Allotment Gardening Advice Help Chat
Poultry and Pets => The Hen House => Topic started by: wildwitchy on June 19, 2009, 01:34
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I'm building the pond for my new ducks which will be here shortly I hope. My husband went to buy the pond liner & happened to menchon ducks & was given the third degree.
Bloke said you can't have pond liner with ducks they will destroy it?? I've looked on various sites & cant find any info. Anyone got any ideas why he'd say it.
S. xx
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Hi ww,
I've got a pond with a liner and ducks on it - not had any problems with the liner really other than occasionally they will try and pull it from the edges at the top to try and sift behind it. We just keep an eye on things and if there's a bit of edge that has come away, quickly fix it back nice and tightly so they can't get to it.
It will be so worth doing though - I love seeing them swimming on the pond and then snoozing next to it :) :)
Jo :)
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Geese and ducks use the ponds here, liners are pretty bog standard jobs from Argos and i've never had a problem :)
I use rocks to hold the liner in place as we have hundreds of them lying around, big ones that wont fall in the water:)
Agree with TWF it is lovely to see them on a pond :D
Sarah :)
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We used heavy gauge butyl to line our pond and I can't see ducks giving it any trouble, other than lifting the edge as already mentioned.
Herons, now, that is a different matter. Beaks like spears :ohmy:
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Thanks everyone. He did go ahead & bought it from somewhere else in the end & we put in in few days ago. I forgot to say. The liner is secured by slate slabs so they couldn't even peel it back! See the pic. It's not finished yet, got to cement slabs down & put little stones in between etc. Also doing a water fall & putting a fountain in for them. As you can see hubby is nearly killing himself wrestling with the said liner! :D The other pic is just as it is now. Got to finish! :dry:
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Wow WW that's fantastic :D
They'll love it :D
Sarah :)
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They are very spoilt duckies & potential goslings! Them slabs are £6 each!! welsh slate! :D
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wow it's looking good, slate slabs, waterfall and a fountain very spoilt ducks :D
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me & foxy are waiting patiently for little wotsits to quack so we can see what sex they all are!! lol. Then it will be the big duck run up & down the country delivering bali ducks. I'm very excited to have them.
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They will so love the fountain :)!! My ducks spend hours sticking their head under a flow of water which comes from a higher up pond - I think they try and catch anything flowing. They also love the algae which grows around the rocks where the water comes through. You'll have very happy duckies :) :)
jo :)
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Wow thats excellent!! Really good!!
I wanted a pond like that for Maisie and Coco, but my husband brought a bath home from someone at the allotment and sunk it - cheapskate lol. I've tried my best to make it as natural as i can, and the ducks love to swim in it. They didn't like it at first so i eventually threw in some mealworm to entice them. They love it now.
They dive to the bottom, which is always full of sludgyfied moss which i originally put round the edges so it'd look nice, and also so they could get out easily. Useless effort though cos i spend each night scooping it out with a seive and putting it back. Our bath isn't lined with anything it gets filthy within a day and i bail out with a bucket and refil every couple of days. I think whatever you do, ur gunna have a mucky pond within 2 days. Our ducks don't pull at the side of the bath so probably your's won't pull at the liner either. They're much more interested in plantlife lol :wub:
Would the ducks slip on the slab? i'm wondering. Cos although mine haven't slipped on the bath edge, i'm fearful that they might. I was going to buy some extra turf and put it right up to the edge, or get some of that stick on carpet edging, of maybe some anti-slip paint/coating, but if the slabs arn't slippery, they'd look nice :)
I think the fountain will be luvly...lucky ducks :)
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I was out the other day in the country and stopped by a big old ornamental weir, at Latimer, if anyone knows it. A wild mallard was there with her 7 babies and they were all enjoying themselves tremendously in the flowing water down the weir. It looked as much like playing as feeding! You will have lucky duckies.