A week in the life of a koi farmer (wc 27_2)

It's been non stop since I returned from Japan.  This is such a crucial year for us, and we've upped the tempo early to mid season levels to give ourselves the best chance to deliver a successful year.

Bradley, our first employee ( https://www.byerkoifarm.co.uk/blogs/blog/byer-koi-farm-reaches-major-milestone-bringing-even-more-high-quality-koi-to-customers-with-first-employee ) joins us tomorrow, and the timing couldn't be better.  We're at a pre season pinch point with preparations for our spring tosai release well underway and also one eye on preparing for this years spawnings too.  All the fry ponds need re-lining and fencing and netting repairs are also needed.  And a whole lot more besides!

This afternoon I made a start on the tosai selections, going through a tank of koi where we've been collating some of the smaller ones from each spawning.  It was my first chance for a few months to review the doitsu metallics which were a very late spawning last year and are now substantially more developed than the fry stage when I last looked at them.

Here are a few of the different types we have from that spawning, plus a few others from today's selections from some of the other varieties we spawned last year.  Most of the Kohaku's are much larger and didn't feature in today's tank.  Same goes for the Mukashi, Chagoi, Asagi and most of the Showa are larger too.

I hope you enjoy this little snipped which will start to give you an idea of around half of the range of koi varieties we will be offering in our spring release.

The doitsu ochiba's have been getting serious attention from customers who've visited over the last few weeks, and if you're a regular blog reader, you'll know this  variety is particular special for us as we're aiming at the bottom up style of pattern.  So the attention is a bit of a relief for us!  But the proof will come when we release them at tosai, and see the take up.

Here's a look back from an earlier blog, talking about developing the new line: https://www.byerkoifarm.co.uk/blogs/blog/new-doitsu-ochiba-line-in-development?_pos=1&_psq=doitsu-ochiba&_ss=e&_v=1.0

The bottom up pattern makes these koi a little different, and ideal for anyone with a pond window.  That's our plan, and the doitsu ochibas released this year are the first step in that direction.

Once we've completed tosai selections this week, we will be almost ready to announce the release dates.  The plan this year is to repeat what we did last year, and that is to have our main 20cm + tosai release on site in our koi shop at Adam Byer Koi Farm on a weekend.  Visit will be by appointment.  And, then shortly after we will also release online too.

I expect at least 2, possibly 3 tosai releases over the first half of the season,  The spring release being the largest and the next one(s) being to cover off the late spawnings from 2022.