Easy Cultivation of Black Soldier Fly Larvae

[Florida Bullfrog]

Step 1. I left the last round of chicks in a few extra days and let them soil the bedding good. With few maggots left it won’t get cleaned up like it would when the maggots are in thick in deep bedding.

 

[Florida Bullfrog]

Step 2. I removed the chicks to their growout coop and dumped their remaining food onto the soiled bedding.

Step 3. I added a thick later of fresh grass cuttings. No chemicals on the grass of course.

I’m going to let that layer dry and compress a couple of days then I’m going to add a layer of mixed manure and feed sludge, then cover again with pine needles and leaves. I’ll probably consider it done at that point.

 

[Florida Bullfrog]

Last week’s grass has dried. Mid-week I added to the brooder two free range chicks whose momma started tree roosting too early and left them on the ground.

Underneath the shelter board is a moderate amount of advanced BSF maggots. Out in the main part of the brooder I saw lots of small BSF larvae that were causing the compost to writhe but were hard to photograph.

I added about 2.5 gallon’s worth of cow manure of various ages (mostly dried) then covered in a thick layer of fresh grass clippings.

Tonight I have an incubator full of bitties that will be ready to go in tomorrow.

 

[Florida Bullfrog]

Yesterday I added a dozen bitties. This evening I checked the cow manure layer and was pleased with what I saw. That layer is writhing like I like to see them, albeit with mostly smaller larvae. In a week or two I think I’ll be able to pull out a big handful of decent sized maggots where ever I reach.

 

[Florida Bullfrog]

I have an update that may be useful for those in the SE, and where @U_Stormcrow you are about where I am in the grand scheme of things, this might be a reason why you may have had failures in the past to establish a good batch of BSF larvae.

Fire ants.

Fire ants got into the brooder and greatly reduced my BSF maggot numbers. I noticed earlier this week fireant workers were spread throughout the bedding. They had a food line running up and down one of the legs of the brooder. I let them work a few days to see what would happen and my maggot numbers reduced more dramatically. So two nights ago I doused the wooden leg of the brooder the ants had their trail on in kerosone. The ants have not revived their trail. I believe the maggot numbers will bounce back now.

This is a good reason to have the compost chamber off the ground. There wouldn’t be a way to control the ants’ access points without it being raised.

 

[U_Stormcrow]

Once I saw what you were doing, I understood why it wasn't a good solution for me - I only feed once daily, in limited quantity, to encourage my birds to aggressively free range. There simply is no spilled food/waste to provide the initial start up for the colony. It took my little dinosaurs about 3 days to peel clean the ribs and skull of the goat I invited to freezer camp last culling. They did so before the flies could do their work and their offspring become treats. They did so, in fact, before a new ant colony could move in and take advantage of the food source...

I **am** going to make a go at this - but not until I can build hanging rabbit cages (not currently in the budget), and fence off the space underneath the cages to repeat your methods, but with spilled waste from feeding the bunnies.

 

[Florida Bullfrog]

@U_Stormcrow have you otherwise had the joy and privilege of dealing with the imported red fire ant yet on your homestead? They’re insectoid piranhas. Its a wonder any small vertebrate life survives them. Historically there were always swarming ants in the deep south that caused problems, usually for food storage in homesteads. But the invasive fire ants have venomous stings that disable and kill when given in enough quantities. I recently lost a sulcata tortoise to a swarm of fire ants and many other small pets and livestock over the years.

They are useful for eating dead things. When free range chicks die of natural causes or disease, the fire ants reduce them to skeletons and feathers in a few hours. Keeps the farmyard clean.

 

[Chicken Quest]

Are those live maggots?

 

[Florida Bullfrog]

Are those live maggots?

In the pic in the brooder? Yes. They live in the brooder in the compost under the chicks’ feet.

 

[U_Stormcrow]

@U_Stormcrow have you otherwise had the joy and privilege of dealing with the imported red fire ant yet on your homestead? They’re insectoid piranhas. Its a wonder any small vertebrate life survives them. Historically there were always swarming ants in the deep south that caused problems, usually for food storage in homesteads. But the invasive fire ants have venomous stings that disable and kill when given in enough quantities. I recently lost a sulcata tortoise to a swarm of fire ants and many other small pets and livestock over the years.

They are useful for eating dead things. When free range chicks die of natural causes or disease, the fire ants reduce them to skeletons and feathers in a few hours. Keeps the farmyard clean.

I'd send you a picture of my feet (I often work barefoot), but that's perhaps too graphic.

Actually, we have very few ants at all, and fewer still are fire ants, but yes, I've met a couple on the property. We also have "cowkillers", a very attractive and solitary flightless wasp.

[picture is NOT one of mine, mine are a little more orange/less red, and of course so is my soil - not the lovely white sand shown above]

Honestly, I'm fond of swarming day, after rains, when our subterranean termites burrow up to the surface for mating flights. My chickens wait at the little skinny pencil holes the termites make in the ground and consume them as they come up! I suspect they've done something similar with the ants, we have fewer this year than last.