the pond, which would help because the wind chill factor will render your electric heater less effective, but maybe still effective enough to keep working. Another option is to put the electric heater inside a barrel of water then put that in the pond. It may stay warm enough to keep an area thawed on even the worst days. But again wind chill can make anything freeze.

Well, I only drain it every week or two and it fully drains in about half an hour, so no.
I just wasn't sure how to keep the pond fully open, and if that was possible without spending a small fortune, haha.
That's what I was thinking. I couldn't find any that could keep that much water open though, maybe I wasn't looking in the right place.

Probably not, lol. I have electricity in my shed which is supplied by a heavy duty extension cord, my grandpa hooked it all up. He knows a lot about that sort of thing so I'm sure he did it right. I don't want to hook too much up to it of course though, I wouldn't want to blow anything. I read about that a bit and it seemed pretty difficult to set up.

My shed is not insulated or heated. I plan on trying to run a heat lamp or two when it gets colder, and I think that will help. I thought about insulating the smallest inside pen. I'll show which one in the pics I took.
Then I could run a lamp in there maybe? I also am thinking about drilling some small holes in the floor for drainage, putting down a few of those rubber stall mats with the holes in them, and putting bedding on top of that.
I have flooring down in my shed, it's sheet vinyl. Inside I'm planning on having one or two of those heated dog water bowls as well.
I currently use wood chips for their bedding, they make hay and straw yucky way too fast. To start I'll probably just get one and see how it works. If the pond does freeze, I can provide other water sources until I get a new one. They just get so shabby looking if they can't bathe in the winter, and they sure love their water. I'd feel bad if they had to be stuck inside.

It's an in-ground pond, so unfortunately not.
There is a big net stretched over the top of the pen, it rests on a piece of telephone pole which is down in the ground five feet. I would love to have a roof of some sort but it's not really possible. I could probably wrap the sides, or at least part of them, on the pen with plastic. I'm not sure how much that would do though.
A barrel of water, like a rain barrel? Or something else?

I'll upload the pics here, just a minute.

 

[MGG]

I got nothing. We don't have winter here, just a few hours, on a few days, below freezing.

It was 18 last year or the year before, briefly, and below freezing from most of two days solid - I thought they were going to shut down the upper 1/3 of the State! (they DID close parts of I-10!).

Haha! Thank you for replying though!
Florida is a gorgeous place. That's pretty crazy it got that cold there!