keeping a duck pond clean

[Suze]

I have 6 ducks in a large soft fruit enclosure, about 15 x 9 metres, (yes the polypipe construction worked beautifully) with an insulated shed for sleeping in. We installed a triangular spa, purchased cheaply from the tip, and this is raised a little so I can drain out the sludge once a week. I take out 70 to 90 litres but much of the smelly foecal material floats and there are about 400-500 litres of water in the spa. I can't waste that by draining the whole thing each week. Any ideas on safe flocculants or anything???

[gardenlen]

g'day suze,

ducks won't need a water tub that large, you need to give them just enough water so they can have water when eating, and a splash, we had 6 geese and 3 ducks using a 1/2 44 gallon drum for their water, we changed that every second day probably around 100 litres of water for the garden, know one lady who had little more than a large baking tray for her ducks.

len

[Plumtree]

If you are going to provide a 'pond' for ducks you will probably have to clean it out completely at least once a week. Drakes especially leave a dreadful smell in the water! Ducks love filtering a mouthful of mud to find any nutrients in it and the mud will build up on the bottom of the 'pond'.
They also poo anywhere they happen to be.

Gardenlen has the right approach, that is, give them small easy to clean containers. Ours have the small containers but they also wander off to the nearby dams for a swim.

[Suze]

Thanks for the responses. I used a large raised spa with a large plug hole intentionally after seeing a raised pond in Robyn Francis' garden in Nimbin several years ago. She drained only the sludge from the bottom if I remember correctly and this went directly to the fruit trees.I have designed mine similarly. I'm not happy to see them swimming in brown water and my question was whether there was something safe I could use to help settle the foecal matter.

[bill]

Suze - I doubt there is anything that will settle the water enought to clean it. Could you possibly reduce the capacity of your pond while keeping the surface area. Like part filling it with gravel, rock, or the like. If you could balance the volume of water to your daily watering needs you could use rich duck water on your garden and have clean water for the ducks each day. I used to water my corn patch with duck water each day and it was amazinlgy good. Not much of an idea during winter I suppose.

[gardenlen]

g'day suze,

i don't think there would be anything that would be safe at least that is?? never heard of anything myself, some unwisely use alum-sulphate to clear murky dams but wouldn't suggest that in a duck pond.

how about you take a look at filtering it?? maybe there will be the cost of running a filter and then maintenance/cleaning. topping water up etc.,. might work using one of those samll garden windmills to pump the water around through and appropriate charcoal/sand/gravel screen amyeb als some filter cloth over the gravel bed so you just lift that out and put that into the garden???

maybe run the water throuhg a small wetland affair before returning it??? only thing unless you grow edibles bamboo, water chestnuts etc.,. you lose the benefit of the nutrients otherwise. you could gravity feed to the wetland (growing in a say 1/2 drum) then through that into storage fo at least the capacity of the duck pond, but then from there you need to return it in comes some sort of pump.

just thinking out loud chuckle

but seems like an answer maybe???

[honi]

G,day Suzy.
Gardenlen's right ducks dont need lots of water, but they do like it!
I always try to keep my animals as happy as possible.
I believe that a happ animal is a more productive one, & there's nothing like watching ducks splash around.

As for all that mucky water, what a great resource you have there!
"Turn your problem into the solution"

If you harvest water from the duck shed & divert it into the spa you wont need to keep filling it.
All of the shit will float to the top & be the first to overflow.
Put in a diversion drain to channel the overflow (maby onto those soft fruit trees)
This will cut down on maintenance & enhance multifunction.
Some sludge will build up on the botton clean this out occasionally & always have fresh drinking water in shallow heavy containers.
Good Luck

[Suze]

Thankyou honi, gardenlen, bill and plumtree. All great ideas. I leave a 10L container of water for the ducks to wash their faces in which I refresh twice a day but they love to swim in the pool and of course, I had hoped to harvest the sludge for some fantastic future fruit. I'll let you know what happens.

[Tezza]

Fresh water lolololololol...Who amongst us has fresh clean untainted water to give our ducks or chooks..

Bore water.

Rain Water

Tap water

The only true clean water..and thats not clean is a "duck pond"

Rain water is great But a bit of a burden if we need to water ourselves..

Tap water ..Well thats stuffed as well cause its ful of chemicals used in keeping it "Safe for Humans"

I ran Kharki Campbells for years until water got scarce around here So i went to chooks again...

My ducks would,drink,bathe,poop,play allmost everything including mating and they didnt give a rats arse how good or bad the water was..

Ducks pollute the water with every drink when they flush any food particles down their long necks they need water to keep their necks clear.

Ive had ducks and chooks drinking water I wouldnt even throw away it looked and smelled that bad...

Ducks dont require ponds or lakes ..Just enough to submurse there heads under water....In most cases the evaporation and spillages are sufficient enough to ""Just add more water" to fill any containers,Instead of emptying the contents some place..

Why do humans have this preoccupation with cleanliness at all costs


Tezza

[bill]

Agreed Tezza - but I try not to crap in my bath, unlike ducks.