A week in the life of a koi farmer (wc 5_8_24)
The last few weeks we've been running spawnings, which has been our second round of spawnings.
The first round of spawnings couldn't have gone better. The second round, is the complete opposite. Various problems, some bad luck, and in the end we don't have anywhere near as much to show for all the effort as we should have. We do have a decent Shusui spawning and a small Ki Utsuri spawning. We're just waiting to see how the scaled Ochiba hatch is... which looks small. We've lost a lot of eggs, and some key brood fish have not spawned - including all our Kohaku's and Showa. So, this is extremely frustrating. And we need to continue to work on this to ensure all our growing on systems are full of fish before the winter.
Part of the issue has been a new leak in one of the two tank systems we lay the eggs into. This is also a critical tank for the overwintering of koi, and the leak couldn't have happened at a worse time. We are still working out the best way to deal with it, and minimising the impact to our production operations. Clearly it's a set back, and is taking up valuable time and focus late in the summer to sort out.
We still have some females to spawn, so as long as we get the next round of spawnings right, we should still be able to fill our tanks before the winter.
There will be some fry available from round 2 spawnings in mid September. We don't have enough to be able to offer 2-3 week old fry. But at 6-8 week old, I expect a good mix from the 2 to 3 spawnings we've managed to land in round 2.
In the meanwhile, the rest of the farm continues to move along. Today we started 2nd selection on the first round of spawnings. This is also several weeks late because of the extended focus round 2 spawnings have taken. So, the koi are all a little larger , which makes selections that much easier.
The good news is that finally, after 2 seasons, we have landed a reasonable Goshiki spawning from our special Kanno Goshiki female (here's the blog showing the moment we bought her: https://www.byerkoifarm.co.uk/blogs/blog/expanding-our-capabilities-byer-koi-farms-successful-trip-to-niigata-japan-to-double-our-brood-stock-and-expand-our-range-of-varieties?_pos=1&_sid=676b1995a&_ss=r)
It's still early days with that spawning, and the numbers are modest, but we are on course to present a harvest of tosai Goshiki from this Kanno female, in the spring.
Here's a video of a few I picked out at random from the Goshiki we are keeping here to grow on:
The Doitsu Ochiba spawning has also delivered once again, with Aragoke and Doitsu Ochiba.
Here are a few I picked out at random from the koi we are keeping here to grow on:
This is just a small selection from the Doitsu Ochiba spawning, and I expect a good harvest at tosai in the spring, and nisai next autumn. We also have new nisai due very soon from the same parent set, but spawned last year... due to be harvested next month.
Our plans for the next week are to complete the second selections on all the spawnings from round 1. This will also delivery a good volume of 2-3, 3-4 and 4-5 inch mix which will become available soon. As well as the varieties mentioned above, there will also be all the doitsu metallics from our Kikisui and Metallic Doitsu Ochiba spawnings. Plus, more Goshiki from our Ikarashi Ozumi female.
Once selections are complete, we will be preparing for the Great British Koi Show... and also the 3rd round of spawnings which we plan to run just after the show. If that goes well... we will have late season fry.
