On my little urban homestead I am always trying to find ways to stretch my dollar or become more sustainable. One way I do this is to raise Black Soldier Flies to feed to my chickens. This insect just can’t be beat in terms of value on the homestead. It eats garbage, produces rapidly even in HOT weather and is full of protein for your chickens.
In addition to protein ,the BSF larvea has a high level of calcium and phosphorous which are all great nutrients for your chickens. As you can see it looks less like a fly than a wasp, but it doesn’t sting or bother humans or animals the way flies do. Infact this harmless black insect even drives away your regular house fly by exuding a hormone that they don’t like. I first got the idea for this incredible insect from garden pool.org. If you haven’t checked them out you need to. They have a one of the best examples of thinking outside the box that I have ever witnessed when it comes to urban homesteading. http://gardenpool.org
I started out raising these little soldiers by purchasing a food grade barrel off of craigslist for about $15.00. Meantime, I ordered my start up batch of larvae from a online company selling to reptile owners. Get your starter BSF larvae here: https://amzn.to/2YwA3fF
Using a jig saw I cut a half circle out of the top of the barrel. After that I bought a section of plastic gutter from my local home improvement company. You can get plans for the stand I placed my barrel on here: (with an instruction video on how to build it.) http://gardenpool.org/beneficial-insects/black-soldier-fly-composter-automatic-chicken-feeder
When I got my worms I threw them in with some food scraps, stuck my gutter piece in and waited. When the black soldier fly larvae matures it instinctively climbs up the gutter ramp to the waiting trough and right into the mouths of your chickens.
The warmer the weather the faster your colony will get established. Hey, another thing for us southerners to be thankful for on those long HOT days! They are voracious eaters! Your biggest problem might be having enough scraps to feed them! Your bin might be a bit stinky at first, but as the black soldier flies take over, and drive away the house flies, it will not smell for the rest of the season.
I started in Spring and by Summer my bin was going strong. Once or twice a week I was scooping out a shovel full of larvae to feed to my girls. Continue reading to see the trick I use now, no more shoveling for me. Well fed chickens means nutritious eggs. While it is not possible to pasture raise my chickens I can get one step closer with this system.
One problem I had with my black soldier fly bin was; during a rain storm there was always a mass exodus of larvae. This would normally be a good thing, except that my chickens were usually locked up in their coop for the night so most of the larvae either crawl away or are eaten by wild birds first thing in the morning before my girls got to them! Find out how to solve that problem here.
After that first purchase of larvea, I have never had to buy a new set of larvae to repopulate my bin. I simply put a shovel full of compost in with some stinky food scraps and wait for these wonderful insects to appear again. They seem to know where the food source is and come in droves.
If you have chickens and you are NOT doing this on your homestead, you need to think seriously about adding this resource. Free breakfast for chickens that just keeps producing on it’s own, while your sleeping. It doesn’t get any better than that!
I am not sure it would be the same up north. The warm growing season is so short and Winters so cold that I think you might need to order a new batch of flies each year, but I would love to hear from someone who has tried this in the Northern states. Leave me a message in the comments if you raise BSF up North. We are dying to know?!
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This post was shared on Our Simple Homestead blog hop.
I retired at the family farm in rural area. I have noted a batch of hens feeding on maggots lay very delicious eggs. How can I improve on the maggots production to expand my free range birds for eggs production? I have access to industrial brewery waste and market organic refuse! I am on 50 acres. There is electricity and I have a valley dam with water harvested from rain.