Pond in a chicken run, Yes or No?

[ToniTalley]

That pond sounds wonderful. Stocked with Catfish? How much can you harvest from it? A natural pond as you describe is much different than a little "pond liner" type of pond!

We don’t eat the catfish, they are our pets . I know, we are suckers, feeding and taking care of all these free loader fish and chickens.

 

[tigger19687]

I would say no. My pond was there 1st and I had it closed off from them but then let them go near it due to construction around the back.
Here is my back yard, WITH KOI pond.
They will Poop in it, around it and drink from it (I am ok with that part) and drop their feathers in it.
Had one Hen that I was trying to move out of my way, took a SWIM in the pond, not my idea of a good time. It was Summer then but I didn't want feathers in the filter system or pump.

If you are looking for a water feature.... make one of those 1/2 barrel ones with plants in it. Maybe even a small fountain pump. They will come and say Hi to it but not want to kill themselves in it.

Mine like the "bad" water over the clean water so I stopped fretting over it. Change it on Sunday and that is that. I have stupid chickens too

@lazy gardener suicide chickens . Why do you not live near me ! We would get along so well hahahhaha.
I had a hen who got over on top of the grass area and want to fly ontop of the netting. Damn good thing I was there as the neck got stuck! Since on top of the netting the body was held up........other wise we would be having chicken stew

 

[lazy gardener]

@lazy gardener suicide chickens . Why do you not live near me ! We would get along so well hahahhaha.

I do not live near you because you have not yet moved to my area! I don't do city. Move up here to the north country, and we can be neighbors.

The closest I have gotten to an outdoor pond feature is a rain barrel. Supposedly gold fish are no longer allowed in outdoor water applications. My understanding is that gold fish do a great job keeping the mosquito larvae from maturing, and they also fertilize the water, resulting in a great symbiotic relationship: mosquitoes breed in the barrel, fish eat the larvae, therefore, mosquito population goes down, water fertilizes the plants. Feeder gold fish are less than 20 cents/each. Of course, one could also put a gold fish in a little bowl, and keep in in the house...

 

[aart]

During our extreme heat this summer, I followed the advice of a chicken blogger and filled a five gallon bucket with water as a dipping pond of sorts. It helped cool them down, and two actually sat there and floated.

As the gentle breeze would blow them this way and that, they'd just float along and didn't seem to mind the new view as they rotated in circles in the bucket.

Wants to know what kind of 5 gallon bucket has enough room for 1 let alone 2 chickens to float in the breeze?

 

[ToniTalley]

Wants to know what kind of chicken purposely wants to float in said breeze?

 

[lomine]

My ducks love to drink the water when clean and fresh. They really like when I change their 2 gallon buckets every night. Any swimming tubs newly filled are immediately used. Which, as all duck owners know, are also immediately pooped in. The chickens on the other hand seem to prefer the just-pooped-in duck tubs. Go figure.

A natural pond is going to be its own mini ecosystem, especially with fish. Fish poop, bacteria convert poop to plant nutrients, plants clean the water by “eating,” plants grow, fish eat plants, and on the cycle goes. It’s a nice closed system when everything is in balance. A small backyard pond with only water and a man-made filtration system requires a lot more work to keep clean. Even if you aren’t too worried about the chickens drinking the water you probably wouldn’t want to see or smell a dirty pond for long.

 

[tigger19687]

In my opinion of having a pond, the fish DO NOT keep the larvae in check. unless you have a LOT of fish and a few larvae.
@lazy gardener I am going to move to OPEN area in Central MA, that is about as Cold and Snowy that I want to get. I lived in Bath ME one Winter... not wanting to do that again
But maybe you will come down to visit

 

[lissalischicks]

Just read this thread and glad to know I'm not the only one with stupid chickens. Mine always run to the run off water that is mixed with poop and drink from it. (We hose down their area every so often to clean the outside of the run) I used to try to put a bowl of clean water next to them so they would stop drinking the dirty water. When that didnt work I would put the bowl on top of the dirty water so they would get the hint.... they didn't get the hint... I've given up now

 

[4 ever Orpington]

Absolutely not.

First, chickens are prone to sudden episodes of committing suicide. Chicks pop out of the shell, hard wired to look for new and novel ways of committing suicide. "Hey, Rudy... Watch this!" He says as he flies up and gets his head stuck through the fencing. A chicken can drown in a water bucket.

Second, the pond just might be a good home for intermediate hosts for a lot of internal parasites.

Third, mosquitoes.

Fourth, chicken poop. chickens poop everywhere. If your birds don't drown in the pool, they will surely be filling it with poop.

Well said !

 

[Matija]

i dont know if you would like this idea but zou can put pond with tilapia and over it put chicken coop with fence bottom so zou fertilize pond so zou dont need to feed fish