Fish Hatchery

Today we took a trip to our local fish hatchery.  I'm hoping the kids were paying attention because we learned quite a bit today.  The Caledonia Fish Hatchery was the first hatchery in the western hemisphere. It was started during the Civil War. It is also the place where the Department of Environmental Conservation was founded. 

Due to various disease related issues, the hatchery only stocks brown trout at the moment. They stock lakes in a several county area and provide all of the two year old brown trout for the entire state. 

We learned that the dead fish are collected each day to be given to a man who feeds them to bald eagles.  Given that the hatchery is home to thousands of fish, I just can't quite imagine how many dead fish they must have to remove every day.

All of the kids got a chance to feed the fish at the end of our tour.  I have to say that I was not quite sure what to expect when I arranged this field trip but ended up pleasantly surprised by everything we learned today.