Natural Pond Food/Setting For Ducks

[Shewholovesducks]

This year I'm hopefully getting a flock of Ducks and maybe a chicken. I've been doing a bit of research and was wondering would planting a pond that contained many foods ducks naturally find on their own significantly lower feed? Or even replace it entirely? Would the pond need to be lined and have the plants placed in pots or would they fare better on an earth bottomed pond? How large should the pond be? We have limited space but would it even be worth trying or is a large well filtered pond required? As we go along we hope to update this thread with progress and tips that can help but I was wondering if anyone else has tried it yet? Large or small scale? What plants did you use and with what results? And if you choose to add animals to the pond for them to eat which kinds and were there any special requirements for them? We've kept 2 earth bottom ponds for Koi and goldfish for about 4 years but sadly they were raided by cats and raccoons last fall due to drought and we lost all but a few fathead minnows. So we plan on re-doing and expanding them and possibly installing a liner of some sort.

Plants we plan on getting pond wise:
Semi Aquatic

• Cattails
• Wild Rice
• Wild Millet

Fully Aquatic

• Hornwort (Coon Tail)
• Sago Pond weed
• Water Celery
• Duckweed
• watercress
• Water Spinach
• Frogbit (for the plant filter I haven't be able to find out if they eat it or not)

Non Aquatic but grown around or in pond for food:

• Sweet red corn
• kale
• alfalfa grass
• Marigolds
• cabbage

We plan on getting grass (ghost) shrimp, freshwater clams, trapdoor snails, and more Fat Head Minnow's to fill their protein needs. I've no clue about ponding invertebrates other then aquarium snails so if anyone has any feed back that'd be appreciated! Minnows however are easy to breed and produce 100's of babies with not much help just a pvc pipe or a overturned cup and not much feed as they eat so many bugs, algae and mosquito's.

Here bellow are some great resources as far as to which plants they eat and where/how to get them and more:

http://www.minnesotawaterfowler.com/article_aquaticfood.htm
http://www.1atexasduckhunting.com/duckfood.htm
http://midwestpermaculture.ning.com/group/plantguilds/forum/topics/a-wild-ricepond-guild
http://riverrefugeseed.com/products5.html
http://www.kestersnursery.com/Wetland Plant's.htm
http://www.habitatnow.com/store/shop/shop.php?pn_selected_category=19

They can also be found on Ebay, Local wildlife nurseries, universities, or my favorite way free just be sure to carefully inspect and clean wild plants and quarantine animals so you don't introduce parasites or disease into your pond .

Post your systems as well mine has only had fish so far but we'll update it once everything is planted and we have ducks




Our Pond site before :

 

[ducksinarow]

Very pretty. You did a great job.

 

[Shewholovesducks]

thanks! Most people just think its a hole in the ground but I hope it looks a lot better when we upgrade it and get the plants and everything set up!