River Cottage

Boiling water will tend to freeze quicker than cold water. A ball floating in the pond can be removed, without cracking the ice and causing shock waves that harm the underwater life.

I use my heron frame and layer horticultural fleece and bubble wrap on the frame, which is an incredibly good insulation and keeps the pond from freezing in even the coldest spells. Bubble is waterproof, which keeps the fleece dry which is important for fleece to work at it's best. Much safer than rushing about with pans of boiling water every hour on icy paths......

You've watched me skidding and sliding then Dave LOL!  I only saw an advert for heron frame this evening in the Sat. telegraph ...... himself has put wire with plastic sheeting over to stop the worst of the weather.  I find a ball will get frozen into the ice and causes more problems than taking a kettle of water into the saucepan.  I have never had any fish die due to breaking the ice ;-)

Float a polystyrene tile in the pond.  When the water freezes, it is easy to cut a hole in the tile.

I leave both of mine to freeze over, and I have lots of frogs, newts, water beetles etc.  One is 3 foot deep and the other is 12 foot deep.  The large one supplies water for pigs, so I had to bash it with a pick every day a couple of years ago to make drinking holes. 

If you have a large expanse of ice, break a bit off and chuck it in the middle of the lake.  It shatters and all the bits skid off at high speed in all directions.  Well, it amused me!

Perhaps you'd show us the Maths for that wives tale dave ?

You either need a flock of ducks swimming around in circles - OR perhaps a 5 litre plastic drinks bottle with 4 and three quarters litres of water in - and an electric aquarium heater ? Standing in a reasonably shallow bit - that should keep a small area in liquid form.

I thought frogs came out of the ponds to hibernate over Winter I have no ponds as such but three spring head ponds that dry up sometimes. They have frogs in them but I pile logs and leaves and twigs etc to make hibernating places for them.

Having a pond over 2 feet deep should be sufficient to keep things alive in the UK. In very cold weather they tend to go for the deeper water.

HH, I enjoy watching the ice shooting in all directions too.

There are some African frogs which go into a form of suspended animation in drought hermit, wrapping themselves in a cocoon of dried slime.

Generally speaking though you're absolutely right. Frogs cannot breathe under water and four months holding your breath would be a super - frog effort !

Toads dig burrows if they can. Frogs find shelter and hibernate on Land, so keeping a pond clear for them would be pointless.

I remember one year in Poole Park a swan forgot to keep swimming and froze solid in the ice. In the morning there wasn't much of it left...a fox had trotted over the ice and had probably the easiest meal of the winter  

One of our ponds is 3 feet deep but the frogs died due to lack of oxygen :-( - 55 of them ..... I've tried the polysterene blocks, tried balls of varying sizes, don't have ducks ..........

Female frogs remain in the ponds, males wonder away: or the other way round can't remember which   3 weeks ago there was a male croacking all of one day!