My black soldier fly larvae smell

[Shimmerpuppy]

Hey everyone,
My bsf bin is up and running like gang busters. Somehow I'm breeding some different types of beetles too. That was unintentional, but the chickens love it, so I'm gonna let it ride. When I pull my catchment bins to feed the larvae to the chickens there is a distinct apple cider vinegar type smell. I haven't put any type of vinegar or apples in the bin. Whatever is causing the smell doesn't seem to be affecting the production of larvae or beetles, I'm just curious about what it might be. Any ideas?

**I put left overs, veg, meat in there. So far no dairy.

 

[Debbie292d]

It's similar to composting, and when that gets that smell, it's too wet and we add dry leaves, straw, dry lawnmower clippings, etc. We use horse bedding pellets in the coop so a scoop of those when spent (pine sawdust) works too.