BREEDING FOR PRODUCTION...EGGS AND OR MEAT.

[CanadianBuckeye]

Today we harvested and filleted three more Tilapia from out aquaponics setup. Here's the largest one we've raised to date:


He measured 17-18" in length:


And over 5" in height. The thickest part of the filet was over 1.5" thick. He was almost 1 year old.

I know, it's not chicken...but it is "breeding for production".

MMMmmmm I am so jealous- we can't really raise these fish here. I bought 2 tilapia fillets, fresh, from the store the other day- twelve bucks for about a kg. Worth every penny. The frozen stuff smells....... well,,,, gross so we only buy fresh.

 

[CanadianBuckeye]

Male and female Tilapia are determined by viewing the genital papilla.
The Tilapia on the left is a male and on the right is a female Tilapia.
The male papilla looks like a Pyramid, The female is more open and wide to let large eggs through.
Now you can sex them...​

Interesting....... although all I ever see are fillets. Glad you posted the real photo, the picture's privates don't look anything at all like the real fish...... What were they thinking????

 

[Fire Ant Farm]

Quote: @DesertChic , there's NO reason why you can't easily grow bell peppers in the regular ground there easily. I've found that I have to give my non-hot peppers a little shade to keep the fruit from scalding (sometimes by growing edamame all around the plants). The hot peppers grow like weeds no matter what I do and how little it rains. Indeed, the chile pequins are true weeds here - they pop up everywhere on the property with the yucca and other weeds. If I did enclosed aquaponics, I would personally do lettuce and maybe other similar greens - those only grow for me over the winter here, but I have to rush to protect from frost - it's a crazy dance...

Do you have the book "Growing Food in a Hotter Drier Land"? You should get it. Great ideas for productive gardening in land/climate like yours.

Quote: There used to be a family who had an aquaponics operation and sold fresh tilapia, basil, and lettuce at our farmers market every week. Best fish I had ever eaten. Alas, they had a setback with their system and some serious family illness. My desire to do aquaponics comes directly from eating their tilapia...

- Ant Farm

 

[DesertChic]

Male and female Tilapia are determined by viewing the genital papilla.
The Tilapia on the left is a male and on the right is a female Tilapia.
The male papilla looks like a Pyramid, The female is more open and wide to let large eggs through.
Now you can sex them...​

Awesome! Thank you!

 

[DesertChic]

@DesertChic , there's NO reason why you can't easily grow bell peppers in the regular ground there easily. I've found that I have to give my non-hot peppers a little shade to keep the fruit from scalding (sometimes by growing edamame all around the plants). The hot peppers grow like weeds no matter what I do and how little it rains. Indeed, the chile pequins are true weeds here - they pop up everywhere on the property with the yucca and other weeds. If I did enclosed aquaponics, I would personally do lettuce and maybe other similar greens - those only grow for me over the winter here, but I have to rush to protect from frost - it's a crazy dance...

Do you have the book "Growing Food in a Hotter Drier Land"? You should get it. Great ideas for productive gardening in land/climate like yours.
There used to be a family who had an aquaponics operation and sold fresh tilapia, basil, and lettuce at our farmers market every week. Best fish I had ever eaten. Alas, they had a setback with their system and some serious family illness. My desire to do aquaponics comes directly from eating their tilapia...

- Ant Farm

My soul sister, you are seriously over-estimating my ability to grow rather than kill plants. I've read the books, tried various techniques, and have finally begun to meet with some success, but it's been very hard-won success. We don't like hot peppers, only mild ones, and I've yet to get one grown indoors or outdoors to yield a full-sized pepper...but I'm getting closer. This year I managed to get three bell peppers that were about the size of a child's hand before a sudden freeze got to the plant.

I excel at cucumbers, lettuce, kale, Swiss chard, garlic, onions, basil, squash (multiple varieties) and cherry tomatoes, but only outdoors in raised beds filled with compost. I'm working on the rest.

If you decide to give aquaponics a try, expect to devote a lot of time and effort (and money) at the onset, and expect a fair amount of frustration along the way. I know of half a dozen people who completely abandoned their setups after about two years.

Oh...and right now, we're fighting a fruit fly infestation. I guess when you create an artificial tropical environment you wind up with a variety of tropical pests.

 

[Fire Ant Farm]

Quote:
Yeah, these are some of the reasons wy I haven't taken the plunge. Also, the space I would put the aquaponics is now at risk of re-appropriation to be a duck house instead!

Sorry about your struggle with bell peppers. I have actually only had luck with hybrids for those (Camelot X-something-or-other). Starting as seed super early works. They will also overwinter if you protect them - what sort of winter freezes do you get? We only get a handful, so I am able to just suck it up and protect things. As such, I have occasionally been able to treat pepper plants as perennials...

- Ant Farm

 

[DesertChic]

Yeah, these are some of the reasons wy I haven't taken the plunge. Also, the space I would put the aquaponics is now at risk of re-appropriation to be a duck house instead!

Sorry about your struggle with bell peppers. I have actually only had luck with hybrids for those (Camelot X-something-or-other). Starting as seed super early works. They will also overwinter if you protect them - what sort of winter freezes do you get? We only get a handful, so I am able to just suck it up and protect things. As such, I have occasionally been able to treat pepper plants as perennials...

- Ant Farm

It really depends upon the year. We've already had four freezes at my house this past week. It's so much fun dispensing feed and thawing water at 6:30 a.m. when there's barely a hint of light in the morning, LOL. I'm so glad we don't live in a colder climate.

 

[NanaKat]

We have been in drought most of the summer and fall here and unusually warm weather has delayed our freezes until a week in mid November and now this week. Heavy frost with thin ice on all water containers with a light snow predicted later this week.
This morning is a thick fog with freezing fog.
Chickens don't seem to care much about the cold, just not the 1/4 inch drizzle we got all day yesterday. They rush out of their pens in the morning like their coops are on fire...ready to free range.

The fish sexing photo goes the same for most fish species...bass, crappie, perch, catfish...etc. we always throw back the big females and mid size males to repopulate the ponds.

 

[GabrielBane]

We have absolutely no idea what we are doing with our garden anymore, since a kind neighbor gave us three piglets, and we put 'em in our enclosed garden while we figure out what we're doing with 'em. I know we're in zone 9a, but the idea of tilling a new garden-bed at the moment...

I'll stick to the chickens.



I think I've decided who I'm keeping back for breeding out of our four Sulmtalercockerels. I'm sad that two are gonna do, buuuuuuuuuuuuuut, I really want to refine the breed, and two of them just aren't cutting it at the moment. I'm already frantically searching for where I'm getting Sulmtalers next year, once we process our two extra boys, we'll have a Silver Wheaten pair, and a Silver Wheaten Cockerel with a Wheaten Pullet. I'll keep their offspring for processing, and focus on breeding more Silver Wheatens. I've been dying to find Blue Wheatens, but it's really quite impossible to find them in the US. We're considering importing a big batch from Canada just to add Genetic Diversity. It seems GFF are the only lines people in the states are breeding, and there are so few breeders of them. Eek.




(Reposting this pic for reference.)

(Left is headed to the freezer, and the two on the right are staying *for now*)

 

[Molpet]

We have absolutely no idea what we are doing with our garden anymore, since a kind neighbor gave us three piglets, and we put 'em in our enclosed garden while we figure out what we're doing with 'em. I know we're in zone 9a, but the idea of tilling a new garden-bed at the moment...

I'll stick to the chickens.

Nice birds
Over on the homesteading thread they use the pigs to till the garden.. just saying LOL