General Information
Here is a poly duck pond I have installed for my Khaki Campbell ducks.
Essentially, it's a poly water tank raised garden bed or aquatic plants pond converted into a duck pond. This item was initially designed to be dual purpose - hold water in the hollow sides and grow a garden in the middle. Internally I think it holds about 600-800 litres and in the centre pond about 1000 litres at 40cms deep.
The reason I did this is to give my ducks a place for them to have a little swim and play because I don't have a dam or natural pond on my property. Also, we have lots of cane toads so I wanted something high enough to stop the toads from jumping in and it needed to be durable.
A large bucket for ducks to dunk their heads in is fine and generally all that is needed but ducks being aquatic birds I just knew that'd love somewhere to swim so I thought - hey, what the heck, got the pond and the ducks have taken to it like a duck to...
Essentially, it's a poly water tank raised garden bed or aquatic plants pond converted into a duck pond. This item was initially designed to be dual purpose - hold water in the hollow sides and grow a garden in the middle. Internally I think it holds about 600-800 litres and in the centre pond about 1000 litres at 40cms deep.
The reason I did this is to give my ducks a place for them to have a little swim and play because I don't have a dam or natural pond on my property. Also, we have lots of cane toads so I wanted something high enough to stop the toads from jumping in and it needed to be durable.
A large bucket for ducks to dunk their heads in is fine and generally all that is needed but ducks being aquatic birds I just knew that'd love somewhere to swim so I thought - hey, what the heck, got the pond and the ducks have taken to it like a duck to...
Specifications (if any)
Installation
The poly tank is relatively light (empty) so I transported it home in a 5x7 trailer and moved it into position myself after levelling off the ground as best I could.
Once in position, and even though I wasn't using the tank for water storage, I filled the internal tank with water because this actually makes the whole structure stronger and better capable to hold the pond water (as you could imagine if the internal tank was empty the poly sides would bow out more due to less resistance.
Ramps
Naturally, the ducks needed some way to get in and out. Ducks are clumsy heavy birds and don't climb well at all so the external ramp couldn't be too steep or they just wouldn't be able to get up. I made the external ramp out of marine ply wood and I joined on some pine 2 inch posts about 30cm apart to act as a ladder - it worked a treat.
The internal ramp is just as important as I found the ducks had trouble getting out and stepping onto the external ramp. Therefore, I used a plastic coated (powder coated) steel mesh seated over an upturned terracotta pot and tied it to the external ramp. The ducks have no trouble at all getting in and out of the pond.
The poly tank is relatively light (empty) so I transported it home in a 5x7 trailer and moved it into position myself after levelling off the ground as best I could.
Once in position, and even though I wasn't using the tank for water storage, I filled the internal tank with water because this actually makes the whole structure stronger and better capable to hold the pond water (as you could imagine if the internal tank was empty the poly sides would bow out more due to less resistance.
Ramps
Naturally, the ducks needed some way to get in and out. Ducks are clumsy heavy birds and don't climb well at all so the external ramp couldn't be too steep or they just wouldn't be able to get up. I made the external ramp out of marine ply wood and I joined on some pine 2 inch posts about 30cm apart to act as a ladder - it worked a treat.
The internal ramp is just as important as I found the ducks had trouble getting out and stepping onto the external ramp. Therefore, I used a plastic coated (powder coated) steel mesh seated over an upturned terracotta pot and tied it to the external ramp. The ducks have no trouble at all getting in and out of the pond.
Pros
Ducks are pretty messy birds and they like to wash their food down by gulping water. This habit tends to inevitably drop food into the pond. Plus, they also poop as the swim around and in about a week (with 6 ducks) the pond needs to be cleaned out and refilled.
The pond water is rich in nutrients and is really beneficial pumped directly back onto the vegetable garden just like a liquid fertiliser. This is exactly what I do, about once a week, I use a cheap petrol operated water pump and a long 25 mil poly pipe to pump out the pond to where it benefits our plants. Then I refill the pond with clean water. I give the ramps a bit of a hose off and that's about it.
The whole process takes me less than 30 minutes.
The pond water is rich in nutrients and is really beneficial pumped directly back onto the vegetable garden just like a liquid fertiliser. This is exactly what I do, about once a week, I use a cheap petrol operated water pump and a long 25 mil poly pipe to pump out the pond to where it benefits our plants. Then I refill the pond with clean water. I give the ramps a bit of a hose off and that's about it.
The whole process takes me less than 30 minutes.
