Ducks on sewer pond?

[70%cocoa]

Yeah, it took me a while to make the connection too. Here they call it the Sewage Treatment Plant. Until I read that FAQ thing that I linked to earlier I had no idea how they worked! All makes sense now, LOL.

If your pond is nice smelling...then I would give the ducks a try on it! They will be no worse off than all the ducks happily and successfully living and breeding on the Fyshwick Sewage Treatment Plant

 

[70%cocoa]

Those are some beautiful photos. Thanks for making me homesick....

No worries!

One more Canberra waterfowl pic - here is a link to someone's photo of a Canberra black swan with a few fuzzy bubs:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/shebalso/110003767/

 

[HEChicken]

My mind is now racing with the possibilities and I've just spent the last 1/2 hour reading through every page of the duck housing sticky. There are some beautiful ponds on there but what I was really looking for were pictures of duck houses - i.e. where they sleep at night - so I can start to get some idea of what I will need to build for them in that enclosure, to keep them safe at night. I'm thinking a slant roof (high at the front, low at the back), low-to-the-ground small building with enough room for a feeder and a place for them to sleep in the corner. Do you keep ducks yourself? Can you offer any advice on this aspect?

 

[HEChicken]

Oh, that picture is darling.

Around here we have a lot of wild ducks and Canada geese and I love seeing them in the spring with their families waddling along behind them. One family we saw recently had 17 goslings in tow! The residents of this area are amazingly tolerant and for the most part when a goose wants to cross the road, traffic stops until they are safely across. It is often possible to watch a pair of geese raise their goslings as they seem to stay in the same area for awhile to do it, so we get to see them go from hatchlings to younger, smaller versions of their parents, before they are turned loose to fend for themselves.

 

[70%cocoa]

Sounds like you are in an area that is a real waterfowl haven! How beautiful!!

I do keep ducks - I have 10 Swedish ducks.

What I have found works for me is a duck house that is big enough to walk into (for cleaning). My ducks have to be penned all the time (except if I am home), so I have made pens with an open area and trough for swimming and then a closed in area for sleeping, and for putting the nest and food in. Since you will just need a shelter that they can come and go from you could probably get away with a low duck house - but do make sure access is good so it is not a monumental pain to clean it. Here is my latest pen (but since then I have modified it to include a small addition with a 60 litre stock trough in it - that drains to the garden). I have sugar cane mulch on the floor (any chopped up kind of dry plant matter works) and I dig it over to aerate it and keep it smelling fine. As you can see, the design is pretty simple. The red thing up the back is their food and the blue thing on the back on the right is the nest (made from a quarter of a big plastic feed drum).


It's got welded mesh on the floor to keep predators from digging in. You can see there here in one of the early construction stage photos:



Here is is from the other side:

 

[HEChicken]

Thank you for those pictures - what a beautiful area for them!

We have a large river and several major tributaries running through this area so that is why it is so attractive to waterfowl. The funny thing is, if you talk to locals about them, all they do is grumble and call them "rats with feathers". DH used to have a house where the backyard led down to a lake prior to us meeting, and he still complains about how the geese used to poop all over his yard. I guess I just don't see things the same way. I mean, sure they poop (but isn't that fertilizer?) but I think it is wonderful that they can survive so well on their own and I love seeing them around. And I especially like seeing them raising their young in the spring. But then I love watching the squirrels too, and most Americans see them as a nuisance as well.