A couple of Geese are coming... Cheap Pond ideas

pendulum

I've got a couple of Geese coming soon and I've got to make a pond for them.

As I understand it, it doesn't have to be very deep, maybe just a foot or so at its deepest point. However it does have to have a drain.

I'mhopeless when it comes to this sort of thing. This is what I was thinking:



The black lines are concrete, brown is earth, white is air. I could set some kind of large drain (which I could open and close - what could I use?) in to the concrete and then empty the pond bucket by bucket. It could be swept quite easily too.

Any better ideas or problems you can see?
And any ideas for what I can use for a cheap drain, as I cannot think of anything.
This has got to be done on a budget really. I already have lots of sand and cement left over so want to use that as the base.

Thanks.

Itismehonest

How much water are you going to have to get rid of? It may not be easy to do by bucket. Is there any way to drain the pond into something that will carry the water away?

We have a similar set up on a pond that is about 5m x 3m x 1.5m deep but it empties through a 4" pipe into a brick-built chamber & then into much larger pipework which eventually empties into a stream across the land.
For a bung we use a 4" drain pipe test plug.

It's not a goose pond but we had the plug put in for ease of cleaning.

fwor

The problem with the scheme in the drawing is that you have a concrete wall that will have to take the weight of the water with no external support.

A much better arrangement is to have earth all round the pond - which means the concrete wall does not need so much strength - with a sump and a pipe to a remote location such as a drain. Of course that is easiest to do if you have a lower piece of ground near to the pond...

wallbash

Forget drain , just build/dig a pond . Forget concrete , use a liner.When you want to empty it buy a small pump , run pump off an extension lead , you don't need to make a permanent /expensive fuss . Where does the water go ?? Small 0ne foot deep pond , spread the water over flower beds .

lostinrates

our geese have a big box of water to still in. They have a really big pond, but to be honest, they don't like it much, and look really worried when we herd them down there for a bit f exercise!

ScratchandSniff-->[X]

A liner will not work - the geese will rip it to shreds very quickly.

If you are going to bale water out somewhere (where?) you might as well sink an old bath but you must provide bricks or something at the bottom to help them to get out easier.

Also bear in mind that the water emptied out will be full of lots of suspended mud so don't make any drain too fine or it will clog.

Water, preferably running like a stream, is ideal - but unless you're trying to get them to mate you can get away with large deep buckets for them to clean their heads. If they tip the bucket, pop it in the centre of an old tyre.

twiglet98

We don't have geese but our five ducks just have rigid plastic pools. We are on clay and they are full of thick mud within hours of refilling. We don't have drainage and the water is tipped out onto what was once grass but is now a bit of a swamp. In summer it's not so bad but this time of year it is rather revolting. They have a tall, deep bucket of water to dip their heads in. The chickens have their water containers on a bench where the ducks can't reach because they make it so filthy.

I dream of proper drainage but our location makes it impossible. Hope you find something that works, I really love geese but couldn't manage them on the mud here.