water for ducks in winter???

[KansasKid]

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as long as they don't stay in the water through the night as it freezes they will be fine. last year i would put on my chest waders, walk a corner of the pond breaking the ice for and the would run at the pond and plop down on the ice not knowing but in the end they would swim for a bit then actually stand on the edge of the and sleep. but during the night when it got colder they went into the night pen where they had hay in the back to sleep on.

 

[KansasKid]

well i just went to lowes, returned my pond pump and got the 1/6hp ->1500 gph utility pump so i'm going to go try it out and see how well it works.

 

[KansasKid]

What a day! i just got the pond emptied and starting to refill because i spent all day looking for pumps. When i went to get one from lowes and brought it home i read through the manual and it ended up having oil in it so i brought it back (not 30 minutes after i had brought back my small pond pump). then not finding anything there went to home depot. I browsed forever and took one up to the counter and asked if it had oil in it and the guy called several people and finally said no so i bought it and went out to my truck and this time read the manual in my truck, and sure enough, OIL. so i brought it back and asked how much it would be to order one like sianara and they told me $110, and that wasn't gonna happen. So i drove to the next town over and went to Atwoods were i finally found a 1/6 hp pump with no oil and environmentally safe. and all it took me was a good 8 hours......

 

[sianara]

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I feel your pain

It took me 2 years of research to come up with my final set up and mainly it was so long because I kept getting bad info from certain people that knew nothing about ponds or ducks! Oh well, live and learn right? Now that you've got the right pump they should be all set. I just emptied my pool today for the second time. I've found I can go about 2 weeks before emptying so that is really good.

Dances with Ducks: I agree it can be overwhelming for new duck owners as far as winter care goes but I think there are several very easy/simple solutions on this thread that should not be overwhelming for newbies. The simplest is a bucket/tub of water once a day and empty it before night fall. That's what I did for years and it served me well. They really only "need" to be able to dip heads and preen themselves they just LIKE to swim

I also agree with your comment that "as weather permits...". I found on "warmer" days I could give them more water and they would actually get in and splash around instead of just head dipping.

 

[KansasKid]

Ok so what i see from your thread your drain is closed and the pump sets on top? does yours run 24/7? and how much silt and dirt does your collect?
i used an actual sump pump and my new pump and both only got the small stuff so there were still small gravel like silt in the bottom and mine is in ground so i have no drain to wash i down. I would have liked it to be above ground because of the digging but one of my pintails is pinioned and wouldn't be able to fly up there and has kinda a bad foot so not a lot of climbing can be down.

 

[Quacking]

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Its not hard to ensure your ducks have clean water day and night. Nor to allow them to swim throughout the winter months. They still get dirty and want to wash their bodies in full - not just their heads. I think its great that people are going to these lengths to ensure their ducks have the best of care provided for them. While its not neccesary to go to those extremes- its still important that have the basics catered for. I know I often get up in the middle of the night to get a drink of water- just because they are animals shouldnt mean they are not afforded the same comforts. With the shorter day light hours- ducks are cooped up for longer hours at night. For all of you who have ducks that stampede for a drink in the morning when they are let out- think about what you are really doing to them. They are obviously very thirsty if thats what they do first.
Do they NEED it?? Ok so the ducks arent all dead in the morning without water- but that doesnt mean they shouldnt be provided with it or dont need it.

 

[Dances with Ducks]

Quacking you bring up an important point. Dusk to dawn in winter is far too long to go without water. I started out without a predator proof pen, so my ducks were locked in their house with water overnight the first winter. The freezing water made it difficult to keep their bedding fresh but it was necessary because of the long time they spent in their house. We then set up a predator proof pen so they could spend longer hour out of their house in spite of the dark. I noticed when the weather was really cold the ducks would spend more of their time in the house, putting themselves to bed early and not leaving until daylight. They just weren’t interested in getting to their water all the time when it was that cold. I do prefer to lock them in their houses at night for double protection, and yet they don’t run gasping for water when I let them out. Them usually like to run, stretch their wings, socialize, and nibble on the grass for a while before they make their way to the water. Of course at whatever point I put fresh water in their buckets or pool they will make a beeline for it.
Another thing I have noticed is the behavior of a mother duck and her ducklings. She will take her ducklings to bed early, before sundown, and they all with go without food or water for over twelve hours. It seems a momma duck and her ducklings are about as vulnerable as ducks get, but they go without water for this long of their own choice. I do notice the ducklings raised by duck don’t grow quite as quickly as those that I raise in a brooder, with water and food available 24/7. But, up to a point, I’m not convinced that growing rapidly is always an indication of better health. Those momma raised ducklings were pretty hardy.
So I have felt assured they are fine without water for a period of time overnight, but I’m so glad you pointed out that the difference in night lengths in winter need to be seriously considered. If you cannot leave your ducks out for a time after dark with water I feel you should provide it for them in their houses and find a way deal with the mess. I was completely changing their straw every day and of much of it was freezing into an ever growing mountain of ice, but it was necessary all considered.

 

[sianara]

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The pump will empty whatever silt it can suck up until the water level gets to the intake holes in the pump then you need to shut it off or the pump will burn out. What I did to clean out the silt was to use both my water hose running and my wet/dry vac to vacuum up any remains. I was much more efficient this time around as I only had to empty the wet/dry vac once (as opposed to 3 times the first time around).

As the water is being pumped out I periodically sprayed the slanted walls down to push the silt down to the lowest level then I vacuumed it completely out (kept the water running all the while). Next, I splashed the sides of the pool with about 2 cups of bleach and used a regular broom and a little more water running to "scrub" the sides down. Turned on the vacuum again and emptied the pool for the last time then started the long filling up process again. Since we have well water my DH has requested I not run it longer than 30 minutes at a time so I need to let it rest for 30 minutes in order for the well to fill up again. Needless to say that's a pain in the patootie and it takes a few hours to fill doing it this way but I don't want to spend $1200+ on a new well pump (been there, done that!)

I'm very pleased with the use of the wet dry vac and the pump together. It is much cheaper for me than my original plan to buy a pond vacuum for $400. I just couldn't justify spending that much $ for a pond vacuum which is why I kept researching... BTW, if you go the wet/dry vacuum route make sure to rinse it out very, very good before storing or it will be a mass of bacteria laden yuck! This time, I not only rinsed the reservoir out completely and the top part but I added two cups of bleach and filled it to the top with cold water then put the top part back in place to soak. I let it set like that for 20 minutes while I did the other clean up and then I dumped & rinsed it a final time. I checked it today and it doesn't stink at all!

(BTW this vacuum is now designated strictly for pool clean up. Gonna buy another one to clean out the basement as soon as they go on sale at Sears again!)

Yes, I do have the exit drain installed but I didn't cut the hole into the liner/underlayment at this time. I might not do it, I'm going to see how using the pump and vacuum together goes for awhile before I decide if I want to cut the hole in the liner/underlayment. At least it's in place if I ever decide to do it.

ETA: to answer your questions (I got a little carried away and just noticed I hadn't even answered you

)
1) Right now I'm not running the pump except to empty the pool. I imagine by the end of this month it'll be cold enough to run it more often so the water doesn't freeze but I don't anticipate it running 24/7 for awhile. At least not until we are in the dead of winter or are going to have more than a few hours of freezing temps.
2) If I had to measure the silt I'd say it was probably about 3 cups worth.

 

[KansasKid]

Well i emptied it out yesterday and it already had decent amount of silt in it today. So i constructed yet another filter and this time changed it up a bit. I took 2 five gallon buckets and cut a hole in the side of one near the bottom where i can fit a pipe i then cut foam noodles into rings and filled the bottom with it (i would have put some other type of material in it but its what i had on hand and i was curious to see if it would work, and if not, its not hard to take apart ..) i then put a section of a noodle inside one of the ends of a pvc pipe, capped it, drilled a few small holes to let the water flow and put it in the bucket. Then i took the second bucket and drilled a few holes on the bottom of it then set it inside the first bucket then i put the pump inside that, put the lid on and tried it out. -so far it looks like it will work for a time, only problem i face at the moment is have a build up of silt in the bottom bucket that might cause the the top bucket to run dry and burning the motor. So i have been checking it every so often to look at the build up of silt and flow of water and in the past 2 hours the water inside the top bucket has stayed level with the water in the pond.

 

[travislilliana]

hi, i have been reading a lot of these posts and love all the ideas. my problem is now that the weather is changing, my hose froze. i also cant keep the water on all winter to fill their pool. i have two ducks that love their pool. just looking for some ideas on how to keep my hose from freezing while i still have my water on. thank you