small pond question????

[HarryN]

Great idea. And, post pictures of the project for us.

 

[DrRod]

Did a similar thing at my place. I had a spot next to the road that was always wet and thought it would make a good watering hole. I waited until the driest part of the year and then started to dig with my FEL. It would have been better with a BH but I don't own one. The hole I dug was about 6ft deep at the center and about 20 x 20.

Am I wrong or is this a highly impressive feat of tractoring? If it was 20 feet across and you got it 6 feet down that's not a pond, that's a shaft.:biggrin:

 

[Larro Darro]

Am I wrong or is this a highly impressive feat of tractoring? If it was 20 feet across and you got it 6 feet down that's not a pond, that's a shaft.:biggrin:

The tractor may still be down there! That's too steep to climb up.

 

[paulemar]

I have a very small pond that I repaired last year. It was an old irrigation pond at one time but the earth dam was breached or removed before we got our place and it was a mess. After I got my tractor I cleared the weeds, brush and trees, then repaired the dam, put in a 4" pipe overflow, and planted some grass on the bare soil. It's only about 22' across an 4 1/2' deep, but it is fed by ground water and rain runoff. It freezes during the Winter but never very deep or for very long. I planted some arrowheads, waterlilies and parrot feather along the shore. I also stocked some 2-3" bluegill and bought some golden shiners to keep mosquitoes under control. I also bought a dozen bullfrog tadpoles and stocked them. I saw one swimming last week and it had grown the hind legs. Someone else put in goldfish which I wasn't to happy about, but they seem OK for now. I plan to catch and stock a few small crappies to eat baby goldfish or there will be a million of them.

The pond was pretty filled with algae last Summer, but has improved a lot this year and is actually fairly clear. I expect it to be even better next year as it achieves final balance.

The local deer and wildlife drink at the pond. We even had a pair of Mallards that visited quite frequently for a couple of months.

Build your pond, enjoy it but be careful as muck can be very deep and getting a tractor stuck in muck is very easy.

 

[LD1]

Well if bluegill and minnows like mosquitoes, I won't have any issues. Pleanty of eggs and babies will get washed down there

 

[paulemar]

Both bluegills and minnows will keep the pond nearly mosquito wiggler free. They will also suck in adult mosquito's if they land on the water and a fish sees it. I have a smaller upper pond that had no fish in it until about 2 weeks ago. You could see literally clouds of wigglers in spots. After introducing the dozen golden shiners and 6 small bluegill, I haven't seen a single wiggler in the last week. I did see a school of about a hundred newly hatched fry that also disappeared in 2 days, so I guess that they got most of them too. I suspect that they were shiner fry as the bluegills seemed too small to spawn and there is no gravel for spawning beds in that pond.

 

[LastSTRAW]

maybe it's a bit bigger than 20 x 20. It is only 6 feet at the center and slopes up to about a foot at the edge. It is a bit more like a bowl than a shaft. I can't be sure anymore because it is full of water.

 

[LastSTRAW]

Good point. Maybe it's a bit bigger than 20 x 20. It is only 6 feet at the center and slopes up to about a foot at the edge. I can't be sure anymore because it is full of water.

 

[Dozernut]

"I plan to catch and stock a few small crappies to eat baby goldfish or there will be a million of them".

Don't do that, Crappie are very prolific and shortly you will have a "million" stunted Crappie. They work good in a lake but will over populate a small pond. Put in some Large Mouth Bass and they will take care of your Goldfish.