I own a 12 acre farm that is now virtually useless to use for growing fieldgrass/vegtables/fruit. Between the exploding populations of elk, deer, and rabbit that would be compleatly pointless. We have a a poultry farm, but that leaves ten acres compleatly unused. It is pretty much flat land with a ditch that has water year round between the 7th and 8th acre (property is shaped like a rectagle). We are in western Washington and our property sits on top of a volcanic lahar from long ago. We have TONS of clay, loads of mineral content, and our water table is pretty much surface-level year-round, so much so that we cant really do much with the back acrege about half the year. The area I'm considering is slightly higher ground (not by a lot, but enough). I know from digging our new septic line, that if you go down about three feet, you hit solid clay that then goes down between 2 and 10 feet. It does vary quite a bit as it was formed by a lahar. We have a natural spring on the property that comes up in our orchard and runs down one side of our property, just under the ground. SO, with that being said I have a number of questions:
1. What size/depth should a mud pond be for breeding (and possible commerical) koi? (not sure if we would do sales like that)
2. What is the koi size/gal in a mud pond?
3. I understand that covering it with a net is necessary, and we already do that with our chickens. What other predators do we need to worry about?
4. Does anything need to be put down on the sides of the mud pond so it keeps its shape and doesn't fill in?
5. Are premits required to build a mud pond? *just assuming the answer will be yes, so what department?
6. We don't get super hot here... except maybe a week or two a year. We also don't get super cold either. We are in the upper foot hills of the cascades, but the most we have gotten is snow to mid shin that was gone in two days. Most years we get snow maybe once or twice a winter. zone 7B
7. what else do i need to consider? I don't know what else to ask