Spawning Oyster Garden

When I first got started into this stuff back in 2001, I was like a lot of other folks, I had a bag and a dock. Well, I new we needed to expand so I got up with my buddy "Winky" (more to come on him) and he let me use his tidal pond. We were big time then, 8 floating bags!!! It was pretty cool because they were clipped on to a longline that had a pulley; so we could stand on shore and just bring the bags to us.
Anyhow, one afternoon in late June or early July I went to check on the oysters and all of this white stuff was billowing out...I had NO IDEA what was going on. But I did have my camera and here you have it...growing stuff at a dock can go on to reproduce!!!

Oyster gardeners keep doing your thing, every bit helps!!!

Grow-out bags, bag floats and oyster seed available from http://www.bayoyster.com/ contact Steph at sales@bayoyster.com

Cranes, Hoist, Davits...

Below are pictures of some other cranes and rigs guys use to pick up their gear around here...


Sweet use of an old mast and boom on a barge set-up.

Mast and boom on a classic Chesapeake Bay deadrise, already using it for dredging so it picks up cages just fine too and it can handle the load.
Northern tool pick-up truck hoist...yes it actually works>>>>>>>>>>


This is our hoist we bought long before we started building our own stuff, its on our carolina 23.8.
This set-up came from Thern . Sweet crane and has never failed us but a little high on price, also the boom can be just a hair short on the new DLX skiffs, especially the extra wides.








Mast and boom set-up on eastern shore. Picks a cage up in a hurry






Chesapeake Bay Foundation's
oyster farming/restoration boat has a sweet hydraulic crane on board. This puppy is powered by its own Perkins diesel...that diesel powers a bunch of other things as well. Sweet rig!

FYI...notice how we gave credit to CBF and even have a link to their website, if you want to use our pictures or videos that is awesome, just give us a shout out so people know where you got it from. www.bayoyster.com in the bottom corner of the picture/video is all you need on a web site/blog/print/or presentation and then we are totally happy to see you use our stuff.

Tip of the Iceberg...shellfish culture in VA

Just in case you thought we were the only guys in VIRGINIA doing this stuff, below is a list of some of the oyster farms in the region. This list is in NO WAY complete, and it doesn't even touch on what is done with clams!!! We are only showcasing these guys because they are already out on the internet, click on their logo and check them out.
There are a BUNCH of guys who are doing this and would rather remain...a little less known, and we are totally down with that.
One note...I like what I do and part of that is because the folks we get to work with in this industry...they are just good people.

Virginia Oyster Farms


















Virginia Oyster Hatcheries









JC Walker Brothers Inc.
Box H Willis Wharf, VA 23486
Ann 757-692-0294 aearseniu@yahoo.com
Tom Walker 757-442-6000




PO Box 769
North, VA 23128
Contact: Ken
804-725-0159