Moving a pond with resident frogs

[nickyw71]

Hi

I wondered if someone can help with advice about a small pond we have in our garden....

We moved house last year and there is a very small rigid pond in the garden - the frogs love it but it's full of dead snails and (it stinks!) and is covered in blankt weed so we'd like to take it out and dig a bigger pond so that we can attract more wildlife and also have shallow sides because we have hedgehogs visit most nights.

I'm worried that we might upset the frogs - there seem to be a few full size ones in and around the pond and quite a few babies hopping around. What is the best time of year to take the old pond out and so that we don't harm any frogs in the process? Do they hibernate outside of the pond at a certain time of year which would give us a chance to make the changes??

Many thanks!

[lottie03]

Hi

We built a bigger pond in our garden in February this year and within about a couple of months, the frogs visiting our tiny pond (an old ceramic sink) had moved in! By that time, we already had tadpoles in the small pond so didn't remove it, and now that they have developed into frogs and hopped out, we've decided to keep it after all.

If you build your bigger pond at the right time of year, before the tadpoles arrive, the frogs will probably move into it and will be too busy enjoying the extra space to notice their little pond has gone!

[aeshna5]

I would probably try + do it before autumn kicks in as some of the frogs may overwinter at the bottom of the pond.

[Monkey Orchid]

I'd agree that late summer/early autumn would be the best time for your pond improvement. If the old pond is a rigid liner type, might it be possible for you to get it out of the ground in one piece, so at least the critters using it have got somewhere to hang out whilst you're digging the new improved version?

The frogs won't be overly fussed as long as they've got plenty of cover (vegetation) to hide in whilst you're making their new home. Some will like to hibernate in the pond over winter though, as aeshna5 notes, so the sooner you can get the new pond planted up and established the better.

We did the same thing with a tiny old pond in our garden a few years ago. We did the work in the autumn and the new pond was bursting with wildlife the following spring.