KCC, What are the dimensions of your pond?
Shallow ponds are apt to warm up quickly on the days when the temperature goes above winter norms.
This will bring the frogs out of their sleep, looking for food and there is none available for them.
The temperature then drops rapidly and the frogs freeze to death, if their internal systems are not triggered, to send back into their winter quarters.

Cometose posted recently, that the frogs in her pond break their sleep on the warm days, both this year and last year, but they have been returned to the bottom of the pond when it cools off again,with no losses.

Why the frogs in some ponds survive, yet in other ponds they do not, is a bit of a conundrum.
I tend to beleive it is related to the depth of the pond and the water temperature fluctuating over the winter.

Maybe Cometose and CCoombs will post their thoughts on the subject. They are both experienced frog tenders.

"Horton"

Thanks, Horton. My pond is 8 x 10 and maybe 2.5 feet deep. I guess it would be pretty sensitive to temperature change - I hadn't thought of that. We did have a very big temp swing just after Christmas. It was in the 60's for a few days and all the ice on the pond melted away. Now we're back in the 30's with ice.

If that's the problem, I see no other solution than to build a bigger pond. ;) Right? A bigger pond wouldn't fluctuate as wildly and my poor frogs might have a chance. I'm sure my husband will agree with this logic and start digging immediately. Heh.

Seriously, thanks for the info, though I don't know what I could do to save the poor guys. We had some neat frogs last year - one I had never seen before, called a wood frog. It was tan with a dark mask and looked like a bandit!

My frogs have been up and down all winter, if you want to call it winter here. My pond is shallow and we've had week after week of warm weather and they come up.

Then, when the outside temperatures go down, they jump back in and stay down. Right now I've not seen them for about a week and it is snowing and will be 18 degrees tonight. That is the coldest night we've had so far. My pond has not gotten but a skim of ice on it in one corner so far. I run my 2,400 gph pump which keeps the surface moving and I also have a bubbler in one corner.

My front pond freezes over but the bottom is below the frost line and it has baby frogs in it each winter that survive even with the ice over them. They don't come up and down as this pond is on the north side of the house and the sun never really gets to it much except for a few hours just after 12 noon so it does not have a chance to warm. My backyard pond gets first morning light and is the warm or sunny side of the house in winter (eastern exposure).

My big pond is not below our frost line in any location at 17 to 19/20" deep, so why I have not lost frogs is unknown because the first winter it was cold with 5" of ice, but since then, warm and cold crazy weather.

They come up and don't find much to eat as far as I know unless they get a small bird. I do feed birds in the back and some come by the pond to drink, but I would imagine a bird in the stomach, and then having to go back down when the temps drop, would kill them faster.

I did see hordes of gnats flying over and around the pond just two days back on a warm day and that is not usual for January for the most part. February is our coldest and March has some years, but not for several years now. I have not worn a winter coat yet, just a fleeze jacket.

My pond is 8 x 10 feet (lots of surface to depth) so maybe oxygen is higher than a mostly ice covered pond. I also do a bottom clean out in fall to remove gunk and change 1/4 of the water. Lots of string algae in the winter which goes away come early summer.

My frogs are quite fat going into winter so coming up with no food works out for them I guess. I fatten them up with store bought crickets until late October.

When I do see them out of the pond after several warm days they hang just at the edge. By late morning they go in the water with just their nose peeking out, and not shortly thereafter they go under and I don't see them again during the evening unless it stays warm enough out.

It may be because they stay near the edge and can drop right into the water at the crucial temperature moment; the fact they have fat reserves; and great oxygen levels; maybe those 3 things are why I don't lose any (to date anyway - knock on wood).

Speaking of wood, a Wood frog is a great find. They are not common. They are the frog that can freeze, but I bet that is not ideal, but stressful. I had one in 2003 in my first 'tub pond'.

BTW - only the bullfrogs stay in the pond. I have Leopard and tree frogs and I don't know where they go, but I imagine they dig in somewhere. My property is set up with many places amphibians can dig in deep in leaf litter and deep top soil in the garden areas. I also have log and brush piles, and there is a deep cavern under my cellar steps that gets salamanders overwintering. (I need to fill that in this summer because I don't know how deep it goes so I hope I don't bury anyone alive).

My frog problem is they all seem to think the Bottom Drain is a hotel.

If I leave the waterfalls going, they end up in the leaf basket.

If I turn it off, they seem to do ok.

I have given up trying to keep them alive. Sooner or later one will figure out that the Bottom drain is a death trap.

Thanks for the info, folks. With the crazy weather we have, I guess the frogs will just have to take their chances. I wish they'd find a better place to winter over, tho - we have brush piles out back and 4 huge compost piles. I'd think those would be better, but I'm not a frog, so what do I know??

We did find the most gigantic toad I've ever seen in the compost pile 2 years ago. No joke, I needed 2 hands to pick him up! I had no idea they got that big. I tucked him back in after I showed my hubby - he couldn't believe it either!

Good luck with the rest of the winter!
KCC

My frogs do fine in my 30gallon container pond. Don't ask me how either!! I leave the pump running all winter and I have a bird bath heater on it. So maybe because it never freezes the frogs do ok???

Bullfrogs need water to overwinter. Toads overwinter on land as do many types of frogs. One must determine the species to understand their needs.

A giant toad is odd for your zone and area. Might be a summer transplant (non-native) off of some plant, but then again, might be a native but I didn't think there were any two handed jumbo toads in Zone 5 New York???

I wouldn't have thought so, either, CT, if I hadn't seen it and picked it up! He didn't fill 2 hands together, but he was definitely bigger than I was comfortable holding in one hand! I'd estimate he was a bit smaller in diameter than a softball, though not as round. This was in the fall, so maybe he was just getting fat for the winter!

Do you know if leopard frogs need water for the winter?

The Leopard frogs in my pond, settle in under the perimeter rocks, located around the pond and also in the liner folds, close to the waters surface.

We see them for a few weeks in the spring, sitting around the sides of the pond, then they disappear into the garden.
In the fall they come back to the pond and then settle in again for the winter, under the stones and rocks.

The green frogs go to the bottom, where I have sunk and anchored, a peice of quilt batting for them to nuzzle into/under for the winter.

I got rid of the bullfrogs that I had, as they were eating all the other frogs that came to the pond.
"Horton"

Huh. Well, it looks like the forum is eating posts, too. I had a long reply to you, Horton, posted a few days ago and it has disappeared. The essence was thanks and I'll try the batting thing next year!

KCC, Don't ya just hate when that happens!!!
Thank you, for the "thank you" and I hope, next winter will be much easier on your frog friends.
"Horton"

We have a backyard Koi pond in a cold winter climate...we had weeks and weeks of 20 degree weather with lots of snow this year. We deliberately dug our pond with a cold weather zone of 4 feet...the fish survived, no problem, but we have been fishing out dead frogs for weeks this spring...must be at least 10 of them and our pond is relatively small...maybe 150 gallons. What is going on? Is this usual?