Keeping My Pond Open

[Boppo]

After reading all the comments by knowledgeable duck and pond folks, I am counting my blessings that I am just starting with chickens! We get too much cold and snow up here - I don't know how duck keepers make it happen. I actually spotted a "released" pet white duck (peking?) down on our local river in January. I called the animal control folks because I can't imagine it would end well for a former pet to try to manage the winter on its own! I don't suppose a duck like that can migrate?

 

[Alaskan]

After reading all the comments by knowledgeable duck and pond folks, I am counting my blessings that I am just starting with chickens! We get too much cold and snow up here - I don't know how duck keepers make it happen. I actually spotted a "released" pet white duck (peking?) down on our local river in January. I called the animal control folks because I can't imagine it would end well for a former pet to try to manage the winter on its own! I don't suppose a duck like that can migrate?

No, it probably wouldn't migrate.

Most domestic ducks are not all that great at flying.

 

[Boppo]

I hope they managed to collect it. I saw it about a week before we got a 2 1/2 foot snow storm. That gradually melted away, then we had ice, and about 2 inches more snow.... Got to be hard. Now we have some pretty cold temps, where it's down in single digits at night and only in the teens for the high the last couple days. It will moderate tomorrow, bouncing up into the 30's, then 40's. I don't think that segment of the river has frozen. It's a tidal river, and a bit brackish. But lower down, where it flows slower, it freezes sometimes, even though it's closer to the sea (and thus, I presume, saltier).

 

[rjmyooper]

I'm a Yooper, U.P. North, so I've been researching this. A friend of mine said it can't be done, so I have to do it now.
I have a slope in my backyard so I want one pond draining into a lower pond which drains into a septic type field. Each of the upper ponds will have heaters. I want the submersible type heaters, not floating. The septic field will have to drain into a barrel which will hold a pump to return clean water and get filled with rain water occasionally. Also, each of the ponds will need a drain to clean out the mess twice a year.
I have a lot of experience with structural foundations and some experience with drain water. The whole system works in my head.

 

[aart]

I'm a Yooper, U.P. North, so I've been researching this. A friend of mine said it can't be done, so I have to do it now.
I have a slope in my backyard so I want one pond draining into a lower pond which drains into a septic type field. Each of the upper ponds will have heaters. I want the submersible type heaters, not floating. The septic field will have to drain into a barrel which will hold a pump to return clean water and get filled with rain water occasionally. Also, each of the ponds will need a drain to clean out the mess twice a year.
I have a lot of experience with structural foundations and some experience with drain water. The whole system works in my head.

Septic field, like the same one your toilet drains into?
Will you bury the pump hose deep(between barrel and upper pond) so it doesn't freeze?
Do you realize that ice will build up around ponds and spillways and could very well drain and/or block water levels?

 

[Alaskan]

I'm a Yooper, U.P. North, so I've been researching this. A friend of mine said it can't be done, so I have to do it now.
I have a slope in my backyard so I want one pond draining into a lower pond which drains into a septic type field. Each of the upper ponds will have heaters. I want the submersible type heaters, not floating. The septic field will have to drain into a barrel which will hold a pump to return clean water and get filled with rain water occasionally. Also, each of the ponds will need a drain to clean out the mess twice a year.
I have a lot of experience with structural foundations and some experience with drain water. The whole system works in my head.

The issue isn't keeping the water thawed... but the fact that water splashed out will freeze on the birds themselves.

This can be incredibly dangerous.

 

[rjmyooper]

Septic field, like the same one your toilet drains into?
Will you bury the pump hose deep(between barrel and upper pond) so it doesn't freeze?
Do you realize that ice will build up around ponds and spillways and could very well drain and/or block water levels?

Sort of like that. I will just dig a wide hole (2' x 4' x 3' deep), use pea gravel at the bottom, regular stone (#2) above that. I could use some road cloth that we sell at work, which allows seepage. I need to figure out how to connect that filter/septic field to a deeper hole which will have the barrel and pump. The pump will connect to the top pond through a buried PVC to prevent freezing.

 

[aart]

Sort of like that. I will just dig a wide hole (2' x 4' x 3' deep), use pea gravel at the bottom, regular stone (#2) above that. I could use some road cloth that we sell at work, which allows seepage.

Ah, so that's your mechanical filter....
...if the water comes in from below the layers of stone.

I need to figure out how to connect that filter/septic field to a deeper hole which will have the barrel and pump. The pump will connect to the top pond through a buried PVC to prevent freezing.

Dig deeper

 

[rjmyooper]

Dig deeper

I will have to put a grate at the end of a PVC pipe so the stone doesn't travel through the pipe and into the pump house.

 

[Duckiiess]

The issue isn't keeping the water thawed... but the fact that water splashed out will freeze on the birds themselves.

This can be incredibly dangerous.

My ducks break through the ice whenever they can during the winter to play in the water, every now and then I see little pieces of ice on their wings, but it falls off quickly. Ice is fragile, feathers are very flexible.. have a really hard time imagining this being dangerous in any way