Can chickens drink pond water?

[chickensahoy96]

I built a small chicken coop and run near my pond with the intention of using a submersible fountain pump to fill a water trough with a float switch to control the shutoff point. I figured out a way to prevent this setup from freezing in the winter, but I just want to know if its even worth doing because I never heard of chickens drinking pond water before. My pond is kind of a swamp but in some areas the water isn't that murky. The local ducks seem to have no problem drinking it so it must not be that bad.

 

[AidKD]

I don't see a problem with it as long as you don't have any parasites in the water.

 

[chickensahoy96]

I don't see a problem with it as long as you don't have any parasites in the water.

Are the parasites you speak of visible to the naked eye? What I set the pump to run constantly and use an overflow drain in the water trough so that the water is constantly flowing and doesn't have the chance to sit? I was thinking of doing that in the winter and then using the float switch method in the summer to conserve electricity.

 

[EddieSalita]

I've linked to these before. But to clean high organic content or occasionally pooped in, or duck, pond water supply. An issue many poultry keepers face. I think they have a lot of promise as a self cleaning water for a small pond.

A small pond with one of these, perhaps a pre filter for large particles and a low flow solar pump should be able to keep itself clean and potable with only top ups to overall level from evaporation and consumption required.

Certainly a future project for me to create a nice small pond for the chooks. I live on rainwater but have a bore and a dam. The dam water is very high in organic matter, bore high in iron So just needs some biological action to make it good.

https://www.cawst.org/services/expertise/biosand-filter/more-information

https://sswm.info/sswm-solutions-bo...oducts/affordable-water-supply/biosand-filter

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bio...filter (BSF) is,column covered with a biofilm.

 

[AidKD]

Are the parasites you speak of visible to the naked eye? What I set the pump to run constantly and use an overflow drain in the water trough so that the water is constantly flowing and doesn't have the chance to sit? I was thinking of doing that in the winter and then using the float switch method in the summer to conserve electricity.

No, they won't be. And if you do have them in your water, then it could be bad for your chickens. I would think that it would be okay, though. As long as your pond isn't horribly disgusting, which I think isn't the case.