The club's hatchery did not have enough head to install the incubator there and Harden Furniture generously offered the facility. Also installed is a flash hot water heater. Because water continuously flows through the heater, water temperature rises only two degree Celsius. This does not seem much but it will speed up development of the eggs and alvin. One of the problems with our hatchery is that by the time the fish are big enough to stock, the fish are too big for our tanks. The optimum time for us to stock is early June but the requirement of testing for disease adds 3 weeks to the schedule.
On January 23, 2014 club members met at the pump house to review operation of the incubator. Water flows into the top via the hose and then through an aerator into the top tray. Each tray feeds the succeeding tray with water until finally it flows out the bottom of the incubator and into a drain.
A Red Sox fan (Jim Morris) is shown picking out eggs and/or alvin that have died and need to be removed. He looks happy at his work, doesn't he? Jim is one of club members who visit the hatchery each week to take care of the Atlantic salmon. The salmon eggs/alvin did well in the incubator with little mortality.
On April 22, Tuesday the fish (alvins) were moved from
the incubator to the club's hatching tanks. Paul Miller, Mike
Mercoldie, Ed Collins, Tom Schneider, Joanie and Jim Lawler moved the
fish to the hatchery. A tub was placed in the back of a
truck (ice fishing sled with sides) was filled with water.
Two trays at a time were placed in the tub and were
slowly driven from the incubator to the hatchery. The
hatchery
tanks were cleaned and water flow was turned on in the tanks for
the fish. Tom, Mike and Jim loaded and transported the fish, and
Paul and Ed took care of placing them in the tanks. There were
minimal losses on the transfer, and the fish look really good in the
tanks. They should start feeding soon.
The feeders were hung with care (by Paul) in the hopes
that hungry fish would soon be there.