Duck Poo?

[kenour]

Hi Guys,

I've got 3 ducks in by backyard where I'm building my AP system, I was wondering if it's ok to let them in the pond? I've read about other people letting the ducks do their business in the water, after all, it just adds liquid fertilizer! As you could see they couldn't wait to get into the pond, ever before it was finished! I've whacked up a temp fence, was just wondering, is it worth putting something more permanent up, or let the little fellas go nuts!

So yeah, 3 ducks, 4000 litre, ok?

Cheers,

Kenny!

[Murray]

Looks great to me, I can't see any reason why it would be a problem. Very nice to see the ducks hanging around the pond anyway.

[GaryD]

Hi,

Ducks not only poop in it, but also use it to wash their beaks and eyes and, it their food is close enough, they'll use it wash their food down, too.

Unless your bio-filters are quite large, you'll find that your tank water will become filthy....quite quickly. If the organic loading become sufficient, the water will begin to stink.

Ducks look greating bobbing on the pond.....but it will need to be a fair bit bigger than 4000 litres.

Gary

[kenour]

Hi,

Ducks not only poop in it, but also use it to wash their beaks and eyes and, it their food is close enough, they'll use it wash their food down, too.

Unless your bio-filters are quite large, you'll find that your tank water will become filthy....quite quickly. If the organic loading become sufficient, the water will begin to stink.

Ducks look greating bobbing on the pond.....but it will need to be a fair bit bigger than 4000 litres.

Gary

Yeah that's what I thought! I've got an old high-school drink trough that I have out for them to drink and wash in, it does get pretty dirty, but that's only small!

I was hoping if I ran it through enough grow beds they would take care of the filtering, plants love poo! I might just grant them access for a week and see how it goes! I plan on doing a timed flood and drain (the old 15mins on, 45mins off timer setup), just gotta get the grow beds sorted!

Will keep ya posted!

Kenny

[Miki]

You have inspired me to start using my 'own' duck poo. My three white muscovy's are hanging to get into our pond but I think I'd better remove the fish before letting the ducks have a bit of a swim.... it beats washing out the water trough where the horses drink out of (unless its too dirty).

Thanks for the idea!

[GaryD]

Hi Kenny.

Limited access may be the way to go. Let them have a swim for a while every now and then.

If you find that the ducks are doing lots of diving, it may be that they've developed a taste for fingerlings.

Gary

[kenour]

You have inspired me to start using my 'own' duck poo. My three white muscovy's are hanging to get into our pond but I think I'd better remove the fish before letting the ducks have a bit of a swim.... it beats washing out the water trough where the horses drink out of (unless its too dirty).

Thanks for the idea!

Hi Miki,

Here's some more information I've found! So it wasn't such a silly idea!

Introduction

Duck-fish integration is very common in countries like China, Hungary, Germany, Poland, Russia and to some extent in India (Ayyappan et al 1998). The fish pond being a semi-closed biological system, with several aquatic animals and plants, provides an excellent disease-free environment for ducks. In turn, ducks consumes tadpoles, juvenile frogs, dragonflies and other insects, making a safer environment for fish. Duck excreta are used as fertilizer in a fishpond, which stimulates the growth of fish food organisms in the pond. Ducks feed on snails and gastropods available in the pond which otherwise serve as vectors for certain diseases and the ducks thus serve in reducing their incidence (Thakur and Thakur 1991). Ducks further help in aerating the pond water along with pond bottom raking effects, which is beneficial for fish. As small-scale farmers comprise the bulk of the population in India, their socio-economic conditions encourage them for duck-fish integration to raise farm productivity (Edwards et al 1988). In the present study three stocking density levels of ducks along with a control were used to evaluate the effects of different loading rates of duck manure on fish production.

Lifted from http://www.cipav.org.co/lrrd/lrrd18/1/chan18006.htm

[Martin A1]

Hi Guys,

There is a book published by Tagari Publications (A Bill Mollison Organisation - the guru of Permaculture in Australia) called The Power of Duck - Integrated Rice and Duck Farming. Google it...

I have the book but have not read it in any detail ('cause I don't have a rice field )

I reckon that there would be plenty of good reasons to integrate the ducks into your system and am sure this book would explain why.

My only reservation would be that they would dirty up Kenny's lovely pond pretty quickly???

[Matt Trevatt]

Living in asia is always interesting. I know that when raising Tilapia ( yes the noxious pest) in stock ponds you can raise X amount of ducks with the the fish. Depends on pond size. The advantage is that you only feed the ducks a good quality feed. The fish eat the agly and the duck poo. You slaughter the ducks every 11 weeks. I am not sure of how ths might effect the growout bed area.

[Murray]

I would love to be able to grow out a fish species that will self breed. I think that Talapia would be great. When I was in PNG I was involved in a project funded by the British. The project built several very large dams that were stocked with Talapia and were fed on the pressings of the nearby oil palm mill. The fish grew like mad....did very well....the project ultimately failed however....after the project was handed over, nobody fed the fish.