Harvesting Black Soldier flies?

[helomech]

Has anyone done this? It would be a great way to provide feed for the chickens.

https://i.ibb.co/SQqSqMy/P1100523.jpg

[bacpacker]

Do you have a story behind it? Never heard of it before. Anything that can be done to supplement feed is a huge plus. And those birds look very healthy.

[helomech]

Here is a link, but the larvae climb when they are old enough, and if you make a ramp, they will climb it and fall into a harvest bin.

https://gardenpool.org/beneficial-insects/black-soldier-fly-composter-automatic-chicken-feeder

[gm2]

I've heard of this kind of thing before but it was done with entrail piles or you could hang meat that's gone bad over the chickens. The flies lay eggs then as the larvae hatch they can eat and some fall down to the chickens.

Never was something I thought was a good idea because of the smell. I would rather raise worms in a compost bin.

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[bacpacker]

Good link on the build, quick and easy it appears. Would be worth trying if food was in short supply for sure.

[helomech]

We already have flies, and compost. Makes sense to try to harvest the larvae to feed the chickens.

[helomech]

Well finally got a BSF harvest box build. With this covid crap, chicken feed was in short supply, and at the same time some predators where killing all my chickens. Went from 60 to 9, so we hatched a bunch of eggs and locked up the chickens. Anyways hope this works.

https://i.ibb.co/L5C4Vr6/106294974-10207535970873633-5139399087644479208-n.jpg

https://i.ibb.co/L5wCMJZ/105562023-10207535970353620-3922790391570419076-n.jpg

https://i.ibb.co/KjcXWPy/105700818-10207535971913659-3480978124448795740-n.jpg

https://i.ibb.co/6rTnvYf/105394434-10207535971473648-7986664494902408802-n.jpg

https://i.ibb.co/kc6D05v/106003037-10207535972633677-2339889981179689149-n.jpg

[Katrina]

Looks really good. Keep us posted on the progress. Wish I could have chickens though but DIL2 friend has them so we get eggs there.

[gm2]

Well now my wife wants chickens next year. I'll probably end up making one of these. I assume the pipe on the bottom is for runoff?

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[helomech]

Pipe on the bottom is in case the holes in the bottom get clogged up. Don't want a lot of standing water in there, but do want it wet. I am getting hundreds of larvae a day already. Chickens love them.