A week in the life of a koi farmer (wc 8_7_24)

This year we are running the breeding operations differently to previous years, with fewer rounds,  but far more spawnings in each round. We expect an efficiency gain by running the farm this way which will help us in other areas.  So far so good, certainly when it comes to the round 1 spawnings which have been a big success.

For round 2, we are planning on running almost everything else!  With the hope of some good Kohaku spawnings that we hope will form the largest proportion of this round plus a range of others to add variety.  And we will leave a few females for spawning a third round , possibly late summer.

Larger spawning rounds means more preparation.  And that involves a lot of jet washing, cleaning, servicing equipment, and also husbandry for the males and females to help them be in tip top condition for spawnings.

We are making good progress; just a few more tanks to clean and two drum filters to service and then we are good to go.

Over the last few weeks we've been incredibly busy shipping out fry from the first round of spawnings - they've been in high demand!  (Fry can be ordered from the website, here: https://www.byerkoifarm.co.uk/collections/fry)

All the kids have helped us with the workload.  And, we've also had the BKKS National Koi show too (https://www.byerkoifarm.co.uk/blogs/blog/big-wins-for-adam-byer-koi-farm-at-the-2024-bkks-national-koi-show), which is always a highlight in our year - but takes up 3 days on site at the show ground and at least another day back at base preparing equipment for the show, and another day afterwards cleaning kit and so on.

We're now on the home straight for the second round of spawnings, which I am personally very excited about.  All being well we will land some Kohaku fry this time!  Our main female didn't spawning in Round 1 which is unusual because she's usually a great spawner.  She's kept us waiting, and we're hoping she delivers for us in round 2.  We had our first win with Showa at the BKKS National Koi Show this year, and that's just given us that extra motivation to successfully land our Showa spawnings this year - also planned for round 2.

Coming up soon... once we've completed round 2 spawnings, we can move onto second selection on Round 1 spawnings - which will provide us with a range of 2-3 and 3-4 inch mix for sale later this month.

Here's one of our ponds from round 1, with mainly Kikisui and Doitsu Metallic Ochiba, plus a few Goshiki.  The fry are coming along very well, growing and eating!

We also have our final batch of imported Japanese tosai fishing quarantine imminently.  And this includes a wide range of Showa from Sekiguchi, Shiro Utsuri from Omosako.  Also, after the popularity of our nisai Goshiki from Kawawami... we've brought in more Goshiki from him at tosai, including jumbo tosai and some tancho goshiki too!