Little Fishes

Well I bought me some more fish today. These are not for the chickens. I have a little fish pond and my fish I had died in early summer and I have no idea why. I had two shubunkins and comets and gold fish. I guess I didn't clean it out when I should have. I have doubts on that, though. They were probably at least four years old. I cleaned the ponds out last week and filled them back up. 

Anyway, today I bought four fish. I bought them at Wal Mart because the pet store where I was buying them closed. Not good selection. I hope I have three comets and I splurged and bought a little Oranda fantail. You have to look really hard to see them. They are only about an inch long. 

This is the Oranda fan fail. She is the largest. And that ain't big. 

You can just barely see them here; where the cloud shadow is by the plant holder. I let the pond dry up and all my plants are in very bad shape. I'm hoping they recover and soon. The holder in the bottom has the water lily. 

One of the things I was missing in the pond was water hyacinths. They really filter the pond well. I went kayaking in August and picked me up some. I only picked up four and now I have a bunch. 

Or I did!  The chickens are eating them up. I guess they see green; there is a drought. 

    

Hoping no snakes come tonight and get my fish because I don't have them protected yet. 

Mighta Gone Fishing

And I did! A couple of my friends (also they are family) and I went up to the pond for a few hours to catch a few fish. We are fishing for catfish. 

But this is what I'm catching. Thousands of these little suckers. We have just always thrown them up on the bank to get rid of a few. But, a few weeks ago I read that someone fed their chickens the remains of fish after cleaning them. Fish meal is really expensive and this is a cheaper way.  So I put all the little bream we caught in a buckle. 

I did catch a couple of catfish. 

Just not big enough to eat; so these get to go back in the pond for another day. Make that year!

When I got home, l chopped up all the little bream into bite size pieces for the chickens. 

They like them. I chopped up a few and then gave them some to see how that was going to fly. It soared. 

I'm at a table still chopping and a few are coming over for more. They hung around as long as I was chopping. I still have a little left in the refrigerator that I plan to give them tomorrow. Great protein.