Hickling's Fish Farm, Inc.

New Yorkers may be seeing more dead fish in the water this spring than in past years. The winter of 2020-2021 created optimal conditions for winter kills, which... usually occur in shallow waterbodies with aquatic plant growth. Winterkill occurs when snow that accumulates on the ice reduces the amount of light penetrating through the water, inhibiting the photosynthesis cycle in plants and reducing the amount of oxygen (a byproduct of the cycle) available to fish and other organisms. The problem is exacerbated when fish die, as the decomposition process also consumes any available oxygen in the pond. To report a fish kill contact your Regional DEC Fisheries Office: https://www.dec.ny.gov/outdoor/7927.html

Our nephew is in charge of a missions team that goes to this camp in deep remote Alaska every year to help in preparing it for the season to come. The camp is called Kokrine Hills Bible Camp. This year they suffered a terrible fire where they lost their generator, most of their equipment, and all of their tools. In order for missions teams to help annually and repair the damages from the fire he would like to replace as many of the tools needed. If you feel inclined to donate, please, please, please do. This camp saves the lives of the youth and helpers that attend. I will be going for sure. Thank you. Please share!

Some cool family history.

We take weigh samples on a regular basis to get an idea of growth rates. This involves weighing a few pounds out of each tank and figuring an average number of fish/pound. This helps give us an idea of things we are doing right and wrong. In our new facility we had growth rates ranging from about 10% to 30% over a 3 week period in the 10 different tanks. We are still tinkering with different feeds and feed rates to get best possible growth. Regardless, the new system as a whole is working very well and we're seeing the best growth rates we have ever gotten and there is still room for improvement.