Category Archives: Papdale Halls

Alevins, Dounby Primary, North Walls, Papdale Halls, Sanday, St.Andrews Primary, Stromness Primary, Stronsay

Troot in the Shed 2014 update

Leave a comment

Hi everybody,

Just a quick update on Troot in the Shed 2014 so far:

  • Stromness Primary: The alevins were successfuly released in the Mill Burn last week.
  • Sanday School:  The alevins are very healthy and have suffered virtually no loss. The release date in Bea Loch is for 17/03.
  • Stronsay School:  Same situation as on Sanday with a release in the Meikle Water planned for 12/03.
  • St. Andrews Primary:  There isn’t much left of the alevins’ yolk-sacs and they should be swimming freely in the Burn of Quoykea by 13/03…
  • Papdale Halls of Residence: I’ve just received an update from Mr. Cuddihy and their alevins are doing very well but still have a substantial yolk sac, so the release into the Wideford Burn is probably still a couple of weeks away.
  • North Walls School: The alevins are healthy and well looked after – Thanks, Olivia, for letting us know!;-)
  • Dounby Primary: The release in the Burn of Hourston is scheduled for week starting 13/03.

All these dates, subject to the whims of the Orcadian weather of course…

We’ll keep you posted on the future developments…

Mr P.

Alevins, Papdale Halls

Papdale Hostel’s ova nearly all hatched.

Leave a comment

This evening I received a worried phone call from Craig as hatching had started at the mini-hatchery kept in the bike shed, with only about 20 ova to go yet… Craig is no stranger to hatching trout eggs, since he was already involved in the pilot project back in 2011, and he quite rightly thought it was too early in comparison to the previous years… However, it just shows how much milder the winter has been this year and all schools have witnessed ova hatching earlier. The set-up at the Hostel is also quite interesting as it only relies on an air pump to produce oxygen as opposed to impeller pumps to create a current as well as air bubbles and aerate the water. The big advantage of not using an impeller pump is that you don’t have to worry about eggs or alevins getting sucked up the pump and polluting the whole tank in a matter of days if not hours.

This is their set up:

The Papdale Hostel tank and its air pump