Anyone using black soldier flies?

[glib]

get pigs then. at the end of the season they will come off your food budget.

 

[simply blessed]

I've heard they freeze well. You could probably also sell them on Craigslist or to local pet store. In theory you could eat them, but...

! Better to have too many than not enough, right?

 

[RichnSteph]

get pigs then. at the end of the season they will come off your food budget.

Ah we can't have pigs here, county ordinance..... dang it. Good idea though!

 

[RichnSteph]

I've heard they freeze well. You could probably also sell them on Craigslist or to local pet store. In theory you could eat them, but...

! Better to have too many than not enough, right?

If they freeze well then we'll go that route. I'm NOT eating them. *laugh*

Sell them? I didn't know there was a market for these things but I'll start looking. I wonder if they are worth enough to make it worth our while to package and sell. Yes it is much better to have too many than too few.

Thanks!

 

[simply blessed]

Wish I could claim credit... saw it on Craigslist when I googled BSF for info...I mentioned I was looking at building a composter for them, and another friend with chickens said she'd buy any off my hands I had extra. She didn't want to touch them! Good luck!

 

[RichnSteph]

We have four families near us that have chickens. I'm wondering if I can take them a few pounds of grubs as a "Hi, I see that you have chickens and these are great feed" as a way to say hi and meet them. If I'm making many of the grubs maybe it'll be a nice way to say hi and start a relationship with them. They all have large gardens so maybe we can trade a bit.

 

[enola]

My chickens are wishing you were our neighbor

 

[frg34]

If they freeze well then we'll go that route. I'm NOT eating them. *laugh*

Sell them? I didn't know there was a market for these things but I'll start looking. I wonder if they are worth enough to make it worth our while to package and sell. Yes it is much better to have too many than too few.

Thanks!

Bearded dragons, koi, tilapia all love them. I haven't started yet with the BSFL, but I am ridiculously excited about it. I've been under a rock and just found out about them in October and tried here in Socal to attract some during a hot period in November without luck. Hope I dont have to wait too long in to the new year before I can get started. I have been reading for 2 months on them (and have like 20 tabs open on them on my browser heh). I keep people food in my freezer so that wont be an option for me; so, I plan on dehydrating them and storing them that way for leaner times and will use the resulting biodiesel oil to burn the wick in my small oil expeller.

RichnSteph, I am curious how many chickens you have and how much BSFL you feed them daily. What else you feed them and how much of that compared to the BSFL? thanks

 

[simply blessed]

We have four families near us that have chickens. I'm wondering if I can take them a few pounds of grubs as a "Hi, I see that you have chickens and these are great feed" as a way to say hi and meet them. If I'm making many of the grubs maybe it'll be a nice way to say hi and start a relationship with them. They all have large gardens so maybe we can trade a bit.

Sounds like a great idea to me! Practical, friendly, easy, and when you hand them grubs, they'll realize a little sand isn't going to bother you in the lettuce!

Seriously though, want to move into my neighborhood? You seem like the type of person I like to have coffee with!

 

[RichnSteph]

Bearded dragons, koi, tilapia all love them. I haven't started yet with the BSFL, but I am ridiculously excited about it. I've been under a rock and just found out about them in October and tried here in Socal to attract some during a hot period in November without luck. Hope I dont have to wait too long in to the new year before I can get started. I have been reading for 2 months on them (and have like 20 tabs open on them on my browser heh). I keep people food in my freezer so that wont be an option for me; so, I plan on dehydrating them and storing them that way for leaner times and will use the resulting biodiesel oil to burn the wick in my small oil expeller.

RichnSteph, I am curious how many chickens you have and how much BSFL you feed them daily. What else you feed them and how much of that compared to the BSFL? thanks

It takes quite a few of them to squeeze enough oil out of to produce bio diesel. Then there is the mixing process, additives like methanol and that other stuff that I can't think of right now (red powder you use in septic tanks) as well as having a mixing drum. Depending on what diesel engine you have you might be able to extract the oil from the grubs and just run it straight. I know several people that run straight used veggie oil and straight used motor oil once it's been filtered.

We only have 10 birds right now and I feed them as many grubs as I can. When I get a few pounds in the buckets I'll throw out about a handful per bird twice a day and then let them free range if I can. For the most part our birds prefer to eat the grubs until they are full and then just graze the yard for the day. As soon as I open the bin I have the entire flock leaning on the fence and clucking at me to hurry up and feed them. With the weather being colder (sort of) the crawl off has become very very hit-n-miss. Most days I only get a few dozen grubs, once in a while I'll have full buckets usually after it's rained the day before. I feed a mix of scratch, layer pellets and BOSS. The days that they get the grubs they hardly touch the feed, days that there are no grubs they kill off both feeders (I don't do free choice due to squirrels and ants) in the morning and almost all of it at evening feeding.