Pond Boss Forums POND CONSTRUCTION Soil questions Seal pond with Chicken Litter

I've talked with numerous elderly people in my area that have used poultry litter to stop their ponds from leaking. I have a pond that is leaking and was wondering if anyone else has heard of this and whether or not it is effective? Thanks

Welcome aboard dmiles.I dont have an answer for you but I do know its very acidic.Wait for the experts before you try it.A little more info might help too.How big/old is your pond,does it have fish?

Langston U. mentions using gley (fresh green manure), but I don't recall ever seeing chicken manure menitoned for leak sealing.

Theo, and there would be no need to fertilize your pond for a while either.

Tom,

The original pond was built in 1948 and held water fairly well but tree grew on the dam and around the edges. Large pine trees and pulp were on the dam so it leaked down somewhat. I bought the property about 10 years ago and decided to rework the dam and clear the trees around it. That was a little over a year ago and the pond hasn't held water very good since that time. I'm looking into the chicken litter at this point as an alternative to clay. The pond is a little over an acre and about 8 feet deep so it will be very expensive to line it with clay.

I do want some input from you guys please.

If the pond has been there for60 years why would you have to reseal bottom .I am assuming that you removed the stumps and this is what caused the dam to bleed if so a mixture of bentonite and sand knitted into the soil after draining down past the leak worked into soil or straight 30 bentonite.

If this is not readily available sand wash at your local sand pit usally comes in 400 mesh and up this knitted in with existing soil should work fine .

As for the chicken manure we have worked on Brays Chicken Farm and some of their ponds leak after 20 years of manure drainig in them soI would forgo putting manure in Im sure the water chemistry wizards are going to advise on this

Keep the manure out Good Luck

Scott,

Thanks for the reply. Bentonite isn't readily available and is quite expensive here. When you talk about 400 mesh, what exactly are you talking about? I'm a little confused. Are you saying that a certain type of sand could be worked into the existing soil to help seal it?

Also, the guy that reworked the pond got a lot of material out of the bottom to put into the dam and I'm thinking he dug a little too deep.
Thanks again.

It could also mean that he used partially muck and/or washed in sand to build the dam.

Dave,

I was able to supervise the dam construction and the keyway was constructed with red clay. He dug out a larger hole in the middle of the pond for some reason when I wasn't around and when water does cover the bottom it looks as though that hole drains much more quickly than the rest of the pond. I'm in the process of filling that hole with more red clay to see what happens. Hopefully that will correct the problem but you never know. I do appreciate all of the input from you.

Make sure you get at least 2 ft of the clay into the suspected leak area. The big deal is properly compacting it with a sheepsfoot roller.

What did he do with the 60 years of muck and washed in stuff when he cleaned it out?

DMILES

You are working on the leak now. Did you drain the pond or did it just leak out. When you get the hole in the bottom fixed will you wait for rain or do you have a well?

OTTO

Chicken litter is a form of fertilizer which you may or may not need. CL contains bird urea which is a very potent fertilizer. You should do some soil tests to see what is needed. Until you know the results I would not add CL as you may get a sewage lagoon look.

Let me know if your fish are chicken flavored (tastes just chicken) you may be on to something.

I'm going to chime in here and offer a non educated opinion. Having had chickens, their droppings are very strong an acidic. Aged, it makes for a great fertilizer.

On the other hand Cow manure contains a mixture of grass, straw, and grain. The way I see it, grain is used in making flour, and straw used in making bricks and adobe. Every grade school kid has made paste out of flour, it is a great bonder.

Therefore I believe cow manure would be a better choice in sealing a pond.

Scruffy

Good logic

Cecil

You are just like some of your buddies, it is hard to tell if you are pulling our leg.

But I would stand by Ernest

OTTO

Otto,

I'm serious. If his fish are chicken flavored I want to know about it.

BTW it was great talking to you at the convention. You truly are a gentleman.

You know if I started this thread no one would believe a word of it. That's it, just an observation.

dmiles: An old time remedy that farmers in our part of the world use on a regular and successful basis is to fence part of your pond off, and put several hogs in there to waller around. Theory is that they keep the ground so broken up that the slit finds the leak and plugs it up. Good news and good news. If it works - Yea!!, and if it doesn't work - BBQ time. Let's let the experts chime in to see if this remedy works anywhere else. Good luck.

A couple of days ago I dumped 50 pounds of older deer protein pellets into the bottom of a small water hole. It has an intermittent spring in the bottom which both gives and takes. By this time of the summer, the water table has dropped and the pond is dry but muddy on the bottom. I'm waiting for the feral hogs to find it and hope they can seal it. I'm not holding my breath.

Dave as soon as it rains IF IT RAINS let us know how the hogs did.

Well heck, I spent 3 days there and the hogs didn't come. I believe it needs a broken bale of hay and some garbage to call the hogs.

Dmiles, I travel to AL often, and have heard the same story of chicken manure for pond sealer. 1 guy that told me had a degree in forestry. Dunno. It's salty and salt may help. A layer of anerobic (or is it aerobic) bacteria on the pond bottom may help and the manure might ferterlize that. This is certain, northeast AL has plenty of poultry farms! I've also read where limestone fines will help seal water. I asked a geo-petroleum engineer 'bout this at my church. He thinks that if the fines were blanketed/buffeted from the water with a few inches of soil, the limestone would fill in the grainier soil gaps and help it to become impervious. Noticed that Otto used fines to pack around a pond overflow pipe in "Pond Boss" a while back. Fort Payne has a limestone mine as well as several in "Limestone" county near Huntsville. The gley idea sounds intriguing, yet how would it form a permanent seal if you put in aereation? You're right about the bentonite being unavailable or too pricy to be shipped in to the AL area.

If the pond does not hold water and you have access to anything that might work TRY IT. Even chicken manure.