How to Look after Yabbies- Sweet little dam dwelling crustaceans.

The first thing to know about yabbies is that if you are lucky enough to have them in your dam, don't tell anyone! People will sneak on to your property at night and catch your yabbies. This is not uncommon! Kepp your yabbies a secret or one day you will go to your dam and the yabbies will be gone!

Apparently yabbies taste delicious. Everyone always says so. I have never eaten one. I don't like shellfish.

Yabbies are quite commonly found in freshwater dams on farms in southwestern Australia. Most of our dams had yabbies and initially we caught lots of them but after a while we really didn't like the process of killing them, so we stopped catching them. We let our yabbies, like most other creatures on our farm live in peace and die of old age.

Here are the first batch of live yabbies we ever netted from the farm dams,waiting in our bath. They are having a bit of a swim while we contemplate how to kill them.

We did not want to throw them alive into boiling water because, apparently this is quite painful for the yabbies. So we researched over the internet and found the RSPCA recommended method of killing crustaceans. This is what they recommend:

Place live yabbies in a slurry of ice and water to numb them into a coma like state. All of their body systems are slowed and they are in a state similar to anaesthesia. Keep them in this state until, when you lift them from the icy water, their tails droop down and do not flex back up when you brush them. This is supposed to be between 20 minutes to one hour. Then throw them a few at a time into rapidly boiling water. Never put in so many that the water stops boiling rapidly, and always ensure the water is rapidly boiling before you add the next batch.

Some people just put them in the freezer for an hour. We never tried this so I can't vouch for it one way or the other.

Above: as you can see they are very pretty and very sweet little creatures. We had a difficult time dealing with the killing method. We just couldn't be sure that the creatures weren't suffering. Sometimes when they hit the boiling water they tried to swim, albeit briefly. Burning alive is possibly the worst way to die. I never felt entirely comfortable with the whole process. I don't know about you, but I do not want to meet my maker and have to try to justify why I boiled some of his other creatures alive while I was living down here on Earth. I eat meat, and I enjoy eating meat. But the death has to quick and painless. We were just never sure about that when the method involved a living creature and a pan of boiling water.



They could grow to quite a large size, but most were not this big, as you can see by the evidence in the bowl below.

This is the yabby net we used to trap them. All that was required was a lamb chop in the bottom and the yabbies were drawn to it like a magnet. Sometimes we would pull a trap out and it would be full, with many more yabbies hanging on to the side trying to get in to eat the tasty chop.

If you have yabbies in  a dam on your property there are some things you can do to keep them healthy and growing well.

First, and most importantly, do not allow chemical herbicides or pesticides to be sprayed over your dam or for the run off of a freshly sprayed paddock to run into your dam. This may kill your yabbies. It is important not to spray your paddocks that contain yabby dams if you are expecting rain over the next few days. Whenever you spray some of the chemical will blow onto your dam. If it is only a little your yabbies should survive. Ideally, you will not be using these environmentally unfriendly chemical, but if you plan to crop, you probably will. If you have your crop sprayed by a crop duster plane, you can ask the pilot to not spray over your dam, but with the chemical blowing in the breeze, you are asking for him to perform a miracle. If you are serious about your yabbies and don't want them to be contaminated or poisoned, you can always set up an aquaculture operation in a shed.

Secondly, feed your yabbies! You do not need to feed them as they will survive eating the algae that grows on whatever falls into the dam- leaves, grass, sticks. They also eat worms, insects and other small creatures inhabiting your dam. It is good to feed them because, like any other stock on your farm, they grow better, and breed better if their conditions are ideal. Do not throw dead animals into your dam to feed your yabbies. You will just contaminate your own water supplies. The best thing to feed yabbies is crayfish pellets, but as you will have greater access to lupin, the next best thing is lupin. Research has demonstated that yabbies fed lupin grow 30% bigger and faster than yabbies which are not fed extra food. Crayfish pellets add another 20% to this. Refer to this site for more information about improving your yabby yield: http://www.fish.wa.gov.au/docs/aq/aq025/index.php?0404

We started feeding our yabbies but after a short while we decided not to feed our yabbies, because we did not eat them. They were left to their own devices.

Thirdly, keep your numbers down. Overpopulation slows the growth of yabbies and reduces their size. So trap and eat those yabbies or sell them on. Whenever you pull up your yabbie trap, throw the largest ones back. They are good breeding stock and will serve you better in the dam than in the pan!

Putting yabbies in a dam that has no yabbies.

The best dams are those without large numbers of other predators in them, such as fish or turtles. Yabbies prefer muddy water to clear water. The average farm dam can produce 50-100 kgs of yabbies per year without any effort. To stock your dam use dam stock breeders which are 50-100mm head to tail. These yabbies are large enough to survive and ready to breed. You will need to add at least 100 yabbies, but the more you add the better your chances of succeess.

Eating yabbies.

Yabbies should be cooked in a large pan of rapidly boiling, salted water. Cook each batch for 4-5 minutes.

They are then ready to eat

Our favourite recipe was to dip them in Marie Rose sauce:

MARIE ROSE SAUCE

350ml mayonnaise
100ml tomato ketchup
50ml thickened cream
1-2 Tbs Worcestershire sauce
Juice and zest of 1 lemon
1 tsp brandy.

Combine all ingredients in a bowl and mix well. Season to taste with salt and pepper. Serve drizzled over yabbies.

Enjoy!