A Visit To A New York State Trout Hatchery

We'd endured five days of chilly, rainy weather and at last we were promised a dry day. It was still cloudy, but I drove east to the town of Chateaugay to visit the New York State Trout Hatchery:

The hatchery was located in flat farm country, but was surrounded by pines and spruces. The Chateaugay River flowed just beyond those trees. Before entering the building, I explored the many "ponds" outdoors. Cold, clean water flowed through all of them continuously, and the first set were entirely covered with boards. I was told later that the young fish liked shade - and it also helped keep out predators:

The next set of ponds were open and contained 6-8" trout - many thousands of them:

Each pond was filled with baby trout:

And each pond was covered with wire, presumably to hold netting or tarps in the winter, and fed by a lively waterfall to keep fresh, aerated water moving at all times:

I walked up toward the building, stopping on the way to see the small display pond. It also was continuously fed with cold, aerated water:

Inside the display pond were very large trout, each of them two to three feet long:

I walked toward the buildings but first stopped to examine two large, circular tanks and one long, rectangular tank. The fish inside were huge and there were several golden, albino trout. I later learned that albinos are hatched every year, but most are stocked along with the normally colored fish. These were kept as a display:

I never learned to tell one species of trout from another, but I was told that they breed Rainbow, Lake and Brook Trout:

I entered the building and found many large, rectangular tanks and one worker:

The tanks had small fingerlings inside:

And the worker was cleaning Rainbow Trout eggs with a feather. The eggs at the hinged side were not yet cleaned, while the eggs closer to her were cleaned and ready to go. I thanked her for the helpful information she provided and began the drive home. But that also was interesting, and I'll post about the drive home tomorrow: