Show me your pools

[igorsMistress]

Hi all. I have duck eggs in the incubator and have a few questions for those of you that use pools. Pics would be greatly appreciated!
Is bigger and deeper necessarily better than just a kiddie pool? What about getting in and out? Do they need steps? Do you have a drain, or do you just dump it?

 

[HappyDuckie]

Mine have a large kiddy pool. I clean it out every day, since 4 ducks really get it dirty.

 

[Duck mommy 2019]

kiddy pool works best because you can clean it out daily, anything bigger would be hard to dump daily and the ducks would end up swimming in dirty water. i do two kiddie pools for my five ducks

 

[igorsMistress]

Mine have a large kiddy pool. I clean it out every day, since 4 ducks really get it dirty.

thank you! I was sort of thinking that would be best but the huge ponds are so nice to look at. Likely a pain in the rear though.

kiddy pool works best because you can clean it out daily, anything bigger would be hard to dump daily and the ducks would end up swimming in dirty water. i do two kiddie pools for my five ducks

Do you keep them side by side or separated? I have two areas that I know could handle the water regularly so was thinking about having them in separate areas.

 

[Duck mommy 2019]

thank you! I was sort of thinking that would be best but the huge ponds are so nice to look at. Likely a pain in the rear though.

Do you keep them side by side or separated? I have two areas that I know could handle the water regularly so was thinking about having them in separate areas.

you can do together or separate the ducks may like them seperate incase they don’t want to swim with one of the other ducks

 

[Floof]

I live on a steep hill so the kiddy pools weren't working for us. I ended up stacking some cinderblocks we already had on hand and putting a tarp down to line the inside of it. The bricks are only stacked on the 3 downhill sides and the ducks just walk in. To change the water I pull out 2 bricks and then replace them to fill it back up. The nice thing about the bricks is you can always change the shape and configuration. We have tried deeper vs shallow but wide and ended up liking the shallow and wide shape better because they all fit at once without having to get more bricks.

 

[igorsMistress]

I live on a steep hill so the kiddy pools weren't working for us. I ended up stacking some cinderblocks we already had on hand and putting a tarp down to line the inside of it. The bricks are only stacked on the 3 downhill sides and the ducks just walk in. To change the water I pull out 2 bricks and then replace them to fill it back up. The nice thing about the bricks is you can always change the shape and configuration. We have tried deeper vs shallow but wide and ended up liking the shallow and wide shape better because they all fit at once without having to get more bricks. View attachment 2396445View attachment 2396446View attachment 2396448

Love this idea! I have a downhill area in my yard that this might work in.

 

[igorsMistress]

you can do together or separate the ducks may like them seperate incase they don’t want to swim with one of the other ducks

Thank you!

 

[KaleIAm]

Kiddie pools work, but I had several issues. My ducks need help both getting in and out - so we needed to build them a step to get in and large rocks on the inside to help them get out. Dumping the water is also very hard for me, as I have extreme arthritis and very little strength in my right hand. Depending on your upper body strength maybe this will be a non issue for you. First I had to remove the giant slippery algae covered rocks, and then somehow using my leg and left hand little by little tip the water out. Then there is the problem that wherever you dump the pool there will be a huge muddy mess. You probably won't want that in their coop. Eventually, since the plastic folds when you dump it the pool will fail. I feel bad about making that much plastic waste.

We ended up using a water trough and drilling a hole in the bottom. It has a long hose that pipes the water away so I can easily empty and refill their pool everyday without hurting myself.

I'm actually not sure that they love their big pools more than small containers though. I used to make it a big priority to take my ducks to our big pond every weekend - but I'm not sure they enjoy it more than a hose left running in the grass.

 

[igorsMistress]

Kiddie pools work, but I had several issues. My ducks need help both getting in and out - so we needed to build them a step to get in and large rocks on the inside to help them get out. Dumping the water is also very hard for me, as I have extreme arthritis and very little strength in my right hand. Depending on your upper body strength maybe this will be a non issue for you. First I had to remove the giant slippery algae covered rocks, and then somehow using my leg and left hand little by little tip the water out. Then there is the problem that wherever you dump the pool there will be a huge muddy mess. You probably won't want that in their coop. Eventually, since the plastic folds when you dump it the pool will fail. I feel bad about making that much plastic waste.

We ended up using a water trough and drilling a hole in the bottom. It has a long hose that pipes the water away so I can easily empty and refill their pool everyday without hurting myself.

I'm actually not sure that they love their big pools more than small containers though. I used to make it a big priority to take my ducks to our big pond every weekend - but I'm not sure they enjoy it more than a hose left running in the grass.

This is very similar to what I was thinking of doing actually. Is the tub elevated for the drain? I see a platform there also. I would like something simple to clean like this and I have areas where I can use the water for plants other than my vegetable garden.