We have a very small pond (kidney-shaped, about 5'x8') that is way too small for our 3 ducks and 1 goose (soon to be 4 ducks and 2 geese, once we replace our predation losses). As a result, it's full of poop and stinks. We are planning on greatly enlarging the pond area this summer, but the cleanliness issue remains. The workers at our local pond- and sprinkler-supply store really aren't much help. They're used to ponds filled with plants and maybe a few fish, but not ducks! In the short run, the pond water makes great fertilizer for houseplants and the garden, but in the long run...
For those of you who have decorative ponds for your waterfowl, do you use a skimmer? What sort of drainage design do you use? Any practical design help would be greatly appreciated!

Lynnette, I've been reading the recent posts on this page that interest me - mainly Duck and Geese questions - and they all seem to have one thing in common. How can I make my waterfowl lead tidier lives? And all the answers say the same thing - forget it, they're just totally hopeless unredeemable dirt cases. Loveable, but filth-mongers!

From my experience, you can improve things a little by cementing a surround to a pond; a pond with a reasonable through-put of water obviously helps maintain its 'health'; and a few species of water plant will survive, but not many. If you really want a decorative pond AND waterfowl, the only really effective solution is to have a vast pond with a very few ducks.

But best wishes anyway.

hi i have a small pond with 5 geese and 20 ducks and the way we keep it clean is a in and out . thats all. we put a pipe that takes stream water (from drainage pipe) and a pipe which it goes out. and hubby rakes out the leaves on the bottom every spring. now the area around the pond is poopy but the pond looks so pretty with ducks in it. also i am planting some pond plants those long brown ones ugh i forgot the name. hope i have helped mamahen