Pond Questions

[Misfits Farm 92]

I have 14 jumbo pekins that I'd like to give a larger pond instead of a few kiddie pools. I also have 7 geese and 10 Indian runners, but the pond would primarily be for the pekins. I'd like some advice on how to do this. Should I buy one of those plastic ponds and put it in ground, or would a hole with pond liners be better? Do I even need pond liners to make it work? I know a plastic pond will need a drain, but would a pond with liners need a drain as well? I'm not really sure how to add a drain, but I'm willing to learn. I'm thinking maybe 10 x 10 ft with pond liners, but I will absolutely change my mind if I get advised against it. I'll add pictures of where I plan to put the pond soon.

 

[yarrowhouse]

I think for that many ducks, it would need to be bigger both so they would have room to move around and to account for how dirty they will make it with poop.

We have 4 ducks and a pond about 6ft x 8ft, 18 inches deep at most. Pic below. It is slightly in the ground, but mainly I built it up using concrete blocks and some dirt I excavated from inside the pool. I installed a bottom drain, it is on a slope so the pipe comes above ground about 20ft away in the garden. I drain it once per week or so, sometimes every two weeks but that is too long given how gross the water looks by then. We also created a "bog filter" which pumps water into a bed of sand, pea gravel, water loving plants. It helps but I only have 1 solar panel to run it so can't run it long enough.

Hope this helps. Happy to answer more or share pics.

 

[Misfits Farm 92]

I think for that many ducks, it would need to be bigger both so they would have room to move around and to account for how dirty they will make it with poop.

We have 4 ducks and a pond about 6ft x 8ft, 18 inches deep at most. Pic below. It is slightly in the ground, but mainly I built it up using concrete blocks and some dirt I excavated from inside the pool. I installed a bottom drain, it is on a slope so the pipe comes above ground about 20ft away in the garden. I drain it once per week or so, sometimes every two weeks but that is too long given how gross the water looks by then. We also created a "bog filter" which pumps water into a bed of sand, pea gravel, water loving plants. It helps but I only have 1 solar panel to run it so can't run it long enough.

Hope this helps. Happy to answer more or share pics.


View attachment 4161146

You're right, now that I see your ducks in that pond I realize I'm going to need to think a lot bigger. I'm thinking about 10 x 20 ft now. Could I see a picture of the slope where your drain comes out so I can visualize how much of a slope I would need? I may need to rethink where I put this pond, because the area is pretty flat. This is a picture of what I was thinking, but now I'm not so sure.

 

[yarrowhouse]

Here's a picture, if this is helpful. It comes out in the garden but there is a shallow little boggy area where it lands.

That picture is from the right of the earlier picture. The little cabinet is new - solar controller and battery.

When I was designing I think I figured 2 inches slope per 10ft, so 20ft away was 4 inches slope. And the bottom drain went down 6 inches to make its curve, so total 10 inches lower than the lowest point of the pond. You probably don't need the same length as us, so you could ballpark the base of your pond as a layer of 8 inch blocks, and on top of that you could have a 2ft deep pond with 3 more layers. Or do the math to have somebody dump X cu ft of dirt and shape it in the pile.

The other thing we hadn't fully planned for was the amount of water cycling through. It really does get pretty dirty in a week, and I estimate it's 500-600 gallons. Our well pump is starting to struggle and I have to give it a couple of breaks while filling.

 

[Misfits Farm 92]

Here's a picture, if this is helpful. It comes out in the garden but there is a shallow little boggy area where it lands.
View attachment 4161764

That picture is from the right of the earlier picture. The little cabinet is new - solar controller and battery.

When I was designing I think I figured 2 inches slope per 10ft, so 20ft away was 4 inches slope. And the bottom drain went down 6 inches to make its curve, so total 10 inches lower than the lowest point of the pond. You probably don't need the same length as us, so you could ballpark the base of your pond as a layer of 8 inch blocks, and on top of that you could have a 2ft deep pond with 3 more layers. Or do the math to have somebody dump X cu ft of dirt and shape it in the pile.

The other thing we hadn't fully planned for was the amount of water cycling through. It really does get pretty dirty in a week, and I estimate it's 500-600 gallons. Our well pump is starting to struggle and I have to give it a couple of breaks while filling.

Thank you, I think I could probably make this work where I originally thought now that I see this part of your set-up. I was thinking I'd need a much steeper hill. I could probably drain the pond into the emu pen, where there's kind of a ditch that they love to lay in when there's water in it. The extra water would probably flow into the pig pen from there, and they'd love that on a hot day. I'll have to test this out and make sure the water goes where I want, but I think it could work. I don't have a well so I think filling it should be fine.