Newb asking about black soldier fly larva BSFL

[Sill]

I'm beginning my first attempt at BSFL to (1) help process quail and chicken poos, (2) provide supplement feed, and (3) hopefully reduce house flies. I have a few questions. Please help out if you have answers:

1. Read that people feed BSFL with quail poop. What about chicken poop - it's OK too right?

2. Read that people feed BSFL to chicken. What about quail - is it OK to feed quail with BSFL?

3. I add DE to chicken feed, dust bath and spread throughout the run, so the poop will contain DE. Will this kill the BSFL if I feed them with this poop?

4. There's no BSFL presence in my area (I looked!) So I'm afraid if the flies hatch outside the bin they may fly away and not return to the bin to lay eggs. At the same time I heard that it's difficult to design an "enclosed" system / bin so the flies would be trapped inside. Any suggestion?

BSFs lay eggs in moist quail poop. Will probably do the same with chicken poop. I compost my poultry poop, but the BSFs lay eggs in my compost so it is full of larvae, as well as my BSF barrel with my "BSF edible" yard and kitchen scraps. My chicken feed also contains DE but it does not seem to faze the BSFs.

If there are no BSFs in your area it may be too cold? Maybe an aquarium heater in your BSF culture medium would help them stay warmer? I'm in AZ and our problem here is they can get too hot. I think you can order starter cultures off ebay. If you have rotting food the adult females will want to lay eggs there. Not sure about enclosing the system, maybe a good thing to try where you are?

I've tried feeding the larvae to my quail but they aren't too thrilled with them. They are BIG tough larvae, not easy to eat for the little guys. Chickens gulp them down whole however.

 

[chrissyr]

what is the best container to buy to start a BSF farm? I've seen the biopod and with all of my other chicken projects, I don't want to ask my DH to build me one of those too.
I was hoping to keep it going during winter time in the house, if it's not too smelly. Is that possible? It looks like the biopod keeps it all contained well.
And you want them to keep re-producing. So do you pull some larvae out and put it back in the main section so they hatch and keep the cycle going?
Thank you

 

[Sill]

Do a Youtube search for DIY black soldier fly and you can see many different types of containers that you can make yourself. I made one like this

It's too open for me to recommend it for indoors but works great out in the chickens' run. I'm toying with the idea of somehow dehydrating or freeze drying some larvae for the quail. That way I can just grind them down so they are edible for quail sized mouths since the larvae are too big for them to eat whole.

For indoors you would want something more closed, with something to raise a few adults in so they don't fly around your house. I see the adults in my yard on occasion, they will buzz by on their way to laying eggs and sound much like a bee as they fly. I can see why some people mistake them for a bee or wasp.