Anyone using black soldier flies?

[RichnSteph]

Great day for self harvest here in Texas! Temps today hit 70 and is was misty and we always get a better crawl off if there is moisture in the air. I tried something different a couple days ago in that I put a bunch of raw fish in the bin. I normally don't since I was afraid of the smell. Well I got home tonight and checked the buckets for grubs to use for the before bed time feeding and got this.



The buckets were a little over a quarter full. I know it doesn't look like much but I have enough in there to feed tonight, again in the morning and probably twice tomorrow. I can't wait to see what we get in the morning since we usually get a harvest of some kind over night. I really think that since the grubs are so high in protein that they need it in quantity once in a while to complete their nutritional needs so they can crawl out to become flies. From this point on everything goes into the bin especially any meat scraps.

Yay for the BSF bin!

RichnSteph.

 

[simply blessed]

You may be interested in checking out garden pool.org. Under their DIY tab, they have directions on building your own BSF composter / automatic chicken feeder. I haven't tried it yet, so I can't say for certain, but looks promising and easily made from scraps or inexpensively. It's a food grade barrel, scrap gutter pieces, a bit of wood, and a wheel if you want to move it around. Good Luck!

 

[RichnSteph]

You may be interested in checking out garden pool.org. Under their DIY tab, they have directions on building your own BSF composter / automatic chicken feeder. I haven't tried it yet, so I can't say for certain, but looks promising and easily made from scraps or inexpensively. It's a food grade barrel, scrap gutter pieces, a bit of wood, and a wheel if you want to move it around. Good Luck!

I like that idea! What we have is this

The box below is our hot compost bin. The hope is that the compost provides heat through the winter. *laugh* If course its 73 degrees here now so not much of a winter!

RichnSteph

 

[RichnSteph]

Two days ago I dropped the turkey carcass from Thanksgiving dinner in there and watered the heck out of the compost bin below it to generate some heat and moisture. This morning I pulled 3lbs of grubs out of the harvesting buckets. The chickens went bonkers when I tossed a handful out for them. So far the only problem I really have is that there are no grubs maturing outside due to the temps even though it's been in the 70's of and on here. So tonight I rounded up a live cricket container (about 12'x6" and 8" deep made of plastic with breathing vents on it) and put three inches of sand in the bottom. I dropped about 40 grubs in there and they all headed into the sand to do what ever it is they do to molt and become flies. I'll keep them in the house on top of the fridge until I see some emerge and then will attach a taller screened in "flying" area for them to mate. A few days after than I'm putting in a small container of composted veggies and things for them to lay eggs on. Once I have visible grubs in the compost it goes out to the BSF bin with about 50lbs of fermented grain for them to eat. I hope they'll create enough heat to keep them going and harvesting. I read that one female will lay on average 900 eggs. If I can get ten of them to do that then we'll be in business again and I can keep running this molting bin in the house until spring.

Wish us luck.

RichnSteph.

 

[RichnSteph]

RichnSteph let us know how it goes with your experiment (placing a small container with mature grubs inside your set up) to continue to get flies and eggs thru the winter.

I went a different route and instead of using a bucket I filled the four areas around my crawl off ramps with sand from the yard. Some grubs always ended up in those sections anyway so I figured I'd just provide some soil for them to mature in. I don't really know if it's working or not..... Perhaps in the spring those will become the best places for maturation and emergence. I'll keep you informed.

RichnSteph

 

[simply blessed]

You guys inspire me! So far all I have done is to shovel a couple laundry baskets worth of the thick leaf litter off the concrete and dump it in the run. We have a lot! As I looked at the bottom stuff, it was crawling with BSF in all stages, pillbugs, spiders, etc. The chickens went nuts! For now I may go the lazy route and just give them a basket full every couple days, at least until spring when I want to try and raise them myself!

 

[RichnSteph]

You guys inspire me! So far all I have done is to shovel a couple laundry baskets worth of the thick leaf litter off the concrete and dump it in the run. We have a lot! As I looked at the bottom stuff, it was crawling with BSF in all stages, pillbugs, spiders, etc. The chickens went nuts! For now I may go the lazy route and just give them a basket full every couple days, at least until spring when I want to try and raise them myself!

Find yourself a blue plastic 55 gallon drum with a lid. Cut it in half length wise, add in several shovels full of that thick leaf litter and then throw in all of your kitchen waste. Let it sit for a few days to get happy and then build a ramp (cheap plastic gutter) that the grubs can use to crawl into the chicken run. Easy as pie!


RichnSteph

 

[simply blessed]

Thanks! I'll have to try that!

 

[aldarita]

So far I have kept the biopods going on, I have gotten few grubs self harvesting and I think it is because it has been warm and the heater helps over night when temps drop. I continue to feed them, so far so good. I don't know how long this will last. I have not seen any adults or any eggs laying around.
RichnSteph keep on reporting on your winter results.

 

[RichnSteph]

We got another harvest this afternoon. The last two days have been in the mid 70's and when I checked the buckets I found a pile of larvae in each one. There were enough to almost fill a one of the 5lb butter tubs that we use to catch the grubs. This made me realize two things.

1) If our bin creates that many grubs during a random winter crawl off then we'll probably get many many more during the spring and summer so I'm going to have to find or build some bigger collection buckets.

2) I have no idea what I'll do if I'm getting 3-5lbs of grubs a day during the peak season since the chickens won't eat that much. I'm guessing we'll have to freeze them or give them to friends that have chickens.

Thoughts?

RichnSteph