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I'd like to offer two pieces of construction criticism, if you're interested: 1, aerating your pond will increase fish habitat, reduce algae, and generally improve the health of your pond (I'd suggest a surface aeration system with a draw tube that trails down into the bottom third or so of the depth where it is placed); and 2, avoid applying chemical fertilizers to the grass adjacent to the pond, because it can lead to excessive algae growth and a host of other problems in the pond ecosystem.

I built one on my homestead, I dug down 4 feet and water started pouring in, kept dig down to 12 feet, attached it to my year around creek that comes off a reservoir, the reservoir is fed by four natural springs, we allow 1,100 gallons a minute to come out of the reservoir and feed my creek and some irrigation ditches on the ranch next to me, the reservoir never drops the level of water in it, so basically the springs feed as much water into it as we take out of it plus evaporation. We have clay soil here so it holds the water, I built banks up along my creek and around my pond to bring the water two feet above ground level, then I buried irrigation hoses into the sides of the banks to gravity feed my crops, gardens and pastures. Glad I watched this video I learned about grass karp.

As an environmental science student I really appreciate the work you've done here! I'm glad to see you've done the research. It looks amazing.

When I was a teenager,15, I spent a summer on a big farm near Buchanan, VA it was on the James River on its Easter border. It was a pretty big farm that my grandfather was managing for a rich Doctor from Roanoke. It was 1968 so it was a human labor intensive farm with old tractors and strong backed men. I think they milked ten cows and raised a dozen or so beef cattle and then a big pig operation. 50 or so pigs for fattening and to sale. Chickens for the house , eggs & meat which my grandma to care of she was able to accumulate a large number eggs over 10-14 days which we dropped off at a local store on our way to the big grocery store which was every 2 weeks. We took the extra milk to the main road every morning,where the farm access road started, to be picked up by the milk man. Usually 4-5 big steel metal jugs. They raised corn for hog feed and hay for the milk cows plus they had a very large group of pastures which they rotated on every 3 or so days, which way my main job during my stay there . Cows had their routine and knew as soon as the gates were open were to go. After the cow patties dried we walked around picking those up to put in with the barn manure & pig pens. Grandpa pilled all the up to compost for awhile then spread it around where it was needed. Oh I almost forgot they grew a lot of sweet corn to be delivered at a farmers market in Ronake during season. I sure enjoyed that summer.

Much prefer the pond with habitat over the golf course style ponds.

Your work here is amazing! I just enjoy these videos.. These talks and milling at Stoney Ridge. Keep em' coming!!

Thank you for this video! So much great information, and perfect timing since we’re about to dig our first pond on our country property.

Thanks for sharing! Great to see examples in real time.

Really excellently done. Always wondered about farm ponds. You have learned so much.

Lessons learned and lessons shared! Thanks.

Love that blue water and green grass! Your years of hard work are really showing. You've created your own little paradise! 👍

I used drilling mud ( bentonite ) in our pond to seal it. Old timers would fence in pigs around a new pond dig, add a bunch of leaves between them walking and pooping that would seal up the bottom.

thanks for the pond updates. great video. have a great day

Very well explained, without getting complicated... well done!

Great video! So helpful. I learned so many things to help me with my pond! Much appreciated.

Man josh the place is really coming along and the ecosystem for everything you e done is just amazing. I can't wait to see where its at in another 10 years.

You must have been reading my mind… I need to expand our ponds. Great info

I really enjoyed this video, you really need to have a pond to appreciate all the work that goes into keeping a nice one. Ours was an existing pond which was overgrown and had a huge muskrat problem. After years of work we can finally enjoy it with minimal up keep. Your video touches on the main issues of owning a pond and as you point out they don't take care of themselves.

Josh this was a very informative video. I have a property in NW Missouri we have owned about 8 years. It has a pond on it we call the cesspool lol. this video has given me some great ideas on how to correct some problems and I have a great dozer man that does pond work. Thanks for the great content on your channel!

Great information for future pound making. I love what you have accomplished.

Thanks for the info and the grand tour, good stuff. Wooooo!

Our pond has been here for about 30 years, we’ve had a family of geese come back every year. We also have transient ducks that come and go. I love watching the geese grow up.

Hey Josh, excellent topic. Water is the sustenance of life. It is all about a reliable clean source and working with nature. Good you have those ponds for the SRF. Take care.

Thank you so much for sharing your successes and failures I have learned so much from you 💜

Josh great info your sharing! Your neighbors is manicured and yours is more natural and fitting for a busy farmer.

Thanks for explaining all this, Josh!

Excellent info! Thank you for sharing😊

There is a lot more to making a pond than I had imagined.

Awesome information! Thank you for sharing your knowledge & experience.

Excellent info about ponds, you do a great job

Great info man thanks- been fighting lily and algae for awhile - be well brother

Great information.. thank you. saved some of us a lot of work

Well done Josh nice instructive pond info. Best David

Thank you so much for all the good information

Thank you so much for sharing the video with great content, wish you good health and always success in life

Man Dope video. I love the whole thing. You really know how to capture the audience and give great descriptions 🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥

Great video contents, informative, educational and therapeutic.

Some very good ideas and tips, thank you for sharing 👍

Outstanding video and great info!! Will watch more

Great video. Very informative. I need to remove some trees from my dam and double my grass carp.

Very interesting. We are newbies and need to fix our pond. Good info.

Great content as always.Thanks for sharing

Great video on ponds. We have one thats 1/2 acre. They are nice to have. Thanks for the tips. 👍❤️

What a beautiful farm you have !

WELL DONE MANY THANKS

Thanks for the great information

Excellent! Thank you.

Great video! Tons of great information.

Great video. Thank you sir!

The pond slime is from high nitrogen grass clippings being blown into the water while mowing.

Thankful for the information

Awesome video. Glad I found your channel!

My friend ran DEC fish hatcheries in NYS. He told me any pond will support X many pounds of fish. This could be one very big fish or thousands and thousands of tiny fish. Good video Josh. Thanks.

Great video. Thanks for sharing your knowledge. I learned a ton.

I really enjoyed the video, you have done a fantastic job with the farm and everything else that goes with the farm, a far sight better than when you started, I remember when you were just beginning living the dream, great video!!!

I want one like the neighbors!!! Good video!

Informative! Thank you.

Great information Josh Thank You for sharing 👍

The ponds are beautiful!! Who doesn't like water features?

Thanks soo much, learnt so much I own a 20acre beautiful property Build a pond which enhanced my land But got my answers by watching your educational video on ponds God bless you and your loved ones

You've come so far- it's beautiful!! 👍 EDIT: Don't forget a few bass! 😋🐟

Super helpful stuff! Thanks!

Josh, Duckweed is actually a very nutrient dense pig feed additive/supplement that is obviously organic and free f you harvest it from your pond.

This is a great video. Thanks for the tips! We’re building our own pond from scratch now, gonna use this info!

Awesome video!! Great and short detail.

Great video thank you

I do really like they way you run these ponds :)))

Great video about homestead and farm ponds. Thank you

That looks like a small Lake. your neighbor place is nice.

Love ponds and loved that info👍

you can also put gourami fish in your pond, it is a good plant-eating fish, and it doesn't seem to disturb the ecosystem in the pond 😊

Very helpful. Thanks

Working on our farm pond, too!

Great points.

Great info. I have never had a pond and have no idea on what it takes to have a healthy pond. Have been looking at buying homes in Tennessee with acreage and some have ponds.

Great video Josh!

Good info. Thanks!

Wow so awesome to have a pond on a property.I don't own a 🏡 house on a property.Anyway,I love relaxing near the pond just beside my apartment.I felt so close to nature🌳🐦 Yeah,its a perfect place for stress out.😊

Great information there Josh

I dont have a pond and will likely never have one. But I watched from start to finish. very educational and entertaining and so well done! thank you : )

Beautiful property 👌

Awesome video tks for sharing

I’ve had ducks in my pond for 10 years. I feed them floating Catfish food and cracked corn. Love my pond 🥰🙋‍♀️

I've never heard of anybody skimming the algae off the top of a pond as a way of controlling that. But if somebody did, it seems like a way to remove the excess nitrogen. Maybe it could then be mulched, or dried out and turned to charcoal and tilled into the pasture dirt upslope from the pond. I would also enjoy experimenting with solar-powered aerators and pumping water to troughs for deer to use so they don't approach the water and poop in it. The animals I would most hope to allow to flourish in a pond are aquatic salamanders, newts, and the least-common turtle species for the area.

Very informative

Great video!so helpful, help me my pond thanks

Just found your channel. We are hoping to leave central New mexico for central kentucky or east Tennessee in the spring. Looking for a property with a pond. Thanks for sharing your experience and wisdom

Excellent video!

Great video, thanks

Thank you so much! Great video!

I have a small pond. Only had 6 big catfish first two years. I'm having a problem with keeping the weeds down around outside of it. But since it got overgrown I now have a bunch of catfish of all sizes. Previous owner neve r let anything grow. I'm working on weeds but not the grasses in the pond because from the amount of fish, I did something right. I forgot, frogs so loud u cant hear youself think. I was against turtles untii i watched one eat a snake tail first. Decided i like them. 2 years ago i added brim. Assume they are still there. Pond is basically in my backyard and is spring fed. No problem with skeeters. Thanks for the info.

Pond depth is determined by two things: How deep you need it to be to provide reliable habitat, and how long you need it to supply how much water in a drought. Heating in sunlight is controlled by depth, and evaporation during a drought is measured in depth too. Deeper water will last longer!

Cattails are also food and medicine! Great video! 😁 🙏 🌾

Hello Dr SE Louisiana. We aren’t far from Mississippi. I’m in agreement with everything you said. We must come together as a country and defend our Constitution 🙌

Fond of the ponds...i ponded the like button

I love your farm !

Hey Josh thank you so much for the video I enjoyed it and learn a little bit and when I need to learn more I'll go back and watch the video when the time comes so I have a question for you how far away would you say the trees need to be from the pond how many feet

I have 2 ponds on my farm in southern Ohio. One is 1 1/3 acres and 17 feet deep maintained by ground water and field drainage, the other is 1 1/2 acres, 25 feet deep and spring fed and is cold. The back pond has silver channel cats, bass, several strains of bluegills, yellow perch, crappies, walleyes rainbow trout, and northern pike. The other pond has cats, bluegills, crappies, yellow perch and bass, a typical southern Ohio bass pond. Both ponds have been set up with the help of Fenders Fish Hatchery, Baltic Ohio. I highly recommend his book on ponds. Every spring and fall, I add 1000 fathead minnows to each. Both ponds have fresh water clams and are clear, and tea stained.

Love your videos