Went from 2 ducklings to 11. How big of a pond should I dig?

[chickennewb025]

Hello! So my sister can’t be left alone at tractor supply and brought a total of 11 ducklings home and 5 chickens in the past 4 days. The pond I originally dug for the 2 ducks we got originally is not going to be big enough. How big should I make the pond for 11 ducks? The national wildlife something or other says 6-9 sq ft per duck but I always see people with little kiddie pools so I’m looking for a realistic expectation where the ducks are happy but my back isn’t broken lol

 

[cheezenkwackers]

The reason you see us using kiddie pools and the like is because they muddy water in seconds and we replace it daily. With 11 I do not see how a dug pond would stay remotely clean. I have 6 in a huge garden with four small pools. They still need to be changed daily or every other day.

 

[chickennewb025]

The reason you see us using kiddie pools and the like is because they muddy water in seconds and we replace it daily. With 11 I do not see how a dug pond would stay remotely clean. I have 6 in a huge garden with four small pools. They still need to be changed daily or every other day.

I’m putting in a natural wetland filter and recycling the water around 6/7 times an hour. I’ve read a lot about how much of a mess they make. I expect I’ll have to clean it often no matter how much natural filtration I put in but the wetland filter will be about 50% the size of the pond to hopefully have a decent impact. I know a bit about ponds I just don’t know how much space I should expect to use for the amount of ducks we have now

 

[fatty and friends]

a bunch of kiddie pools would probably be better and cleaner for the ducks

 

[chickennewb025]

a bunch of kiddie pools would probably be better and cleaner for the ducks

I’d rather clean one big area than a bunch of kiddie pools