Getting the flock out of here - a diary of a crazy chicken man

[perchie.girl]

Quote:
BTW I am now adding a Grinder to my list of required tools...... LOL. Wether it be for IBC tote Separation or cutting my 11 gauge aviary cages..... Love the tool. You can use a jig saw or use a circular saw with teeth for wood to cut plastic but they heat the plastic up sometimes so you have to make sure to check the cut as you go or it can heal up....

The only thing I would change is the standpipe and the way the water circulates. I want an Ebb and Flow system. Easy enough to do with the existing drain in the center.... They are pretty easy to build but it takes a bit of trial and error to make it work right. The ebb and flow allows the water to attain a specific height without drainage.... Then once that height is achieved the siphon action causes the whole upper tank to drain out to a specified level. The idea is to keep the plants hydrated yet not create an anaerobic atmosphere to damage the roots.

I think Using the IBC tote for a first time learning experience. And to get your fish's water going well. This is the perfect height for me for gardening..... I cant kneel at all.

edited to add..... Dang they had a Bell Sipon video right on the page..... Wow.

deb "off to go find her Ebb and Flow video"

 

[ozexpat]

BTW I am now adding a Grinder to my list of required tools...... LOL. Wether it be for IBC tote Separation or cutting my 11 gauge aviary cages..... Love the tool. You can use a jig saw or use a circular saw with teeth for wood to cut plastic but they heat the plastic up sometimes so you have to make sure to check the cut as you go or it can heal up....

The only thing I would change is the standpipe and the way the water circulates. I want an Ebb and Flow system. Easy enough to do with the existing drain in the center.... They are pretty easy to build but it takes a bit of trial and error to make it work right. The ebb and flow allows the water to attain a specific height without drainage.... Then once that height is achieved the siphon action causes the whole upper tank to drain out to a specified level. The idea is to keep the plants hydrated yet not create an anaerobic atmosphere to damage the roots.

I think Using the IBC tote for a first time learning experience. And to get your fish's water going well. This is the perfect height for me for gardening..... I cant kneel at all.

deb "off to go find her Ebb and Flow video"

I must have watched 4 hours of hydroponics videos. And would love to try this. IBC containers are great but the metal components will last about 2 years before they rust out in the salt environment. It will be a cheap proof of concept device though.

I would build a 6 cubic yard concrete tank with 2 feet above ground. I would divide the tank into 3 sections with 1/4inch screen and then stage the fish. Milk fish fry are collected from the ocean about 30 miles south of us so they would be the first fish. They are the fish of choice for aquaculture in the Philippines. Tilapia are readily available as well. The prices there are very cheap for fish fry.

The garden bed would be the issue. I may use the IBC plastic - 2 containers and use each end to make 4 plant beds.

My growing substrate will be coconut husk run over a 6" jointer.

 

[perchie.girl]

Quote: You know.... those metal frames are ONLY for Stacking the IBC containers. You can easily make wooden or even bamboo frames for them.... Bamboo would be better. Bamboo is strong in compression. Then you are only limited by your fastening method. Some of those totes come on Wood bases.... The one I have is made of wood with about a four or five gauge wire frame. Again for stacking.

you could also do a concrete shell Using ferrocement around the steel frames too. Using them as a structure leave the tote in for a form.... then cover with stucco wire and shell the whole thing with concrete...... I have seen video of this being done in VERY wet climates. ..... you can add in waterproofing to the cement too I believe.

deb

 

[Tomtommom]

More projects for Oz and Bernie. Excited!

 

[LFchixranch]

yeah u could use the tubeular frame as a rebar type support for the crete and just pour around it....your better off with just crete ponds. And a little side note tilapia breed every 4-6 weeks i think i heard. I found a great site that i downloaded a butt load of info on.. it was a polar shift site... Let me see if i can find it... DING

http://www.pssurvival.com/PS/index.htm

theres a ton of info here on aqauponics and everything else for survival in primitive ways.. I Hope somebody finds it useful or at least informative. Some of the docs are worthless but for the most part interesting reading

 

[perchie.girl]

yeah u could use the tubeular frame as a rebar type support for the crete and just pour around it....your better off with just crete ponds. And a little side note tilapia breed every 4-6 weeks i think i heard. I found a great site that i downloaded a butt load of info on.. it was a polar shift site... Let me see if i can find it... DING

http://www.pssurvival.com/PS/index.htm

theres a ton of info here on aqauponics and everything else for survival in primitive ways.. I Hope somebody finds it useful or at least informative. Some of the docs are worthless but for the most part interesting reading

Tilapia are mouth brooders.... the female lays eggs on rocks or in the case of a breeding tank the sides of a flower pot.... The male fertilizes them.... Once the eggs are fertilized the male scoops them up and keeps them in her mouth where he keeps the water circuclating over them simply by breathing. then when the fry hatch they spit them out one by one..... After everyone is hatched the fry will run to daddy if they get spooked whereupon he will jam them all back into his mouth. Even to the point where they almost all dont fit.

I think its all interesting..... When I worked in the aquarium store I witnessed it myself.... They can breed pretty young too. Less than two inches in size. You could easily get just two pair and be off and running....

deb

 

[ozexpat]

More projects for Oz and Bernie. Excited!

The Filipino diet is essentially rice, vegetables, fish, chicken and pork in that order.

A poor Filipino family of four will consume the following in a month:

100lbs rice
15 - 30 lbs fish
Vegetables
Fruits

One with a little money will add
5 lbs chicken
5 lbs pork
3 dz eggs

My aquaponics set-up would need to produce 300-600lbs fish per year to feed Bernies family and us.

Tilapia fingerlings at 1" are $10 per hundred.
500 fry $50
400 lbs fish = 450lbs feed = $250
power to run pump 12/7/365 = $50
total cost of fish $0.87 per pound

Market fish price $1.00/lb

Its not a money maker on our scale but it is a reliable and sustainable source of protein.

The difference is the ability to grow vegetables (which we cant do with our soil)

The vegetables I would grow would be

Chinese long beans
Eggplant
Water spinich (kangkun)
Bitter Melon (ampalaya)
Chinese cabbage (pechay)
Chilis
Tomato

Current commodity retail prices (easy math peso/kg = cents/lb)

Commodities​

Prices​

Rice, Regular milled

P35.00 per kg.​

Rice, Well milled

P38.00 per kg.​

Tilapia

P100.00 per kg.​

Galunggong, scad mackeral

P130.00 per kg.​

Beef brisket

P200.00 per kg.​

Pork

P180.00 per kg.​

Whole Chicken

P130.00 per kg.​

Chicken egg

P4.50 per piece​

Tomato

P50.00 per kg.​

Pechay, native cabbage

P60.00 per kg.
​

 

[Tomtommom]

Even though the money may not be quite a big thing, knowing where your fish comes from is a big one. Fish is so easily contaminated.

 

[ozexpat]

Even though the money may not be quite a big thing, knowing where your fish comes from is a big one. Fish is so easily contaminated.

For me its actually a crazy hair brain scheme to get a nice juicy red tomato.

Our everyday fish comes from the sea in front of our house. its 20km to the nearest factory - a sugar cane mill so the waters are clean.

The way i see it is that the by products of the fishing industry - fish meal - or ground up tuna bones blood guts and waste meat is readily available but harvesting of local young fish is not great for my local ecosystem. I cant control the tuna boats but I can consciously object to raping and pillaging of the beach in front of us. I would much rather feed this scrap to a fish and eat that fish.

Conceptually I like the idea of farmed fish but knowing where the fish comes from is a big thing.

I am not a hippy nor a radical homesteader. I am not even against GMO grains (please dint start that argument here lol). I dint remotely prefers to be organic and have little faith in herbal remedies. I think that you can use science to your advantage. I feel its better to use a chemical (naturally found or man made) in pure and controlled quantities. Antibiotics, insecticides and such have their place if used judiciously. Putting something in your (or my) body just because it comes from a plant is more illogical than refining the plant, extracting the active ingredient to its purest form and shoving that down my neck.

I do believe that I should take advantage of the situation I have been blessed with. If I can grow food and therefore decrease my carbon foot print then why not. Its a terrible waste of land to not care for it and in turn let it care for you.

The feed truck drives past my place every week. It might as well drop off fish feed as well as soy meal, rice bran and copra meal.

Money is not the pivotal decider but I also have to strive for budget neutral at minimum otherwise I am just donating money to my workers in the form of fish.

And maybe, just maybe, I can eat a tomato grown at my place.

 

[LFchixranch]

For me its actually a crazy hair brain scheme to get a nice juicy red tomato.

Our everyday fish comes from the sea in front of our house. its 20km to the nearest factory - a sugar cane mill so the waters are clean.

The way i see it is that the by products of the fishing industry - fish meal - or ground up tuna bones blood guts and waste meat is readily available but harvesting of local young fish is not great for my local ecosystem. I cant control the tuna boats but I can conciously object to raping and pilaging of the beach in front of us. I would much rather feed this scrap to a fish and eat that fish.

Conseptually I like the idea of farmed fish but knowing where the fish comes from is a big thing.

I am not a hippy nor a radical homesteader. I am not even against GMO grains (please dont start that argument here lol). I dont remotely prefess to be organic and have little faith in herbal remedies. I think that you can use science to your advantage. I feel its better to use a chemical (naturally found or man made) in pure and controlled quantities. Antibiotics, insecticides and such have their place if used judiciously. Putting something in your (or my) body just because it comes from a plant is more illogical than refining the plant, extracting the active ingredient to its purest form and shoving that down my neck.

I do believe that I should take advantage of the situation I have been blessed with. If I can grow food and therefore decrease my carbon foot print then why not. Its a terrible waste of land to not care for it and in turn let it care for you.

The feed truck drives past my place every week. It might as well drop off fish feed as well as soy meal, rice bran and copra meal.

Money is not the pivotal decider but I also have to strive for budget nuetral at minimum otherwise I am just donating money to my workers in the form of fish.

And maybe, just maybe, I can eat a tomato grown at my place.

And the by products ie fish scales meal and guts can feed the chickens/hogs which will cut down on ur total feed bill.. win win