Is it ok to feed quail maggots?

[beakmaster]

OK, this is a gross one.........I was moving a compost pile (which does have a good bit of quail poo in it) and noticed there are hundreds of maggots in the pile. I do feed meal worms to my quail but they are high dollar.... If I rinsed these maggots and fed them something to purge them of the poo, would they be ok to feed the quail? Sounds gross but cheap often gets messy! Also, if this ok to feed them, what would be a good purge feed for the maggots? Thanks in advance. If it'll help I can provide a picture of the maggot....

 

[DoubletakeFarm]

Oh, please no pictures! I googled feeding chickens maggots and it seems to be okay to do. I have GIGANTIC grubs in my compost pile and fed some to my chickens and they loved them. I was afraid to give them too many though. I might have to throw a few in with the quail and see what they do.

 

[Weirdness555]

They would eat them in the wild, so...

 

[beakmaster]

Should I rinse them off or anything? I did give them a couple dozen of them today and they loved them.

 

[Weirdness555]

I don't know, depends what they're in I guess

 

[buttonquailtx]

If they are from your compost pile,then they are probably black soldier fly (BSF) larva. If this is the case, then they are not only ok to feedto your chickens and quail, but extremely healthy. BSF larva are extremely high in protein and calcium. Can you post a pic of the larva to make a positive identification?

 

[beakmaster]

I went out and flipped a watermelon skin (see pic2) over to reveal hundreds of them. The population has exploded in just a week. I have heard of BSFs before but I know next to nothing about them. I am assuming their eggs are laid by all those darn flies that are swarming near my birds and compost. How long does it take them to go from larvae to fly?

 

[buttonquailtx]

Those are indeed BSF larva. They are not laid by the flies you see swarming. The adult is a mimic and looks like a mud dauber wasp. You might see one or two adults, but it's rare to see more than 10 or so at a time. The good thing is since you have them, they will keep normal house flies somewhat at bay.

Depending on your temps there it can take anywhere from 3 to 6 weeks for them to pupate and become adult flies. The grubs crawl away from the compost pile when ready to pupate. You can build a relatively inexpensive harvesting system by searching sites like www.blacksoldierflyblog.com . I use these grubs to feed my bearded dragons and to supplement feedings for my quail and chickens.

 

[beakmaster]

Yeah, I will check that out. The sooner they hatch the better, the flies are insane here. I lived in another part of florida till about 3 months ago and the flies were never this bad. Thanks for your help.