- Mar 16, 2011
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Trying to plan out our long term pen for our coming Welsh Harlequins that are arriving next week. I have not seen anyone else do it on here, but I had a pen idea that intrigued me, so I wanted to see what y'all think about what problems it might entail
We live in the country on 3 acres, but surrounded directly by neighbors. We have a small pond (1/4-1/2 acre maybe?) in the back yard. I was thinking of building a small open pen (10x15, maybe bigger) at the edge of the pond using 4' or 5' dog wire and landscape timber posts with a covered "house" for roosting and perhaps for the ducks to be shut in at night to protect from cats and dogs and any other more natural predators. Where it goes wonky is I was contemplating extending the pen out into the pond using T-posts driven deep into the bottom with the wire several inches under the water level (or to the bottom?) so that the ducks can effectively go in and out of the pond (shallow entry) as they wish, but are not actually free range. The pond has little vegetation aside from grasses along the edge, but seems very healthy with a lot of bream, a grass carp, and supposedly some bass and catfish-- but they are harder to "document" until I get some better fishing gear this spring.
So, what do you think? Is there any reason the small portion of the pond would not be good for them to swim in? How big a section would likely be needed? Would they still need hose water for drinking? Other problems or reasons not to go with this idea?
Reading through the forums has me pretty concerned about their water quality, as I wouldn't mind them having a plastic kiddie pool, but not really too excited about dumping and refilling so often. It's enough headache to keep the dogs and miniature horse watered, much less the added bill of flower beds and garden during the summer, so I'd LOVE to not have to add another pretty substantial water usage. Plus, why let a perfectly good pond go to waste?
Let me know what you think. Thanks.
R/T (Thomas)
We live in the country on 3 acres, but surrounded directly by neighbors. We have a small pond (1/4-1/2 acre maybe?) in the back yard. I was thinking of building a small open pen (10x15, maybe bigger) at the edge of the pond using 4' or 5' dog wire and landscape timber posts with a covered "house" for roosting and perhaps for the ducks to be shut in at night to protect from cats and dogs and any other more natural predators. Where it goes wonky is I was contemplating extending the pen out into the pond using T-posts driven deep into the bottom with the wire several inches under the water level (or to the bottom?) so that the ducks can effectively go in and out of the pond (shallow entry) as they wish, but are not actually free range. The pond has little vegetation aside from grasses along the edge, but seems very healthy with a lot of bream, a grass carp, and supposedly some bass and catfish-- but they are harder to "document" until I get some better fishing gear this spring.
So, what do you think? Is there any reason the small portion of the pond would not be good for them to swim in? How big a section would likely be needed? Would they still need hose water for drinking? Other problems or reasons not to go with this idea?
Reading through the forums has me pretty concerned about their water quality, as I wouldn't mind them having a plastic kiddie pool, but not really too excited about dumping and refilling so often. It's enough headache to keep the dogs and miniature horse watered, much less the added bill of flower beds and garden during the summer, so I'd LOVE to not have to add another pretty substantial water usage. Plus, why let a perfectly good pond go to waste?
R/T (Thomas)
