A Week In The Life Of A Koi Farmer (wc 23_6_2025)
Koi Releases
New Koi Online
As promised, following our release weekend, the remaining Butterfly Koi are now available to order online. We’ve grouped them in sets of four and filmed each group. They’re now listed on our website— Butterfly Koi - Individual Koi For Sale
Koi Fry 2025
Round 1 Koi Fry Update
We remain on track to harvest the Round 1 Koi fry at 6–8 weeks of age in the second half of July, with initial shipments scheduled to begin in late July.
Fry numbers are looking strong and should be sufficient to fulfill all current pre-orders. We’ve now reached the maximum volume of pre-orders we’re comfortable accepting ahead of the final yield assessment at harvest.
We anticipate having additional stock available, which will be offered once harvesting is complete.
Round 2 Koi Fry Update
We completed the second round of our 2025 spawnings programme last week, running a wide range of spawning sets. Almost all the females spawned, and many with a good fertilisation rate. The fry have reached the free swimming stage and are now feeding, so it feels like the right time to provide an update.
The best hatches came from Ki Utsuri and Beni Kikokuryu females. We've run a new Karashigoi female and that hatch is also decent. The Karashigoi female is one I selected at Yagengi on my 2023 trip. She spawned last year but with almost no yield. This year was a completely different story. Lots of eggs. And, good fertilisation. The genetics within her are extremely interesting. Yagengi's Karashigoi combine Konishi and Sakai genetics which are probably the two most desirable Karashigoi lines. So the output from this spawning will be of particular interest.
We ran three Doitsu Metallic Ochiba females, with two delivering modest hatches and one a little better but still on the small side. Between the three spawnings, we are on course for a reasonable batch of this variety too.
This video shows one of two nets of Ki Utsuri fry.
We will review numbers in around 10 days time, and if they remain high then we will open up a 2-3 week fry offering. Otherwise, the round 2 fry at 6-8 weeks old will be harvested in the second half of August. And if all goes well, the mix will contain Beni Kikokuryu, Kikisui (from a small spawning of a new female), Doitsu Metallic Ochiba, Karashgoi and Ki Utsuri. Plus all the variations we'd typically achieve from those spawnings too.
Here's a medley of video clips of the round 2 spawning parent sets that I took just after we set them off. The only female that didn't spawn was the Kohaku. All the others spawned. And only 1 set of eggs was a white out. All the others delivered.
Round 3 is the only opportunity left for us to try again with Kohaku. The new females we bought in last autumn are still only nisai which is too young to expect a result. It's amazing we managed to get 2 of them spawned in round 1, although only little yield. Next year the females will be more mature, and we stand a much better chance with them.
Round 3 Koi Fry Update
Looking further ahead, we have one more round of spawning planned which we will make a start on early in July. This will be primarily based around spawning Oakly - our massive 105cm, and well known Chagoi female parent. We are receiving requests for other varieties too, and are considering what to complement Chagoi with in Round 3. Expect further news on that once we progress with that final round of spawnings.
This Weekend (28th and 29th June) - BKKS National Koi Show, Plus We Are Open As Normal at Byer Koi Farm too
We will provide further updates about this weekend nearer the time, but the key information is that we are both:
- open as normal at the farm, 10am-5pm on both Saturday and Sunday (see Visit Us); and
- supporting the BKKS National Koi show, with a trade stand too.
Each day, you will find either Amanda or myself at the farm while the other will be at the koi show. Our stand can get very busy at the koi show and as a family-run business, we’re grateful for the extra help from our children at the show so that we can operate at the two locations.
