Ducks - flow-through basin, fertigation

Hey duck people!

We are about to embark on a duck adventure for the first time, if things go according to plan we'd have 3 runners and 3 Campbells in a 6 x 6 x 6 ft (2 x 2 x 2 m) duck house and free ranging in the orchard. Just the ladies for the first year to learn how to live with them and then maybe a drake later on.

As I understand it the main things with mallard family ducks are that

a) they need fresh water daily to wash their eyes and nostrils;
b) they poop A LOT, including or even especially in the water, quickly turning a) into not really fresh water
c) if they find themselves in a potentially muddy situation it will soon become definitely muddy as they like to dabble in wet soil

Because of b), I would need to often flush out and refill their a) water, possibly quickly leading to c).

Now, normally we have a pump running regularly in the orchard in the summer with a hose that I move around, giving each tree / bush their share over the period of a week or so, with the watering taking place every day or every other day. It'sa 1-acre (4.000 m2) orchard approximately. (Large, spreading apple, plum, pear, walnut etc trees - nice shade for ducks under them, also secure from birds of prey.)

Soooo my idea was...

- take some kind of plastic basin sized maybe 20-30-50 gallons (ie up to 200 liters or so)
- pipe water into it with a hose connected to our ordchard pump
- connect another hose to the bottom of the basin so water can continue its way to fruit trees etc

In this way,

- there is a constant inflow and outflow of water in the basin
- ducks can enjoy their water which is kept largely clean by the flow
- the poop that does happen is (hopefully) flushed out of the basin automagically and turns irrigation into fertigation

Did I get something wrong, as a concept?

Is it likely that I'll find out about the difference between theory and practice in that duck poop will accumulate without being flushed out maybe?

Thank you for helping me set realistic goals :)

I would also very much like to make a pond (we have heavy, clay-ey soil) for wildlife but as I understand it if one were to give ducks access to the pond it would have to be a really large one in order not to get crapped up quickly. Def more than  a 50-100 sq ft surface which I know where to place. So the pond would be mosty for frogs etc. Frogs singing is a very relaxing thing for us.

I have frogs that call out all night.
The males call me! me!, me!
and the females seem to respond NO! NO! NO!
Back to the flow system.
Do you think the water would be ever clean with a slow flow?
Can you create an above ground pond with a ball valve and dump it once a day as required?

Well, I hope the flow would keep it clear. I don't know how prone duck crap is to just become sediment at the bottom. As to slow or fast - it's a fairly basic pump, it has no strength regulator and it dislikes the output being throttled (can spontaneously decide to switch off). So we'll see how the one and only flow speed works out.

About the fill and then empty option, the thing is that I need to move the watering hose around during the day but the ducks also need to have their water during the day. I guess I would have to let the volume fill up in the evening / overnight so I could start emptying it in the morning. And it would have to empty slowly enough so the ducks don't go hmmm, something's fishy here, let's flee :)

The reason for my asking was that somebody would come and say "hey I tried that and no way it's gonna work", or the opposite. I guess by the time May comes around it will all be obvious in either case.

I've never kept ducks so don't have any first hand experience for you. I suspect as long as you move the pond frequently as you suggest it will be fine. Have you seen this thread: making and filtering pond for ducks Nicole uses a similar system, but I think she just fills her pond once a day, rather than continuously so I think it would work well, as long as the ducks don't make your orchard too muddy!