[farmershort]

Hi All,

one of the things we lack at our new place in any sort of water environment - save for wet fields in the winter. We would really like to keep a few dual-purpose ducks eventually, and we're also big fans of providing the habitat for all of the creatures that would enjoy it.

Now, the sticking point for me is something I read recently - "If you dont have a steady flow of water already in a location, don't bother trying to dig a pond".

In the vast experience of TAS members, does that sound accurate, or have people made a success of ponds which do not have input & output streams?

Thanks

Adam

[Womble]

I think it depends on what you mean by 'success'.

If you dig a hole, it will either fill with water of its own accord, or can be made to do so.

However, if you then put ducks in it, IME it will become disgusting pretty quickly unless it has a through-flow.

Can you think creatively about the water source? We had a patch of ground that was forever boggy, so we had a pond dug at the same time as we improved the drainage in the rest of the field. The new drains lead into the pond, so 80% of the time, there is a through flow.  I've also seen a small pond which achieved through flow by routing the barn gutters into it so that it then overflowed into a drain. That gave a decent slosh through of water every time it rained, and kept things tolerable most of the time.

[landroverroy]

I graze several fields with ponds and no apparent steady flow of water. One of them almost dries up in a long hot summer, but it always fills up again either after particularly heavy rain, or else in winter as the water table rises.
 As  you mention that you have wet fields in winter then I would have thought that you have a water table that rises to a sufficient height to keep it topped up.

Look up "dew ponds" which is an old method of watering cattle. Relatively shallow ponds were dug in pasture land that had no natural water supply. These would fill with heavy dew or rain and generally keep sufficiently topped up to supply the cattle over the grazing season.

I would, however agree with Womble that duck ponds soon become pretty unpleasant. Unless you really can limit your duck numbers to a minimum, so that you still get enjoyment from seeing ducks in their natural habit, but at the same time the pond is not so overducked that all other kinds of wild life are destroyed.

[stufe35]

We have a pond which maintains its level by being fed from gutters on our house roof .  The 'pond' is in the order of 15m x 15m.

[Penninehillbilly]

If you are wanting a pond for wildlife, i would make a separate pond and fence the ducks out, it would stay cleaner and young wildlife taddies etc, would be safe. Make a smaller pond for ducks that you can clear out occasionally. I found a child's sandpit blown into our field, perfect for ducks.
Good job I read this through, pesky predictive changed taddies to teddies, wildlife?