William Gray Iv

Just wanted to include one last picture of the geese. The geese in this picture are a mating pair of Chinese geese and it was their first day on the pond when I took it. Also, I found that the concrete mixing tub I use for their bathing and drinking water just about covers the evaporation and seepage I've been getting, but I still need to give a little more once a week to really cover it all.

Well, it's been a little while, but we've had quite a bit happen with the pond, including the arrival of 6 geese plus 2 more soon to come. I'm really loving the geese too, they make such a beautiful loud honk and are very friendly, but I'm really looking to hatch some goslings from them to sell and eat. Also, a very welcome addition has come to the pond in the form of duck eggs and they are so delicious (much more so than chicken eggs due to their richness and flavor). However, while they are some of the best eggs I've had I will restrain myself and set some aside to hatch, so that I can hopefully get about 40 or so eggs in the incubator.

On another note, the water is currently about 6 inches deep at the deepest part and while it is coming along very nicely, it has developed a major algae bloom and turned the water a deep green. Regardless, it doesn't seem to be putrid and has no off smell, which may have to do with me adding water everyday through their water trough. Also, I will hopefully be getting some cattail, willow, and maybe mint within a week to plant around the pond to help stabilize the edge more. I've also considered gleying it with some horse manure and newspaper, but we'll see about that.

Best of all, I have some new pictures for everyone and I'll be getting a youtube video up soon to show y'all a but more of what the pond and its residents look like.

These pictures are from the 5th. The once little puddle has expanded, it's now about 3 to 4 inches deep. It is starting to smell a bit due to the buildup of poop and a recent algae bloom, which has turned the water a deep green. Also, I noticed that the bottom has a nice even layer of fine clay and plenty of rotting organic matter, which has really helped seal it. Though, I still need to add water to account for seepage and some evaporation.

I though I'd add some pictures of the ducks seeing as I haven't posted any. The second picture shows them filter feeding at the bottom of the pond after I dumped out their water tub this morning.

So instead of keeping the water in a tub, you might need to keep it in the pond so that the ducks will hang out there. If their water is kept in a tub, they won't do their sealing work on the pond. Feeding them lots of greens where you want them to work will probably help as well.

My only concern there is that they like to clean themselves in the tub, so I'm afraid that they won't be able to stay as clean if all the water was at the bottom. Though, they still "filter" feed at the bottom where all the dirty water is after I dump out the tub each morning.

You are absolutely right. The water goes on the bottom of the pond, the ducks go in the water.
No matter where you feed them, it's in their nature to "filter" the mud on the edge of the water with their beaks.

And those banks you've created without reinforcement? they will be gone.  The ducks will level them out..
I read in a book that more than 6 ducks per acre of water will destroy the perimeter because of this.

Do you think that reinforcing the walls with stone would be a viable option? I didn't realize what they'd do once the water level got higher.

Also, this is a picture from today; the little puddle at the bottom has been staying full each day, so it looks promising thus far.

Finished digging! The pond is finished being dug and the ducks and their house are in place. By the way, I found that the berms reduce the noise from the ducks tremendously, not that I mind their nose and all the laughing.

Almost there! Fiddling with some ideas for the peninsula here and needing to make it deeper.

This is the pond this summer after the monsoons. Still not entirely dug out, but it collected a lot of water from a spillway in the swales after our freakishly large monsoon.

Here is a picture of the pond last December when I was getting into it a bit more. I started digging it in the summer of 2013, but have really only worked on digging it out on the occasional weekend and school break when I wasn't busy studying.

I finally finished digging a pond for our little homestead (after 1 year of digging with a shovel), now I just have to seal it. I've heard of sealing a pond with pigs and ducks, but have yet to see examples of sealing a pond with ducks. Pigs are just a little harder for me to keep right now though, so I'm going to use ducks instead.

Recently, it's just barely starting to hold the old water I dump out for my ducks, but considering that it's only been 2 weeks since I got them I'd say that's not too bad. Also, we have mostly clay soil, so it shouldn't be too hard to seal it, but my main concern is keeping it wet through our summers where it can get up to 115 degrees. Though, my solution for the heat is to plant a mulberry and some willows around the banks, so I'll be getting some bare root trees for that come January or February.