LIVINGSTON MANOR, N.Y. – On a sunny Friday afternoon along Alder Creek in Livingston Manor, Gary Tyler Shaver is feeding several thousand rainbow trout.
“For the most part, they get a little excited, and they’ll come over and bump you when you get into the pond when you’ve got your waders on and stuff,” said Shaver. “The only time they ever start reminding you that they have teeth is probably the browns during spawning season.”
Tyler Shaver is one of several operators at the Beaverkill Trout Hatchery, New York state’s largest private trout hatchery. He runs the fifth-generation hatchery alongside his aunt, Sherry Shaver, owner and operator of the stocking farm.
Founded in 1965, dairy farmer and sportsman Fred Shaver had planned to raise trout to sell to private fishing clubs to stock their streams. Over the decades, their customer base grew to include local restaurants, private waters, and fish-and-pay visitors from across the tri-state area.
Brook, brown, tiger, and rainbow trout are some of the trout species available at Beaverkill Trout Hatchery. Having the right water and temperatures is key to having healthy fish, and every season is different.
“This year is exceptional thus far. Last year and the year before were horrible droughts,” said Sherry Shaver. “You just never give up.”
Their process begins at the hatch house, where the trout hatch from their eggs into finger-length-sized baby fish. Some eggs go bad during the hatching process and turn white, while the remainder head to the concrete ponds. As the trout mature, they head from concrete ponds to dirt ponds – a move Tyler Shaver says mimic as close to natural habitats but in a controlled environment.
Even through the hardest seasons, Sherry Shaver says the joys of raising fish is simply indescribable.
“I think it’s pretty amazing the work with what we do. When you start out with an egg and you end up with that egg being the most beautiful 24-inch brown [trout] that you’ve ever seen in your life, that’s gratification.”
The Beaverkill Trout Hatchery is located at 8 Alder Creek Road in Livingston Manor, New York.
Image: The Shaver family, owners of the Beaverkill Hatchery in Livingston, Manor, N.Y. (Photo Credit: Beaverkill Hatchery)