Black soldier fly larvae

[SEP Board]

Been awhile since I've posted. The quail project is a success (and thanks to all that have had helpful tips). I've got 16 hens and 4 roosters in my production cages with 12 more hens coming of age to fill up several more production cages.

When cleaning under the cages I always have thousands of 'grubs'. It finally dawned on me that they might be a good food source for the quail. After doing some research I discovered that they are black soldier fly larvae and are 40+% protein and about the same in fat and are a great source of food for poultry. Looked at a bunch of YT videos today and think I'll start harvesting them in addition to what occurs naturally under the cages.

I'd like to find out if anyone here does this and how it's working for them? I'm thinking of doing a DIY project with the rubbermaid totes like I've seen on YT.

Curious how the cold weather affects them? Not that it gets all that cold in my area, but it can occasionally.

Also get them by the thousands in the compost bin.

Thoughts and advice welcome

 

[purslanegarden]

The flies might be attracted to other organic matter in your quails' pooping area, though I have read that they do go for poop, too. Do you feed them veggie scraps that fall through the cage?

I would suggest to attract and farm the BSFL in other ways, besides depending on the quail poop to do it. The reason is that you don't want the quail to eat things that have been rolling around in their own poop.

There are several ways to farm BSFL for poultry and other feeding needs, so you should be able to get so plenty of clean BSFL that you can even reach in and grab them in your hand if you wanted to.

 

[SEP Board]

Thank you. I took a look at YT and learned how to make my own BSFL bin. Started it yesterday and already has a half dozen fall into the tray. Looking forward to it really taking off especially as an alternative form of quail food. Especially since they're so high in protein/fat.

 

[SEP Board]

This project seems to be working well. I'm not getting a 'ton' of larvae, yet, but it is producing some and I see them in the compost growing. Don't know how the cold will affect them but then we don't really get a lot of really cold days here. If it really starts producing well I may add another bin.