Pond dreaming is over

EddieWalker · Mar 8, 2009

Phil,

What's with all that white stuff? I wont even tell you about the weather here, but will just hint about mowing the grass and having to wear a hat to avoid a sun burn!!!!

The bird house looks awesome. I'm sure it will be another focal point that will add to your enjoyment while at your pond.

Eddie

philbuilt · Mar 9, 2009

Eddie,
That white stuff is what keeps the ground water levels full I hope. Yes it's time for it to go. The dogs Kobe and Skippy just want to go for there nightly walks to the pond. We are now at the point we won't go down there with them till the ice is out. They don't seem to be afraid to walk on the ice and I don't want have to go in and get them.

We are hoping the bird house will invite some new birds to the area. The doll house had 8 rooms so some of the holes that you see on the front are fake. I tried to separate them in hopes of having multiple families.

Do you know if the duck factory will work? I'm hoping that the ducks will eat some of the weeds in the pond. I think they are vegetarians.
So your place is coming alive! That very cool.

The plan this year is to clean up all the tree branches from the last big storm. Then I will be lining the feeder pond walls with rocks so that it looks a little more natural.

Phil

Thumper & Buttercup · Mar 9, 2009

Hey Phil,

We have a state setup area about 10 miles down the road, they use that type of nest, they also use a dish with bedding in it for nests. I can get you some photos if you like, it will be a couple of days we are about to get hit with a blizzard.

philbuilt · Mar 9, 2009

Thumper,
Thanks that would be wonderful.

Here is a picture of my walking partners.

Phil

studor · Mar 9, 2009

I have a few of those duck factory type nests on my back pond (about 30 acres) and they do get used by mallards. I have flooded timber so I wire them to the trees. I also have a dozen or so wood duck boxes which get used every year. Usually in February I go out on the ice and fix the straw in the duck factories and change the wood shavings in the duck boxes.
I have tried the floating platform type nests but they seem to attract mostly Canada Geese and I have no desire to have them around in great numbers

If you want ducks, I would avoid anything big enough for a goose to sit on!
regards

EddieWalker · Mar 9, 2009

philbuilt said:
Do you know if the duck factory will work? I'm hoping that the ducks will eat some of the weeds in the pond. I think they are vegetarians.

I think it was Ben Franklin who was the big fan of ducks. if not him, then it was Jefferson. Anyway, he had a saying about ducks. There is no suck thing as having too many snails, you just don't have enough ducks.

Ducks will eat just about anything. Mine love spiders, crickets, grasshoppers and every other bug that they can catch. They spend hours in the grass around the pond hunting bugs.

I feed mine corn and floating catfish food. They eat each just about equally.

As for keeping your weeds under control, I don't think the ducks are the answer. Either wild or domestic. My guess is they will add more weeds to your pond when they poop, then they will ever eat. Once those new seeds work their way through the ducks system, there' s nothing you will be able to do to stop it. Just let nature do her thing and enjoy whatever you end up with.

Eddie

Thumper & Buttercup · Mar 11, 2009

Hey Phil,

We took off to town for a quick trip tonight, I remembered to take my camera. Here is the two types of nests they use up here. Hope this helps.

philbuilt · Mar 29, 2009

Thumper,
Thank you for the pictures. I've been away so I haven't posted. The second one is that a nest as well? It seem very exposed to the elements.

I put the BH on to go help a friend repair a water line to his house from the well. He just had back surgery and could not do it himself. Heres the cool part. It was the first time that I have ever been to his house and I had to locate the lines myself. So I took the welding rods out and started marking the yard. His yard still had about a foot of snow covering it and I wanted to make sure that the one clear spot was it. They were loosing water pressure and the pump was running every 4 minutes. Well my marks went through the clear spot and centered on the house. I dug that spot up and the pipe had a 3/16" dia hole. I did the repair and all is fine.

So long story short when I got back home I went down to the pond to see how thick the ice was by using the BH. The top 4" is slush and under that I still had 5" of solid ice. So I smash 2 large openings to create some open water. I Hope the ducks come.
Phil

philbuilt · Apr 7, 2009

Good news to report! Today April 7 it's ice out. The pond now has a couple of geese hanging around and my wife said she saw some ducks as well. So the game came is set and hopefully we will get some shots of wild life at the pond. I also started digging up some rock at the front of the yard to continue lining the pond edges.
Phil

philbuilt · Oct 11, 2009

Time for an update.
I had the opportunity to have a mini excavator at the pond so we added about 300 more sq ft. My son moved the dirt with the Massey and I dug with the mini.

I dug the hole down to 12' from water level. Time was runnig out on the mini so then we broke the holding wall and watched the water pour in.
Then we clean up the dirt till the time on the mini ran out.
Here a few completion pics.