Keeping My Pond Open

[Duckiiess]

To the OP: if you want to keep a section of the pond thawed, dig it deeper past your frost line where you are (probably 4 or 5 feet), then put a dock heater in. The other side will still freeze, but the ducks will have access that way. A very shallow pond would be really hard to keep from freezing, as the ground around and beneath it will be frozen and a massive heat sink to be fighting.

 

[Alaskan]

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

I have experienced this first hand, and know of several others who have also experienced

1. The ducks/geese getting their feet frozen to the ice so that they can not move

2. Getting encased in ice so that they could not move/break it off

 

[Duckiiess]

I have experienced this first hand, and know of several others who have also experienced

1. The ducks/geese getting their feet frozen to the ice so that they can not move

2. Getting encased in ice so that they could not move/break it off

Standing in very shallow water then? In their pen?
I've never seen a duck stand still for that long outside here, so sorry but that was a foreign concept to me. Their coop is dry on high land.

 

[rjmyooper]

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

I was thinking the same. One of the reasons why I want ducks is because they Winter so well. It's said that Ducks and Geese don't fly South for the Winter because of the temperature, but because they need open water to feed.

 

[Duckiiess]

I was thinking the same. One of the reasons why I want ducks is because they Winter so well. It's said that Ducks and Geese don't fly South for the Winter because of the temperature, but because they need open water to feed.

I believe that... there are ponds in Saratoga Springs, NY where the water never freezes and ducks live there year round

 

[rjmyooper]

https://www.amazon.com/Zerostart-22...rds=engine+block+heater&qid=1648861118&sr=8-9

 

[Alaskan]

Standing in very shallow water then? In their pen?
I've never seen a duck stand still for that long outside here, so sorry but that was a foreign concept to me. Their coop is dry on high land.

No. They are not standing still. And no, not shallow water.

They splash the water out, and with cold enough temperatures, or wind chill, it immediately freezes into ice.

 

[MGG]

Ok, to be blunt here, you are not going to have a functional pond in the spring if you try and keep water in it this winter. I may be new to chickens, but I've been an avid fish keeper for almost 3 decades. I've had my hands in quite a few ponds over that timeframe.

At a foot deep, you are what 3 ft above the frost line? If the bottom 6 inches (at a minimum) is below the frost line you can drop a pond air stone in the winter which will move the water around enough to not burst that pvc but you won't be able to keep the pond usable for any surface dwellers. You might as well just drain it at that point.

If you really want to keep this pond open for business in the winter it's going to get pricey but there are a few options, none of them real easy.

You can build an insulated structure around the pond, that covers the entire pond plus the ground distance surrounding it that is your frost line (so for a 12x8 pond with a 4 ft frost line you need a 20x16 structure). In the structure you will need a proper sized heater to keep the air at 36 degrees or warmer.

You can invest in a ground loop heating system for under the pond. Basically build a heated floor under it, set the temp to 40 and feed the heater natural gas all winter. I do this in my barn/garage but isn't cheap to install or to run all winter.

You could do geothermal as well for your pond. Best bet would be a closed loop system that runs through the pond but there are other options. This is really pricey to install but less pricey to operate as its basically a water pump running 24/7.

One thing we don't consider when keeping fish is using salt to lower the freezing temperature of the water. Salt water freezes at something like 28 degrees but I don't know anything about keeping birds and salt water.

Edit:
Just looked at the pics, didn't see em the first time. Do you have room in that shed for a small pond inside? A rubber made stock tank works pretty well indoors and they are built well enough to keep some standard fish tank heaters in there. You would need to find the heaters that are meant for cold water aquariums that can be set at like 50 but if you are insulting the shed and already have power out there it might be the best option.

I stopped getting alerts! Thank you for your input. Our frostline is around 5 and a half feet I believe.
I'm not sure about salt. I can't imagine them drinking salty water would be good for them.


So, for the winter, I used two heated dog water bowls. Some of the birds did bathe in them, but they did fine. I only lost two birds this winter, and it was from other causes. My ducks got quite dingy looking, but after being on water for the past month have mostly recovered their feather quality I think. On days above 10 degrees (not many, unfortunately) I let the ducks out into a small tractor that I had butted up against their pop door. I kept a small kiddie pool in that, and filled it with a handful of five gallon buckets. Then I'd let them out to bathe and dump the pond at night after putting them back in. They would get water logged but always dried off ok under their lamp. I just felt so bad keeping them from bathing. One issue I have now though, is that the pond filled up with snow and ice over the winter. I had drained it, and left the valve open.
It's completely thawed now and has been for probably a month. It will still get skim ice at night and on colder days, but hasn't frozen more that a 3 in layer on top. But around the valve, is a solid block of ice. I can't drain the pond. The valve is still open, though the pond is completely full. I don't know how long it'll take for that ice to melt. I had two submersible stock tank heaters running on it and couldn't get through it. It's not necessarily an issue right now, but the water is dirty and I'd like to clean it. I don't know how long it's going to take to thaw.
One other really weird issue I ran into, is my ducks' nails got super duper long over the winter. I didn't notice until last week how long they were. I have no idea how they could have even gotten that long. So I trimmed them all. It was just weird. I have no idea what could have caused that.
We were just starting to warm up, and now it's 15 degrees and snowing again.

At those temps (below 0F) you can NOT let them bathe.

They will splash out water that will freeze instantly and incase them in ice, or freeze their feet to the ice, or just chill them so much they can't move.

Bad stuff like that can happen at warmer temps too. I almost lost a duck when she got out of her pen and swam on the icy pond. Temps were maybe high 30s since the pond was melting, but that water was still very cold and full of ice.

Watch the temps, whenever the high is at least 10F (WITHOUT any wind, so a nice still day), you can bring out a bit of water for them to bathe. Keep it out only an hour or so then dump it out so they have plenty of time to dry before the temps start to plummet at night.

Yes, they might get a bit bedraggled looking, but that is way better than dead or feet lost to frostbite.





I really am not fond of heat lamps. A cold gust of air can make them break sending hot shards of glass all through your bedding.

There are safer ways to heat. Animal rated heating pads, radiant heat panels, etc.





Not sure how that would help, that building looks pretty closed up. I didn't see any ventilation, I need to look at the photos again. Even at super cold temps they need lots of ventilation.

An area in their run that is roofed and has some fogged windows, ripple plastic, or opaque shower curtains to block wind would be great. Then they can sunbathe out of the wind.





At start of winter I put the water tub on a wood pallet, which has pretty big spaces between the slats. It doesn't take long for the pallet to become encased in ice.

I can't imagine little holes staying open in winter.

In super cold I switch to a small but deep pot, so it is impossible to splash out water to make ice, but they can still dunk their heads.

If you use heated dog water bowls you might need to 1. Rig up a way to cover about half the surface area so the ducks don't splash in the water, and 2. Bring out a deep pot of water once a day and make sure all ducks dunk their heads.



.
I do not know if you have high humidity or low humidity snow.

With low humidity snow it doesn't stick to anything (so people tell me ). I live on the coast and have high humidity. The snow at my place sticks to nets and then tears it all down. Snow will stick even to super slick nylon net.

You can wait and see.... but plan for if the snow tears it all down.

Or take down the net now, and put it up next spring.

You could make a smaller roofed yard area that the animals can use in the winter.

Yeah.... I know, sucks.

Yeah, a friend told me his Muscovy hen bathed in single digit weather and both of her legs froze. She lost them both.
So I was very careful. I know a handful of people in MN that keep ducks full time on water though. They just run constant water apparently. I don't know how that can work but it does. And they have a very similar climate. I'm really wanting to get into raising diving ducks, and they have to be on water year round. So I'm looking into doing something like that. Everyone I've talked to just runs 24/7 well water through hoses to their pens. But putting in a well here would be crazy expensive, so I'm probably just going to have to wait. I ended up getting a radiator type heater, and that actually warmed the building up well. I only ran it on the coldest days. There's vents along the top, I don't think they're visible in my pics. There's also two windows I cracked open on days above freezing.
Our snow can be both, though it's usually just the low humidity type. I had no issues with the net besides squirrels chewing holes in it so they could get through to my feed.
I eliminated that issue, lol.

I just let mine freeze over, then they walk on the ice and noodle in it, causing little spots to thaw, and they enjoy playing in it. They only get to swim in small containers that I can dump and refill. (I use a few cat-litter boxes). But my winters don’t get as cold as yours. We get below freezing often, but days usually warm up above freezing. Days below zero are especially rare.

My drain lines are deeper also, but chances are that your short piece will bust and need replaced in the spring. I suppose you could drain it and leave it empty, and they could just play in the snow.
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Awww! Your winter sounds like our spring, hahaha!
My pipe actually did ok I think. Besides being covered in ice currently, lol.

To the OP: if you want to keep a section of the pond thawed, dig it deeper past your frost line where you are (probably 4 or 5 feet), then put a dock heater in. The other side will still freeze, but the ducks will have access that way. A very shallow pond would be really hard to keep from freezing, as the ground around and beneath it will be frozen and a massive heat sink to be fighting.

I get what you're saying. Having a really deep pond is just impossible for me, it would be extremely hard to keep clean and maintenance I think. And I'd have to dig all of my drainage pipes back up.

I have experienced this first hand, and know of several others who have also experienced

1. The ducks/geese getting their feet frozen to the ice so that they can not move

2. Getting encased in ice so that they could not move/break it off

Exactly. Thankfully I did not have this issue. The closest I got was some birds freezing down to ice, and pulling out some belly feathers.

 

[Regina Larsen]

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?

I like the idea of 'dig deeper'. Im thinking of a 8x12 ovalish but digging down to a 4x6' wide 6' deep well in the center - with sharply angled walls (except for the entry) figuring the aerobic nasties will not get any contact and just do their own thing keeping the water column clean (ish) Pampas and native plantain and whatever else they dont eat as bio filter.
I dont intend to mechanically filter. Pop sone mosquito fish in.
EDIT imma post this separately vs hijacking here