Breaking Ice in Ponds

[sstterry]

I was breaking ice in a pond yesterday and was wondering what is the best tool to get the job done? Assume, you cannot get any equipment within 30' of the ponds, so it needs to be a hand tool. I was using a pick and also an axe. Is there a better tool that will work? I was thinking maybe a sledgehammer or possibly a splitting maul.

What have you folks that have to break ice routinely found to be best?

 

[SmokinM]

Always been a sledge hammer man myself.

 

[Mountaintown Creek Ranch]

Chainsaw

 

[SBMF 2015]

I have a dedicated axe that lives at each water tank.

 

[M.Magis]

Splitting maul works the best as far as "manual" methods. But chainsaw is by far the fastest and easiest. No chain oil.

 

[TCRanch]

I use an old pick axe. The flat end is great for scooping out the chunks.

'Bout 5 years ago I was breaking ice in the west 80 pond when one of my retained heifers popped me in the behind and I went sliding across the pond like a dang hockey puck - still clutching my pick axe. Had to do the crab-walk/slug-slide back to the bank, but with zero traction, ended up sticking my boot in the hole I cut, just to get up 'n out. My bibs were completely frozen by the time I made it back to the house. There may have been profanities!!! That spring, we had a well drilled.

 

[coachg]

Not sure it's name but it works !

 

[SBMF 2015]

View attachment 24192View attachment 24193
Not sure it's name but it works !

We call ours an ICE HOE. They work great for scraping out of the loader bucket when I get done hauling manure.

 

[Ouachita]

Using a chainsaw while standing on ice makes me nervous. I've never tried.

My neighbor drills two holes a couple or three feet away from the bank, about 5 feet apart from each other. He uses a cordless and the same auger bit he uses for gate hinges.
Then he drives in eyebolts. By the time he returns with the tractor, they are frozen, one with the ice.
He has hooks welded on each end of his bucket and chains to the eyebolts. He stands in the bucket and chainsaws around the perimeter. Wife plucks him out. He retrieves his eyebolts after the thaw.

I've never seen it but it sounds reasonable, I'm just afraid my wife would set the park brake and say "so long, turkey" and laugh all the way back to the house.

 

[hurleyjd]

I think a back hoe would be great for breaking ice and other things around the farm. Any pool that you could not access to could be fenced of and used after the thaw.

 

[Silver]

View attachment 24192View attachment 24193
Not sure it's name but it works !

I use the same tool before the ice gets too thick. I also used them to peel my house logs.

 

[gcreekrch]

Using a chainsaw while standing on ice makes me nervous. I've never tried.

My neighbor drills two holes a couple or three feet away from the bank, about 5 feet apart from each other. He uses a cordless and the same auger bit he uses for gate hinges.
Then he drives in eyebolts. By the time he returns with the tractor, they are frozen, one with the ice.
He has hooks welded on each end of his bucket and chains to the eyebolts. He stands in the bucket and chainsaws around the perimeter. Wife plucks him out. He retrieves his eyebolts after the thaw.

I've never seen it but it sounds reasonable, I'm just afraid my wife would set the park brake and say "so long, turkey" and laugh all the way back to the house.

If ice isn't strong enough to hold you up the cows won't ever not go through.

 

[Lee VanRoss]

A well and geo thermal waterer are cheaper than cows on an ice covered pond.<period

 

[Ouachita]

If ice isn't strong enough to hold you up the cows won't ever not go through.

I not nervous about the integrity of the ice, just my clumsy arse slipping and sliding around with a chainsaw. I imagine myself becoming fish bait.

 

[Ouachita]

Cows aren't happy about having to walk to the creek this morning.
We're at 21 degrees at the moment, and forecast above freezing today, for the first time since Thursday morning.

I imagine Silver is shaking his head and laughing while reading this, as he makes a snow angel, naked.

 

[libertygarden]

When we had our big freeze on 2/21, I used the blunt end of a splitting maul to break a trench and a square shovel to fish out the ice chunks.

 

[Ky hills]

I use an iron digger, not sure what the official name is

 

[sstterry]

I imagine Silver is shaking his head and laughing while reading this, as he makes a snow angel, naked

That is an image I did not want to picture in my mind....

 

[Ouachita]

That is an image I did not want to picture in my mind....

What? You can't imagine him flailing like a banshee in the snow, grinning like a possum eating sheet?

What was the image in your head?

 

[sstterry]

What? You can't imagine him flailing like a banshee in the snow, grinning like a possum eating sheet?

What was the image in your head?

No, is the naked part I did not want to picture.