may have discovered a clean way to get maggots, thoughts?

[KrazyChromatics]

I give my layers soaked alfalfa pellets, i pour water in the day before, and usually make enough to feed out for just a couple days, i chuck it if it gets moldy which it only had once.. but it gets VERY hot... idk if its fermenting or what, it never smells bad...

but anyway i left about 2inches in the bottom of the pail and forgot about it.... today i go to make em some more as its been about a week, it was dry, and i pulled a handful out to see if it was moldy, it was actually crawling with maggots!... and like a chicken person, smiled and gave it to the girls who had the pile gone in minuets....


any idea as to why it would have maggots? and if maybe it sounds like a cleaner, safer way to get the girls on some natural protein... they arent very good at free ranging lol, theyve been cooped up in the barn for so long they just go down stairs and hang out where its cooler, and arent outside for very long... but i do have to admit im feeding less

 

[Kelsie2290]

I've had that happen when I forgot a pan of mash for a couple of days. When you think about it, alfalfa (or just about anything else we feed chickens) + water, just equals decaying vegetable matter when we forget it for a few days, and that is a prime home for maggots. The question I've had is by the time the maggots are big enough to be worth the trouble, whatever you are using to grow them in is probably going to be moldy also, couldn't that potentially cause problems for the chickens? With fermenting feed they are generally only going for a few days, with maggots you'd probably have to go a good week, so how do you avoid mold but keep it damp enough to keep the maggots happy?

 

[KrazyChromatics]

hmm... when i discovered it it was completely dry and the maggots were very active and healthy to my untrained eye, they were wiggly lol but no mold today when i fed out the soaked stuff it was again quite hot, i should get a temp reading on it, its got to be over 100*