Salmon Life Cycle - Eggs (Ova)

An average 4kg female may lay 8,000 eggs (also known as ova). These incubate deep in the gravel until early spring.

Although this is the natural method, we can increase the odds of survival shown on the main page, by storing and "bringing on" the eggs ourselves in our hatchery. A few steps are shown below.

The eggs being laid on in our hatchery, in Halkirk. The oldest hatchery, still being used, in Scotland.	.A tray of eggs taken out of the water for the picture - there are approximately 10,000 eggs in the basket.	Jamie holding a cup of eggs while laying on. This cup holds approximately 1000 eggs

It is highly important that the eggs, while in the hatchery, have a constant supply of fresh water. Ideally from the river, this keeps the majority of eggs alive, with a very low mortality rate (less than 1%). In recent years fresh water has been used for the water supply, but due to the amount of chemicals placed in the water system nowadays, we had a much higher mortality rate, and reverted back to our "old" method.

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