Does anyone make their own fish meal?

[sydney13]

This spring I am going to start raising catfish and sunfish in my small pond. I plan to raise 100 fish up to an edible size and have no more than 100 pounds of fish in the pond at one time. I wanted to use some of the fish meat for making fish meal for the chickens feed. Has anyone ever made fish meal or know how to do it? I have a dehydrator, I was wondering if that would work for making the fish meal?

 

[FireTigeris]

I'm pretty sure you could raise earthworms off of table scraps and feed the worms off to the fish...

 

[Organics North]

Fish meal..
I have thought about it. How to get it dry quick before it rots. Boy I do not think I would want to use a dehydrator.. Could not make very much at once. I think if you had some good hot sun and some dry weather you could get it to dry.

I have considered just grinding the fish and freezing them ground up, grab a bag and mix it into the feed.

ON

 

[dottysfarm]

Would you fillet the fish before grinding them up? I am guessing one would have to gut and filet them before grinding? I have a book called "The Encyclopedia of Country Living" by Carla Emery. It talks about how to smoke dry fish and meats. That book is amazing.

 

[Organics North]

I have not done it.. Just thought about it. I would think I would remove the entrails, and maybe the head and grind up the rest if it is a small fish. I am quite positive they do not remove the bones from fish meal. (Good nutrition in the bones)

(Sounds like a good book!)
ON

 

[dottysfarm]

yeah, the book is great! I was going to look up the process on drying fish but I forgot. I was going to post it here... but the book talks about all things country. It has a huge section on raising poultry. The section within that book is as big as most poultry books. It does not talk about making fish meal but I bet a smart person could read about drying meats and how to make a balanced chicken feed as well as other ways to work with meats and figure out how to make something like fish meal... I dont know if i would be able to figure it out but if I have time I will look it over and see what I figure out.

 

[tom e]

Have you considered black soldier fly larvae? Faster means to the same nutrients. I think people are even making a meal from them now that's comparable to menhaden fish meal..

 

[dottysfarm]

I was wrong as to which book the fish drying info was in... not the Encyclopedia of Country Living... still lots of great stuff in there. It tells you how to dig and stock a pond and grow fish and then how to freeze and can fish...

The book, "Preserving the Fruits of the Earth" by Stanley Schuler and Elizabeth Meriwether Schuler, talks about how to preserve fish by: smoking, curing, and salting. I cannot quote the book, their copyright is very specific. The information is on pages 23-27.

I think this information could be super helpful in making fish meal. One could clean the fish, preserve it in any of these ways, and then grind it nearly whole to make a fish meal.

I might try this someday... I had already planned to dig a pond if the DNR will allow me

Thanks for posting this question and getting me thinking about this!