High-Protein Poultry Feed From Thin Air

[IRChicken]

Lots of flies around? Collect some kitchen slops -- cooking water and juices and leftovers from meat and fish dishes, some milk: anything that will go really putrid if you leave it for awhile. Then leave it for awhile. When it stinks really badly, gather some compost materials, say 4-5 cubic feet, spread it out in the sun, and sprinkle it with the putrid kitchen liquids. Don't get it too wet -- slightly more wet than compost should be.

In no time it'll be buzzing with flies. Leave it until you're quite sure lots of flies have had ample opportunity to lay their fill of eggs. Then scoop it all up, put it in a double garbage bag (one inside the other), put the bag in a suitably sized cardboard box, and close the bag lightly. It will soon stop smelling. Check it every day.

After a week or so, you'll open it to find the surface flat, finely divided, and writhing slightly, or even considerably, with maggots, lots and lots of maggots. Now's the time, don't leave them to turn into flies. Two options:

Option 1
Sift it with a circular gardener's sieve with a 3/16" mesh (stainless steel mesh is best). This will leave you with a pile of nice black compost and a sieve full of maggots -- first-class poultry feed. Your chickens, ducks, guinea fowl will think it's Christmas. The geese, who're strict vegetarians, will be appalled and disgusted by the whole thing, but never mind. Add the siftings to the compost bin or the worm bin. Maggots, by the way, assist rather than hinder the composting process. And, disgusting as they may look, fly maggots do not spread disease.

Option 2
Let the birds do the sifting for you -- but don't throw it onto their bedding or the mulch in their run because they'll miss a few maggots, leaving them to hatch into flies. On bare ground, they'll definitely get them all.

You've just wiped out a generation of flies.

High-protein poultry feed from thin air - Journey to Forever​

 

[SteveBaz]

I have already had a fly issue and I do not want more and extra not eaten maggots will turn into a fly and thats the problem with that. One of the challenges with raising city chickens for me is to not be seen or noticed nor infringing on my neighbors rights. On a farm or larger property that might be fantastic.

Steve

 

[tigerrrrrrrlilly]

I read somewhere that maggots could carry botulism and/or parasitic worms but I don't know if there is any validity to it. I think they are nasty

anyway and would rather spend some money on clean mealworms for my chickens.

 

[daddy_roo]

Im with you tigerrrrrrlilly

 

[tigerrrrrrrlilly]

***Found one I read here... I wouldn't take the risk of feeding if this is a possibility. It could mean your entire flock lost to toxins if something goes wrong.

http://www.avianweb.com/botulism.html

 

[IRChicken]

Quote:
Botchulism is everywhere apparently.

A cycle develops in a botulism outbreak when fly larvae (maggots), feed on animal carcasses and ingest toxin.

Avoiding meat sources for your attractant would eliminate this as a threat. You could add dog poo in place of the meat.

Edit: Nope, meat isn't the only source for Botchulism.

Clostridium botulinum is a ubiquitous soil-dwelling bacterium. Many infant botulism patients have been demonstrated to live near a construction site or an area of soil disturbance.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Botulism

Botchulism can be gained through freshly disturbed soil. If that's the case, probably should stop the chickens from free-ranging then.​

 

[WestKnollAmy]

Oh man, do I do something similar to this!

I have free range chickens for selling eggs. I hatch and raise chicks constantly from my breeding pens.
In my 6 brooders I do not use shavings as I have lost way too many chicks to them so I use the nylon woven feed bags (not the slick ones) in my big brooders. Every day I roll those up and put down new ones. All the chick starter and poo is just rolled up in there so I take those out to the run off from the barn where I run the hose or it rains and goes down a little ditch from the barn. I pile those bags there and as they get wet the flies naturally lay eggs in the mess. Every few days I go down to the pile with a herd of chickens following me because they know what is next! I pull those bags over or pick them up and move them around and there are tons of larvae and maggots in there. My chickens go wild for them.

I might add that I have been doing this for 2 years and my flock has not died. This is nothing different than all the other places they find larvae in wet areas where food is abundant enough for flies to lay eggs.
I do not have flies bothering anyone, not even our horse that lives in the paddock behind the barn where the run off is. But then, I also do not pen all my birds. They can freely find the food and take care of problems. And we have a nice bat population that helps out in the evenings.

We also toss the carcasses from our butchering of extra roosters out into the pasture for our cats and dog to munch on. Haven't lost any of those either. I am sure those draw flies even after stripped pretty clean from our own animals.

I am all about keeping things more natural on the farm. I find some of the problems in our country are from getting away from what is most natural. I do not bleach my coops, I do not spray my horse with fly repellent but I do give my chicks dirt from about 1 week of age on up so they can have nice healthy digestive systems.