Raising frogs

[Jotham79]

There has been a little interest in frog farming lately and I thought I would post an update on what we are doing.  This is the 3^rd year we have raised frogs and are finally getting things sorted out. 

 

   The first year we went with a hapa that was supported by 4 bamboo poles and had a few pieces of bamboo floating underneath and had some pak bung inside.  You just threw them some food a couple of times a day. It worked ok and was low maintenance, but was not that easy to harvest from.

 

      Last year my wife built a frog compound behind the house that was surrounded by the blue mesh screen.  She had a few shallow trays with water and some places for the frogs to hide.  She started feeding them in trays.  This saved on food, but was more maintenance.  The frogs grew much faster in the mud.

 

 

      This year my stepson bought 4,000 small frogs at 2 baht each and my wife took 1500 out to the farm.  My stepson kept his behind my house and raised them like we did last year but he also has some in a hapa with a plastic bottom (second photo).

[attachment=274095:SAM_0289.JPG]

 

[attachment=274097:SAM_0290.JPG]

 

[attachment=274100:SAM_0293.JPG]

 

     My wife devised a new frog pen (homemade) that is half in the water with a lot of pakbung and half out of the water on the bank of our small pond.  She still feeds in trays on the bank.

[attachment=274101:SAM_0304.JPG]

 

[attachment=274099:SAM_0305.JPG]

 

[attachment=274100:SAM_0293.JPG]

 

[attachment=274098:SAM_0315.JPG]

 

 

  The frogs are just over 3 months old and are averaging 330 grams.  We are selling as fast as we can, but the market is only so strong.  My wife spent 3,000 baht on the frogs and has another 9,000 baht in feed. We have sold a couple of hundred frogs (around 60 kg) at 70 baht a kg (a few have been sampled for quality ) and I recon we have another 1000 (we don’t worry about cannibalism) that would be around 300 kg or 21,000 baht.  We will probably burn through another 2,000 baht in feed before we can get rid of them.  My best guess is that our cost will run 14,000 baht and our gross will be over 21,000 on 1,500 frogs so it will be a net of about 7,000. We wholesale everything.  From now on all will be raised in the new pens in our small pond.  It has turned very green and this water will be pumped to my patch of papaya as water and fertilizer.  We are keeping good records finally and I will have a better FCR when we are done.

 

One of the problems with frogs is the cost of entry is low so if people see you making money, you can have a lot of competition very quickly.

 

Our next project is to start breeding.  I’ll let you know how that goes.  If anyone has any experience, please PM me.

[RedBullHorn]

I was doing some research last week because my customer was asking me where he can buy the ready made plastic botom hapa and found the website.

Link =  obob frog farm

 

[media]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SdpyEeNR4-4[/media]

 

[media]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lHwavbPsfiQ[/media]

Edited July 6, 2014 by RedBullHorn

[Jotham79]

I knew about Obob farms and the pre-made nets, but we can make them for 1/3 the price (probably not quite as good)  Well, I was off on the final numbers.  As best as I can figure we lost over 400 frogs, probably to cannibalism, but some to family and friends.  I found out that my stepson sorted them out before my wife got hers so I am looking at a couple of problems.  We ended up selling around 250 kg and netting almost 4,000 baht which I am happy with.  I went with my stepson yesterday over to Nakon Sawan where he picked up another 5,000 frogs. He has moved his sorting pen farther out back and will move them to the farm when he starts sorting.

 

[attachment=275332:SAM_0330.JPG]

 

 

This is what they look like.

 

[attachment=275333:SAM_0329.JPG]

 

 

 

I will try to get better numbers.  I picked up some Big Oui and some Tabtim to play around with.

[ad61]

Hi Jotham79,

could you please explain how to make the nets, how big ( size ) and from what material is the bottom made from; how to attach the blue net to the bottom? glued together?

Thank you

[Big BUCKS Bunny]

 interesting, thanks for the pictures.

i sometimes used to raise tadpoles for amusement/interest when i was a little boy. frogs eggs you could see in the ponds. cant be that hard to breed you own, unless these are special different frogs. green water in your pond look very suitable for tadpoles.

searching for a link to fly farming i happened accross the other day.>> http://www.southafrica.info/business/trends/innovations/agriprotein-100714.htm

http://inhabitat.com/flies-fattened-on-organic-waste-to-feed-farmed-fish-in-south-africa/

 

just a thought perhaps it would cut your imput costs.

Edited July 18, 2014 by Big BUCKS Bunny

[Jotham79]

Hi Jotham79,

could you please explain how to make the nets, how big ( size ) and from what material is the bottom made from; how to attach the blue net to the bottom? glued together?

Thank you

 

We have several different sizes as most are homemade. The small one with the new frogs is about 2.5 x 3 meters. To attach the plastic sheet, my stepson just sews it on the same way he stitches the sides together.  The ones we use on the banks is just the sheeting anchored in a small trench with a piece of bamboo.  The net going into the water is anchored about 1 meter above the waterline and extends out about a meter into the pond.  The fact that they are raised on soil gives them access to bugs and worms.  Someday we may start putting small light out there to draw in crickets.  We live down the road fro the provincial fisheries center and for a few hundred baht I can get someone to come down and help us sort out a breeding program.  We have held back some stock for breeders, but it takes a while.

[ad61]

Thanks a lot for your infos Jotham79.
I would love to see more pictures of your farm if you don't mind; I am now searching if there is a market in my area (I live in Ranong) and if yes, will certainly start raising frogs too.
Rgds.

[ad61]

Hi again Jotham79
I would like to know if it is possible to start raising frogs now, I mean in middle of the year (August or Sept.) with a breeding couple or must I wait the next beginning of the raining season?
Thanks a lot for your advice.

[fezzy]

We dropped into our two local frog and fish breeding shops the other day and noticed a similar setup as yours . I watched them move the frogs with great ease as they had large concrete tanks with continious water flow and the had the same netting underneath their fogs without a plastic bottom and we're able to heard them to one corner for harvesting .
Thanks for putting up all your details in details as most things we have tried my family have no concept of gross and net and Profit.
I will try and take some pictures next time I go passed

Garry

[Jotham79]

d

Hi again Jotham79
I would like to know if it is possible to start raising frogs now, I mean in middle of the year (August or Sept.) with a breeding couple or must I wait the next beginning of the raining season?
Thanks a lot for your advice.

You should still be able to get new tadpoles, but you need to remember that in the cold season frogs grow slower.  I would recommend getting some (1,000) to raise first to see how it goes and keep back the 20 fastest growing males and females to use as breeders next year.  The frog farm in Nakon Sawon sold good breeders for 3,500 baht per pair.  We are just in the process of holding back stock to use as breeders next year. 

[RedBullHorn]

Let's talk about production like the different type of pellet feed. In my village of 182 household, half are raising backyard frogs in tanks for self consumption. All of them use pellet feed for rearing fishes. All of them tried pellet feed from many village shops selling them... They complained their froglets slow ADG, came to my shop to make enquiry regarding my catfish feed. Price different by ฿200/ sack. SHOCK !!! 

 

"I'm using it to rare my Clarias, not meant to sell. It's costly because it's a Premium feed, top of the range" 

"OK. Let's try your Premium Feed !  I want to see what's so special about your feed !  "

 

​All it tooks was just this one customer... and i had to stock an additional supply of up to 400 sacks a month just to supply to my community. Amazed at the power of "word of mouth".

 

They realised the huge difference in ADG and lessen the bad smell and water foul up...

Top of the range Premium Feed.   Pay peanuts you get monkey, pay bananas you get the elephant...

 

Edited July 25, 2014 by RedBullHorn

[Sugarthailand]

RBH catfish feed you using i would like to try for my frog. i have the same problem like your village haha. best with image so i can go hunting around for it 

 

[canuckamuck]

RBH what is ADG?

 

Also, not to be too critical, but monkeys are more likely to go for the banana, and elephants are fond of peanuts 

[RedBullHorn]

RBH catfish feed you using i would like to try for my frog. i have the same problem like your village haha. best with image so i can go hunting around for it 

 

 

Betagro 831 (Premium grade size #1 pellet for Clarias catfish, protein 32%)

Betagro 832 (Premium grade size #2 pellet for Clarias catfish, protein 30%)

 

 

 

RBH what is ADG?

 

Also, not to be too critical, but monkeys are more likely to go for the banana, and elephants are fond of peanuts  alt=tongue.png>

 

ADG - Average Daily Gain/Growth

 

FCR - Feed Conversion Ratio

 

Calculation/Formula With Examples Link

 

or type into search box - " Calculating average daily growth in animals "

 

 

Edited August 11, 2014 by RedBullHorn