Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

That is correct, but you have great difference in the cuttings, the first is far more stemie and has seed pods, second is very leavy and few seed pods, a third is just leaves.
The difference is the protein contend.
In straw you have basicly 0, depending on the grass used and how well fertilized, you can have up to 12% protein and the protein is the cooker.

Right on about the hay vs straw.
Hay is feed and has more of the protein and stuff that will help get that C/N ratio for compost going.
Straw is basically the leftover stems of the grass from which grain was harvested and his mostly carbon without the nitrogen. It makes better bedding or mulch but doesn't provide the feed value (unless you have infested straw and chickens to eat the infestation.)

One person's cricket infestation is another person's chicken deficiency.

That is too true, although I hadn't quite thought about it in those terms. Thanks!

"My yard is overrun with bugs!"
"You don't own enough chickens!"
"I don't own any chickens at all!"
"Go ahead and guess what my next suggestion is going to be. I dare ya..."

A mostly good update:

Got three more layers of plastic in place over the greenhouse this weekend, and I molly-bolted a plastic 55-gallon drum into the rafters to give the ceiling a slope, making it so I won't have to use tent poles again to keep the roof from ponding. Once I figure out how best to rig a door, this will make things quite comfy! Last winter, with only one layer that I was forever patching, I went through more fuel than I care to contemplate, so I expect this winter to be a tad easier in terms of keeping the tilapia alive.

The rabbit hutch is "mostly stained", with the main reasons it is not complete being the twin effects of "I'm leaving the staining to my 11-year-old" coupled with "lots of rain".

I also installed a nice elevated walkway - a gift from a friend who dismantled his backyard playground since his kids are now in high school - one end of which can be seen in the photo below, which also contains the reason this update is only "mostly" good.

My tomatoes are dying. (sad face)

This might not be much of a mystery, however... I think its roots are clogged and I really need to clean out this growbed and start over once I've rinsed the multiple years of accumulated gunk out of the lava rock.



Oh well, nothing's perfect. But the tilapia, catfish, and chickens are alive & well, so I can't complain.

I do plan on re-plumbing things still, but given the turn in the weather that hasn't been the highest priority. One day that pipe across the end will likely go away. But who knows? This is an eternal work-in-progress...

For those following along at home, I've lowered the price of my 300-gallon tank to "free".

Please see the following thread for details: viewtopic.php?p=524415#p524415

I don't have any pictures for this update, but I was going to redo the routing of some of the plumbing on the fish side of the greenhouse - specifically that running the catfish's system - but instead one thing led to another and instead I expanded the chicken side to make a temporary coop for the three silky bantam chicks that I fear would get pecked to death if I put them in the general population.

Also, the natural gas heater seems to be working fine, but I'm not sure if it will be big enough once the cold weather really socks in 24/7.

I've decided to sell my 450-gallon vertical tank with a conical bottom and steel stand.

If interested, please see this other thread: viewtopic.php?f=10&t=26623

Change of plans with the Dallas system - I'm getting rid one of my greenhouses (the currently semi-airborne one), so if you need an 8x12x10 aluminum-frame-only DYI starter kit, please make me an offer.

Child not included.



Trampoline parts will be thrown in for free if desired.

If you want the 2-story metal staircase (hard to see, back behind the greenhouse), or the 500-gallon tank, we can negotiate for those as well.

Please let me know if you're interested, and thanks!

Minor update:

Finally got the rabbit hutch into the greenhouse! Still need to reattach doors, and probably finish staining it.

From this view, the chickens are to the right, and the tilapia and catfish tanks are to the left (up the stairs).

That chicken who is photobombing this shot is "Parrot", my favorite and the friendliest one we have.



Don't panic! That bag of "Miracle Grow" potting soil is just for the bottom of the rabbit cage, so I can get a jump on growing some hopefully shade-loving grass in there.

I'm going to have to dig out my in-ground IBC sump since it has mostly collapsed and is leaking into the ground. I have to top it off every couple of days, and that's just not going to work well moving forward.

Anyone have a couple of strong teenagers in the DFW area I can rent for doing the digging? I'll provide shovels, Gatorade, and reasonable pay - I just don't want to have to do the whole thing myself...

Ah hail...



We came out pretty well, and the Tilapia didn't even notice, but some areas east of us, like parts of Wylie, got destroyed by up to cantaloupe-sized hailstones.

I am in DFW (Denton) too! Having several years more experience than me, I was wondering- what have you found to be your "bread and butter" in terms of fish and plants? What plants have flourished beyond the rest?

And AH HAIL! is right! It poured golf balls on us. My blue kale got the worst of it, as none of my plants were covered.

Thanks in advance.

Best,
Andrew

The plant that I've been most successful with is, unfortunately inedible. I forget the name, but it was an ornamental plant someone gave us for my father's funeral 5 years ago, and it completely took over my main Dallas grow bed and is still going strong.

As for veggies, I've had the most luck with tomatoes although I don't have any growing at present because during the "winter" (you'll know why that's in scare quotes this year) we had rats camp out in the greenhouse and eat absolutely everything down to the roots. At the moment, the most plentiful thing I have growing in my Frisco setup is duckweed.

The tilapia are doing fine, and the catfish keep eating each other even though I am under the illusion I'm feeding them sufficiently (and am apparently not).

Minor update: The 300-gallon horizontal tank and the 450-gallon conical bottom tank with steal stand are both gone now, with my sincere thanks to the buyer.

I am going to be shutting down my Dallas location, and consolidating everything into my Frisco system. To that end, I've had to expand my greenhouse again.

For a couple of years now, I've wanted to re-orient the framework that makes up the eastern end of my greenhouse, basically by rotating it, knocking it over, and lifting it into the air - which would give me a LOT more floorspace - but I haven't had the uprights to do it. Well, recently that problem got solved when both a road-repair crew in Dallas and a college in Frisco gave me some slightly damaged road construction signs, the frames of which are perfect for what I want to do.

I will be bolting at least one of the uprights to an IBC tote to give it some more stability.

In the picture below the whole vertical left side used to be on the ground, so you can see how this orientation has a comparatively larger (now 10' x 10.5') footprint:



Also, I now work for an airline again (long story), and they gave me an old heavy-duty training mockup of the flight galley from a 737 jet, which I think will make a great combination chicken-roost-rabbit-hutch-tool-cabinet. Here it is before I attempted to drag it into my backyard:



Finally, I'm a long way from finished so this pretty much looks like a trash heap (or a work in progress, which it is), as I ran out of both weekend and strength before figuring out how to orient everything (coop, galley, IBC tote), and get it all tarpped before this week's thunderstorms started.