Swedish ducks & water

[BMackenzie324]

hey guys! Im fairly new here and Im looking for some opinions! Ive had call ducks and runner ducks before. I now have some blue swedish on the way. Ive read many times the whole belief of "ducks dont need much water, just enough to dunk their head". That may, scientifically be true but my call and runners absolutely loveddd their pool. So im considering a new pen for these swedish... what's everyone's opinions on water? How much do you think is enough? Whats your water setup? Pool with drain? Backyard pond? Anyone ever kept up a backyard duck pond? How did you maintain it? Cant wait to hear opinions! Thanks guy

 

[ducksinvt]

I'm in the process of building a duck pond, but I use a kiddie pool right now, i bought a small sump pump and pump it out everyday in about 15mins and refill it, pumped out my pond today as well with it, it did amazing, it took about 30 mins to pump about 400gallons of water

 

[ducksinvt]

Everyone in at once!!

 

[Duck mommy 2019]

i think all ducks NEED a kiddie pool at the least. they are called waterfowl for a reason and they need it to be happy. i’ve seen people say they had “meat” ducks so they didn’t give them swimming water and i think that’s just mean. all ducks need swimming water while they are living, even if you plan to eat them.

 

[Duckmom27]

I have two blue swedish and they like to spend all day in their pools. They have a kiddie pool and a 5ft across 1.5 ft deep pool that they share with two other ducks.

 

[HollowOfWisps]

I'm currently using water troughs that my husband rigged up with a drain hooked to an on/off valve and from there is a 50ft water tube that goes over the ravine. We also put an automatic water shutoff valve so if they splash any out it refills on its own. My ducks absolutely love it! It took my husband less than an hour to install everything and it's been running like a charm. I'm trying to get my hands on a couple 8ft round metal troughs to give them more space, but everyone has been out of stock around here since the start of covid so I only have the smaller tanks (pic taken when everything was first built hence the paint roller). I plan on bricking it in with a foot wide wall surrounding it so they have a nice ledge with some fancy brick stairs, but I'm waiting on getting the bigger trough first.

 

[CaliFarmsAR]

This is what I have. It is a stock tank in the ground!

 

[Isaac 0]

Hello there! Welcome to our community

"Duck's only need enough water to dunk their heads" is a saying that is quite frequently repeated around here, and is, IMO, plain nonsense. Take it this way, I could go without showering for a few months, and would I live (?) YES, but I'd likely look comparable to a Neanderthal. The same thing can be applied to ducks, but with a lot greater emphasis, there is a reason they are called WATERfowl, to stay healthy these birds need to have an adequate, and deep amount of supply of water, or you’re bound to have problems like wet feather, sticky eye, ectoparasites, among other problems.

Of course, when It comes to providing a deep water source in winter time, for the most of us, that’s not really feasible, so just a bucket will suffice, you’ll notice towards the end they’ll start looking rattier, but will regain appropriate feather condition once a deep water source is once available.

I have two creeks, and man-made one pond that run through my property, so the duck/geese tend to use those the most, but I do have a little pre-formed pond sunken into the ground near the house that the Call’s frequently use. I placed the pond in shade, as to decrease algae growth, and use a pump to circulate oxygen into the water to decrease anaerobic bacterial growth. Once a week, I set a large sump pump into the pond and pump it out over the yard.

 

[JacinLarkwell]

Personally, we've never given our ducks swimming water, couldn't afford to waste water and still can't, hence no more ducks. They had the rubber waterbowls for drinking and we never had a problem. They looked nice and seemed to be happy. Granted they had never seen swimming water either so they may have just not really known what they were missing.

Basically I think that they'll be happy with whatever amount you give, be it a kiddie pool or a lake.