[RichardA]

Duck pond is about 4 metres square and half metre deep, now very green which with usual mess of floating feathers etc means it looks very poor. Ducks still love it and are rarely out of it. I keep my other ponds (residents include fish, frogs, newts and toads etc clear with barley starw extract with no ill effects but those ponds do have filters and UV and waterfalls to aerate water etc. Can't do this for duck pond as no power in the orchard where they are. Anyone know if barley straw extract is safe around ducks please ?? Failing that any other ideas very welcome.
R

[Kate and her Ducks]

Barley straw safe for them, would give it a go as I certainly wouldn't want to be trying to clean all that out. Might help to try skimming as much as of the feathers etc off the top regularly to stop it sinking, rotting and going generally grim. Plants to help aeration might work in a pond that big but it is more likely that the ducks will eat, dig up, trample anything you plant

[SnooziSuzi]

Hi Richard,  I don't keep ducks so can't say if the barley straw is OK or not, however from my understanding it's completely organic so I don't see why not.

The water is going green from too much nitrogen (ie duck poo) being deposited.  could you put some oxygenating weed in there as well?  with the amount of nitrogen in there it should romp away and I'd bet the ducks would eat it too, or failing that I've heard it's great on your compost heap!  

[Vember]

I find my ponds go greener quicker if some poor unsuspecting creature has fallin in  :oops:

Might be worth getting a net into the bottom???

[RichardA]

very grateful to you all, I am awaiting a  reply from the manufacturers and will add that to the posting when I get it. Expected to have to skim off the debris and will check for anything nasty at bottom of pond but sides very gentle sloped for just that reason, lots of hedgehogs etc and so not expecting a problem. I
s there any oxyenating weed the ducks don't eat ??.
I did think about using barley straw in bundles but expect the little (devils -- oops) dears to tear that about so considering the extract liquid that I use in the fish ponds applied as a treatment.
Will clean out a few times each year in any case. Perhaps the natural look is how it should be !!!!!!!
thanks again to you all
R

[Kate and her Ducks]

you can get little plastic floating balls to put the barley straw in so they don't do that I think.

[flocko]

Barley straw is fine to use with Ducks. We put ours in a large mesh bag that onions or carrots come in, ask at your local friendly greengrocers I'm sure they will be glad to get rid of them. Weigh it down with a large rock and hey presto.

[RichardA]

thanks for that, what we did in fact was use two perforated baskets intended for planting marginal plants in ponds, filled with straw and then put together to make a sort of cube which we sank in the pond.
InterPet who make a lot of pond care products recommended Green Away rather than their product barley straw extract liquid and we also cleaned surface of pond and overnight I syphoned off most of pond into teh cabbage plot and refilled pond (if anyone tries that at home obviously take note to use the immersion method to start a syphon and NOT the sucking method )
So all looking good and thanks to all
R

[Vember]

 (if anyone tries that at home obviously take note to use the immersion method to start a syphon and NOT the sucking method )
So all looking good and thanks to all  

That takes all the fun out of it Richard

[RichardA]

I know what you mean but of course being serious just for the sake of anyone else who might read this -- duck muck is far from funny and so is water with algeal growth -- can cause some very serious illnesses in humans and can enter the body via the eyes, mouth, nose, cuts and grazes etc etc -- trust me -- I'm in health and safety.
R

[muntjac]

get an onion sack or 3 fill em with barley straw and a brick .......werks fer me