FOREST AND STREAM January, 1922 | ! 
WORK IN A FISH HATCHERY 
HOW EGGS AND FRY ARE HANDLED BY THE GOVERNMENT 
SO THAT OUR STREAMS MAY BE STOCKED WITH FISH 
By FELIX J. KOCH 
O NE of these days, when you hap- 
pen in Michigan, make a detour, 
if you will, down to Charle- 
voix and see how the Govern- 
ment handles eggs. Not just a few 
eggs, not just a dozen eggs; nor even 
just a crate of eggs; but tens of thou- 
sands, hundreds of thousands, millions 
of eggs ; in fact, to be exact, never less 
than thirty-three million eggs every 
year ! 
At Charlevoix, — which is, of course, 
rather a summer-colony city, the Gov- 
erment Fish-Hatchery is built in accord 
with the beauty of all other things 
around. A great stucco building 
houses the better part of the process of 
keeping the Great Lakes stocked with 
food-fish, but the very start of the story 
of the work with the fish-eggs may best 
he said to begin in the waters them- 
selves. 
Eggs for the hatching are taken from 
the lake at Charlevoix and, again, from 
the waters beyond Manistee. Fish 
come to the shoals there to lay these 
precious eggs, and fishermen, not at 
all slow to recognize the advantage to 
them of helping Uncle Sam stock the 
waters in every way possible, go out and 
set their nets squarely there. Nets for 
fish to be robbed of their eggs before 
spawning may properly be left out just 
one night only, in order that the fish 
caught shall be not only alive, but chip- 
per and quite at their best. Prenatal 
influence upon the fish, it has been dis- 
covered, is quite as important a factor 
for producing a strong, virile infant as 
it is with higher species, — not except- 
ing man. 
The catch from these nets is then 
brought ashore with the least possible 
ruffling to the peace of mind of the fish. 
There attendants stand ready to exam- 
ine each individual member of the catch. 
Where the fish is of the sort desired 
and proper sex, the attendants proceed, 
instinctively almost, to run the hand 
over its belly in such wise as to bring 
forth all the eggs and drop them into 
a waiting pan. Similarly the “milt” 
from the male fish is extracted and 
placed in a keg, ready to deliver to Un- 
cle Sam. 
Work completed, the fishermen bring 
eggs and milt to the hatchery and give 
them to the attendants in exchange fo^ 
a Government permit to first take, and 
then keep, the fish for themselves. 
Where these eggs are found to be 
extremely fresh, — out of the mother-fish 
into the hatchery almost directly, — the 
attendants set them to stand for a short 
while so they may becoine water-hard- 
ened, as it is called. The eggs are put 
into a black-painted wooden box, re- 
sembling the familiar household soap- 
box in lits shape and size, but punctured 
throughout the base with an infinity 
of holes. A screen fits upon the bottom 
and the eggs rest upon this. The box 
containing the eggs is then set into a 
trough of water kept at a stated tem- 
perature at all times. This water, of 
course, comes up through the holes in 
the bottom, the spaces in the screen, 
and so to the eggs. So large is the 
number of eggs to be brought here for 
Results 
such hardening that boxes are placed 
two by two down the length of the 
trough. Fourteen boxes in a line; twen- 
ty-eight therefore to a trough, and 
twenty-eight such troughs in all is no 
uncommon sight here. When we think 
that each box, or its tray, holds not less 
than 6,000 eggs, we get some sort of 
notion of the capacity of this monster 
plant. Water for these eggs is taken 
directly from the lake itself and is 
kept at a temperature of 34°. 
W ORK begins at the hatchery with 
trout eggs taken during the month 
of November, so there may be about a 
month to fill any discrepancy that may j 
come through accident before the Jan- 
uary ice closes in. Water-hardening i 
with these eggs lasts for about one i 
hour. They are then transferred to j 
boxes. 
With the trout supply well in hand 
they take up the white-fish, and their 
eggs are also water-hardened and then 
transferred to glass jars. 
About mid - January developments 
with both sorts of eggs are such that 
busy times ensue at the hatchery. Eggs 
which are to hatch reveal the eye of the 
embryo fish inside. “Bad” eggs not 
only do not show such eyes, but have 
turned a milky white. Forty women 
are hired in Charlevoix to pick out the 
bad eggs. Once initiated into this 
unique labor a woman who is at all nim- j; 
ble can pick over at least three boxes i’ 
of eggs in one day. The work consists 
in turning all the eggs of a box out onto 
a screen-tnay placed just below the sur- 
face in a trough of running-water, so ; 
that none of the good eggs may die. 
Now here, now there, her wee tweez- 
ers flit; bad eggs are picked out and 
tossed to one side, and, by and by, as ! 
quantity warrants, they are dumped | 
out on the beach for the sea-gulls to 1 
feed upon. These gulls are beloved by j 
the fish-hatchery folk, not for their i 
beauty alone, but because they are I 
scavengers of the beach. Lazy house- | 
wives, disliking to venture to the ash 
barrel in the winter cold, will toss their P 
kitchen refuse from their windows to | 
the strand, knowing that the gulls will ' 
clear it away. j| 
;! 
AVING removed the bad eggs, the i 
screens with the good eggs are re- j 
turned to' the boxes and the boxes to I 
the troughs. Water is admitted at once, 
passing through at the rate of five gal- | 
Ions per minute. 
For seven long months the eggs re- I 
main in these troughs, with but very lit- 
tle change visible to the naked eye. 
About the middle of March one can be- 
gin to make out the evidence of a tail I 
beginning to protrude from the egg. ; | 
Sometimes the head makes its appear- 1 1 
ance first, but in such event the fish 
will die. I i 
Almost on putting in their appear- !l 
ance, the new-born fish must be taken 
from among the eggs on the tray, other- 
wise the contents of the trough would ij 
soon be such that the baby Ashlings 
would smother and the unborn fish die 
