maggot farming

[niknik]

Anyone done it?
Any pros/cons or advice?

I just (inadvertently) "bred"a few hundred, which the chickens loved.........

Now wondering about doing it again ( on purpose) occasionally, and maybe freezing the surplus, for dishing out as treats now and then.

Thoughts and suggestions most welcome.even if advice NOT to do it!

[Big Al]

It's quite feasible to go into maggot farming but there are a load of potential problems not least the smell and problems from neighbours.

I'm on a chicken newsletter and they sugest buying maggots for chickens but not the ones from bluebottles but ones from a moth. I'll see if I can find the article in case it helps.

[wildbee]

I don't know anything about it but sounds like a great plan to grow your chickens fresh food.

[niknik]

I certainly dont want to do it on a commercial scale.... just occasionally, as a bit extra for the chooks( as I did it so well by accident!)

Cant think he smell would be any worse than the nettle "tea" for fertilizer!

The article , if you can find it would be good!

I certainly can´t afford to buy them any maggots...... but could maybe have some home reared ones

[sarahkeast]

err, is it a dumb question to ask what is involved. Guess it could be a good thing as, like you say, chooks would love it.

[niknik]

rather easy really....

bit of meat, in a bucket ( or fruit for other sorts of flies)

lidded bucket with small holes.and just wait a few days

or ,( as I did, forget a saucepan full of boiled bones etc... on the side for a few days..... )

just wondering really aboutany personal experiences any ishersmay have and any advice, pros/cons!

[MKG]

I can't imagine why bluebottle maggots wouldn't be perfectly suitable - the bluebottles don't develop their unsavoury habits until the adult stage. Before that, they're perfectly clean and unsmelly, as any angler will tell you. And a nice, juicy beakful for a chook.

Mike

[rhonda jean]

HI niknik. I think it's a great idea. I'm not sure how you do yours but there is a way of farming them here: http://blacksoldierflyblog.com/bsf-buck ... rsion-2-1/

Another good thing to do for your chickens is to give them sprouted grain. Use the grain you already have, throw a couple of cups into an upturned bin lid and soak them in water for half a day, then carefully pour the water off. Pour water on every day, leave it for a few minutes, then pour it off. You want the grains to be moist enough to sprout. They will do that in a few days, depending on the temperature. When you notice the grains have sprouted, feed them to the chickens and start a new batch.

[Big Al]

I can't imagine why bluebottle maggots wouldn't be perfectly suitable - the bluebottles don't develop their unsavoury habits until the adult stage. Before that, they're perfectly clean and unsmelly, as any angler will tell you. And a nice, juicy beakful for a chook.

Mike

I've probably got it " not right" ( i'm never wrong you see) but here is the link to the site . http://www.chicken-house.co.uk/acatalog ... 08,1A58K,1

[Beek]

Lungs are good. If you don't slaughter pigs ask for "lights" at the butcher or slaughterhouse.. They are usually free because people don't make haggis much these days and they go straight from the slaughterhouse to the pet food/renderer. Hang them by the windpipe out of reach of the chicks. The adult flies will find them and lay the eggs. When the maggots are ready to pupate they would normally leave a carcass by burrowing downwards into the soil. In this case they experience a short drop followed by an appreciative beak. I did it once. I hung the lungs outdoors over the hen run so any maggots that fell at night, when the hens were shut up, must have escaped. The smell was fairly localised and tolerable as the outside of the lungs dried and went crusty. After a few weeks I let adult hens loose on the remains and they ate all the remaining alveolar tissue. The windpipe was too cartilaginous for them and ended up being buried.