Hunting Creek Fisheries Launches Facebook Page

I hope you're having a good week and staying cool. We were lucky this week to see a little bit of rain. Reports around the Frederick, MD region are that corn crops and other agricultural crops are suffering so keep your farmer friends in your thoughts and remember that Rain is a Good Thing!



If you want another great way to follow Hunting Creek Fisheries, check out our Facebook page. Like us and get timely updates and topical information about ornamental goldfish, koi, golden orfe, and our exclusive blend of feed.

I know, that sounded like a commercial. I'm practicing for my big break, in case this whole fish farming gig doesn't work out.

Don't forget to send us some pictures of your HCF fish and your ponds, we'd love to see them and share them with our subscibers.

Nice mention in the Gazette.net

Family fish farm handed down to fourth generation
The article features our new President Matt Klinger, and our plans for the future. "As the business's fifth president, (Matt) Klinger represents the fourth generation of his family to manage the 125-acre property."


HCF President Matt Klinger (foreground), and your blog host and HCF Production Manager, Jim "the Fishman" Shubert (photo credit: Gazette.net)

Full Circle

Can anyone say heat wave??? We've been experiencing record highs here in Frederick County, MD this week. The thermometer read 106°F yesterday at 2:00 p.m.

One good thing about working at a fish hatchery is the abundance of built-in swimming pools and a never ending supply of excuses to fall in to one of them. For the sake of fish health (and fish farmers' health) we were up at 4:00 a.m. this morning to drain a pond of this year's Golden Orfe Fry. They were out of the pond and into the building to get prepped for shipment before 10:00 a.m.!




Here's a picture of some of what we drained. Sorry for the quality of the photo, Droid didn't want to focus this morning. These are the same fry we've been following here on the blog so I thought you might enjoy seeing them all grown up. They are ~15 weeks old and measure from 3-5 inches.

For more info, check out the hatchery website at http://www.huntingcreekfisheries.com/.



I'm going swimming.

Golden Orfe Fry at Hunting Creek Fisheries

I hope everyone had a nice Memorial Day weekend and took some time to remember those who have fallen for their country and our freedom. The wife took some girlfriends up to Raystown for a camping trip so I took advantage of an empty house and got the vegetable garden tilled and planted. I see home made hot pepper sauce and fresh salsa in the not so distant future.

Things at the hatchery are going well, and we hope that our wholesale and retail partners are enjoying a successful season - thanks to all for your business! Send me pictures of your HCF fish or other products and I'll post them here on the blog.

Since we started the blog with the draining of the orfe ponds, and the sexing of the orfe breeders, I thought I would post some pictures of the results of that particular effort.

Look closely, we have orfe fry!

May already?

Hi there, been meaning to post but things get a little busy at the hatchery this time of year. (and the Understatement of theYear Award goes to...)

So for your entertainment, here is a little snippet of me counting out some Apricot Blush straight tail comets, a new strain for us this year.

Pop some corn, its a classic.

Boy, Girl, Boy, Girl,

The warm weather predicted for this weekend makes me think the Golden Orfe will be spawning soon. For those of you not familiar with the whole process, step one is to drain the breeder ponds and put the breeders in a holding pool filled with cool water, which will keep them from spawning. The picture in my last post was taken when we were draining the Orfe breeders.

The video below shows me "sexing" the orfe. This sounds kinky, but it is decidedly not. Basically, you go through each breeder in the holding pool and determine if it is a male or female and separate them so you can evenly distribute them in the pools for spawning.

Going though our orfe breeders gave me hope for this year's crop. The ladies are full of eggs and the boys seem ready to do what they do best. But when aren't we eh, girls?

So here's Jim the Fishman sexing the orfe, is it wierd that my wife was the videographer?

Have a happy Easter everyone, Jim

Signs of Spring

It is hard to believe that just a few weeks ago we were under several feet of snow and wondering if we would ever see the ground again. Peepers are peeping, the geese are paired up, and we are draining the golden orfe breeders here at Hunting Creek Fisheries and those signs all point to one thing. Spring 2010 is officially here, even Vernal Equinox says so, his birthday being tomorrow and all.