Build Pond Cover / Prevent Herons / Stop Sunlight

Hi friends,

I thought I would just take a moment to tell you about an idea I had for a novel "drawbridge" style pond cover, which I have now built and posted some pictures of on my Ponding web site.

For a while now I have been toying with the idea of building some kind of wooden cover for my pond.

For a long time we have used netting over our pond to prevent herons stalking and catching our fish, ever since we lost 3 of our fish very early one morning when a heron came and had some breakfast!

Herons are very early risers, generally attacking ponds at the crack of dawn, and you may not even know or notice you have lost some fish for a couple of days, unless they are particularly greedy and eat many of your fish in one sitting!

Whenever I wanted to work on the pond it was a bit of a pain having to unpeg the netting, lift it off all round the pond, then fasten it all back over when finished.

Also I had in mind that having some other kind of solid cover would not only prevent herons from attacking but also;

• will offer the fish some shade from the summer sun; and
• also help reduce algae forming green-water; and
• slow any blanket-weed growth; and
• in addition it is strong enough to prevent our small grand-children from falling in the pond.
  

I have seen some koi keepers build complete pagodas/houses over their ponds to provide permanent shade, but I can't really afford an elaborate structure. However previously I had built an archway-pagoda next to the pond for my wife to grow clematis against, and I thought that this might provide a suitable fixing for a rope and pulley to hoist a hinged pond cover.

So, this is the result....perhaps it might give you some ideas too?
For more details and pictures go to my Build a Fish Pond Cover page.

Cheers
Jim