Feeding Our Chickens for FREE with Black Soldier Fly Larva (BSFL) - ProtaPod

[@sourwes0001]

We have a hillbilly way here in WV. Drill 1/2 inch holes 🕳 in bottom of 5 gallon 🪣 bucket. Add roadkill or dead critters and scraps. Hang near chicken coop away from your house, it will stink. Fly’s will do the work and larvae will fall through holes in bucket. We have about 50 layers and there’s a group of them that hang around that bucket just waiting for those juicy goodies to fall🙂👍 Cost,just a bucket.

[@joshuakane1139]

Man you just my ( and me yard birds(* Day!- Appreciate ya Sir. I got an even easier quicky, just happen to have some cracks in the bottom of some buckets used to mix mortar n mud too many times, I knew I was saving them for some kinda crao in, pun intended, thanks alot, I got nuff cats n varmint kill entrails n veggie scraps to brew up some stew to drip down some goo, for my chickens to have maggots to chew...also DUCKS can eat a fly a second, they sit around my goats and clap-snao their beaks all day smashing flies for the farm...Take er easy.

[@hanginlaundry360]

@@Michigan_Girl I would think holes about 1/4" would do nicely, a good number on bottom and on the sides near the bottom. I also think protecting it from the rain and direct sun might be a good idea!

[@toplinek990]

Keep box traps near the chickens set all the time. Possum, rabbits, coons, no matter, yummy in my tummy to the chickies. Fresh juice for that bucket. When it is too cold just toss them the bodies and they will eat the bodies.

[@jbuck1975]

@Michigan Girl just big enough for the little maggots to fall out of

[@66bigbuds]

I feed my fish pond that way. Just make a little platform over the water with hardware cloth covering. Then throw roadkill on it. Magots are constantly falling in the water feeding the hybrid brim (blue gills).

[@jasonterry8883]

Great video!! No annoying intro music wasting my time and you got right to the point!! Perfect length also!! Keep them coming!!!

[@btibbs1313]

This is the most under-rated youtube comment of 2023

[@tavenchristensen3157]

@@btibbs1313 AGREE ‼️

[@kinger557]

Yup, should be the go to method

[@jodyjohnsen]

The secret to great tasting eggs is insect feed for the chickens. Nice job showing an easy set up. Thanks.

[@NoNORADon911]

WEF wants us to all eat zee bugs so indirectly I am ok with this

[@Seriouslydave]

And zuccinis/corn on the cob, easy to grow chickens eggs taste seasoned and eggy

[@Vospader0]

@C You may have been making a joke, it's hard to tell in text form. Regardless, you're not supposed to feed chickens eggs as it makes them way more likely to break and eat their own eggs.

[@ghostridergale]

@@Vospader0 perfectly fine to feed chickens their chicken eggs as long as the eggs are cooked first. Been feeding my chickens cooked eggs for 3 years and I don’t have any chickens eating their raw eggs BTW, I have read on several occasions where feeding chicken raw eggs can likely get your chickens sick with other diseases from the bacteria raw eggs carry. So might want to consider that with feeding raw eggs too?

[@k9thundra]

You can feed fish too if you got a pond, get a bucket drill tons of holes in it, put scraps in hang it over the water and maggots will fall out of the holes into water below feeding the fish.

[@MrBlack0950]

a way to boost production on this might be to set up a pod where you dont collect the larvae, so that it basically breeds adults and thus means you have a constant population right next to your harvesting setup, kinda like putting 1 out of every 10 big fish back into the pond so they can breed more big fish

[@bodybuildingABC]

i think not all the larva find their way out and hatch there

[@MrBlack0950]

@@bodybuildingABC that might be true, itd still increase production overall due to substantially increased egg productivity due to the boosted population. Plus itd help get the pod going in spring as itd rapidly boost the number of flies emerging after the first batch, giving the second batch a much bigger volume than youd otherwise get in spring

[@Rygoat]

This is cool, I once saw something like this on a larger scale and I've never been able to find the video again. A farmer basically flipped a small grain silo upside down and raised it up a bit, he would get all the waste food from local restaurants etc for free and dump it in the top, flies would colonise it with maggots and the chickens would constantly scratch at whatever was exposed at the bottom slowly emptying the silo and churning it up in the search for maggots. The result was basically a compost/fertiliser machine and healthy chickens.

[@KristopherLeland]

Maybe not exactly right but check out Karl Hammer (I've watched Justin Rhodes' video). A similar concept to what you've described.

[@dwillbecancelledsoon4086]

That's awesome. I thought about doing that restaurant idea a while ago and wondered if anyone else was already doing it

[@isabeauskorski9961]

@@dwillbecancelledsoon4086 restaurants in our area won’t give out their waste, saying they fear getting sued because some people would probably try eating that waste! As for dumpster diving as one commenter suggested, in our area those chain stores have cameras and locked dumpsters. Some homeless folk got arrested for dumpster diving at smaller stores, too. And we live in a rural community near a small town.

[@dwillbecancelledsoon4086]

@@isabeauskorski9961 That's ridiculous. Maybe you'd need to set it up to look like a non-profit business with a name and logo, so that local businesses trust its intentions rather than just asking as a local individual?

[@lucybellescott7531]

I just watched a video like that. Was it an old guy with long gray beard in Vermont?

[@BossOfAllTrades]

Another great free live food you could try growing is duckweed or azzola, They grow very fast in waste water and can be supplemented by 20 to 30 percent in a chickens diet.

[@kenyonbissett3512]

And you can freeze to thaw and feed in winter.

[@halleyvolo5868]

You may freeze them to feed in the winter also. ❤️

[@rickershomesteadahobbyfarm3291]

That’s what I was just thinking.

[@rickershomesteadahobbyfarm3291]

Or dehydrate them.

[@ginkat1318]

That's what I was wondering, did anyone try this?

[@7jdenton]

Love this! I’m a big fan of laying food on the ground in a long line vs pile to give everyone space to eat at once. Fowl and livestock alike❤️

[@LazyLabAcres]

Gotta give everyone plenty of space!

[@BossOfAllTrades]

@@LazyLabAcres Yea as farmers we need to be considerate of our live stock.

[@uniteamerica9446]

I'm not a farmer but that's the way I feed birds. If I don't the big fat bully is gonna eat it all.

[@vicdagangon7510]

This BSF bin design is cool. My problem of expensive animal feeds is solved.

[@kbert6398]

You can also get a lot of expired veggies and fruits dumpster diving at Aldi, Trader Joe's, and Kroger! My chickens are trained too like the bucket expect when they hear the crinkling bag of mealworms. They're so expensive though that I started raising my own mealworms with the sterlite stacking plastic containers. Really easy big money saver!

[@BossOfAllTrades]

I got wild mealworms growing in one of my compost piles might try to farm them one day.

[@mirthenemrys]

yeah my flocks have always come a runnin when they hear that plastic bag with the mealworms(or other bug mixes). Living in a tighter suburb of Pittsburgh they have a fenced in area but do escape on occasion to visit the neighbors... this always brings em running back.

[@rickershomesteadahobbyfarm3291]

Mill worms are so easy to raise. I need to start another colony this summer. I raised them in an aquarium for years at our old house but I haven’t started up another since we moved.

[@floridagirl386]

Oh my goodness could you please make a video how to raise the meal worms please?

[@rickershomesteadahobbyfarm3291]

@@floridagirl386 mill worms are so easy to raise. I haven’t made a new box since I moved to my new place but I used to raise so many that I couldn’t use them all. I spent $10-$20 a month in them and there were millions. Start with an aquarium or some sort of box. Make sure to make the walls slick so they can’t climb out. Make a screen lid or buy one. Put it somewhere that’s not going to get to hot in the summer or to cold in the winter. Go to a feed store and buy a bag of earthworm chow. This will serve as bedding to lay eggs and as food. Use potatos as water. You don’t have to clean it to often but when you do, wear a mask and keep some of the spent bedding bc it’s got eggs in it. I used to add a little bedding each week until it got about half full. I would change it when it was half full. I would get the worms out with a sifter. You can buy one of those from a pet store. They are usually in the reptile section. You can get large amounts of mealworms online or you can buy them from the pet store. Let them turn into beatles. Let them breed for a few weeks. In a couple of months you will have thousands.

[@mamarrachopunpun]

Man, it's crazy how much food your neighbours waste... I adore soldier flies, the larvae are the best composters ever, and the adults are amazing polinisers.

[@BossOfAllTrades]

Yea when I first found out about them it sounded almost like they were created by God just to serve this purpose, which is good cause alot of food goes wasted and by closing the loop we can save tons of money and resources.

[@myownspiritlevel]

Pollinators

[@jonanderson4280]

They're pollinators too?! That's amazing!

[@patcolston2901]

Also great panfish bait !!!

[@rickershomesteadahobbyfarm3291]

I didn’t know they were pollinators

[@rachellestringer]

This is so crazy! I found a bunch of these in my compost and didn't know what they were, but I've been feeding my koi with them and they love it. It's so cool that they harvest themselves :) thank you so much!

[@BaliFoodTreePlanter]

Ooops

[@archstanton_live]

@@BaliFoodTreePlanter why ooops?

[@TriggerHappy007]

I was thinking the same thing because I make compost water for my garden inside of a 55 gallon garbage can that I fill with water. Throw all of my old table scraps inside of this bucket with water. I put bones, table scraps, lettuce, rice , coffee grinds whatever is old in the fridge that is food. I try to eat everything i can but sometimes things get old.. anyway the compost tea is great for your plants! As long as it is cold and you keep this container in the shade and using this tea after normal watering this compost tea at night it works wonders. I started finding the soldier flies everywhere floating in the water and I didn't know what they were until now. But that is the first thing I thought of was man my chickens would really love to eat those but they were floating in bacteria 🦠 so I didn't consider feeding them to my chickens.. but with this idea and if you can't find one of these buckets you can get some of those Daisy plates that have the rims around them, flip them upside down and cut them and tape them into a spiral and duct tape them around the inside of a tupperware container like a storage 30 gallon jug from Walmart. Make a hole at the end of the spiral with the pipe and its same concept .

[@plantnewbie5188]

I remember my dad trying something like this when I was a kid. I think he put a funnel in the top of a bucket so flies can get in but they can't get out. It had a piece of pvc at the bottom and the chickens would hang around waiting for maggots to fall out.

[@adamsaladin1562]

This is one of the coolest homestead concepts I’ve seen in a while! Definitely, definitely doing this!

[@k9thundra]

You can feed fish too with a 5 gallon bucket drill tons of holes in it, put scraps in hang it over the water and maggots will fall out of the holes into water below feeding the fish.

[@NoNORADon911]

@@k9thundra Nice

[@hmmm..2733]

I saw your video yesterday and ordered the bin today. It will help us be that much more self sufficient with the girls feed. I bought 50 lbs of meal worms at the beginning of the pandemic. They’ve since tripled the price. 50 lbs would now cost me considerably more than this unit. Thank you!!

[@BornFreeFilms]

Nice video. Easiest way to harvest the larva I have seen in 30ish channels. Great information. The price is the only thing. It is outrageous. $350 for the fly tub. $100 top sounds more like it should be. I am on social security and would really like one though. lol

[@KeoniKoa]

Great video brother! Thanks so much! This is the second video I've seen on the BSF for chickens topic. The first one was the dude with the eyebrows. 😊 You didn't rant at all, this was excellent information! Thanks again!

[@MelissaCoup]

if you have a pond, it's easy to grow duckweed. Also sprouts in a jar might supplement. I wonder, with both, what the nutritional value is with chickens who are free ranging about 4 hrs a day

[@paulinelarson465]

I got a molded kiddy pool, filled it with water, dumped in duckweed and a couple mosquito fish, ( for pest control). Goldfish will eat duckweed to extinction ! It is away from chickens, productive and decorative in garden with an added mini-cattail plant. I have a very shallow pan that I use in 'chick city' for water/duckweed treating, just scoop a handful into treat pan every few days. Enough water to float them and not drown your birds. In Ohio, I keep another pool in basement to over winter the tropical fish and duckweed. It goes crazy under a florescent fixture. Cattails survive the cold outside.

[@cassityart7001]

Great to know! We have twenty five laying hens and were looking for some specifics about the larva breeding environment. Thanks. 🐛

[@NoNORADon911]

Eggcellent...ok I will go now....lol

[@loriecarter3414]

@@NoNORADon911 awesome 😎 comment, winner of this comment section ☝️. 😂🤣😂🤣

[@HepCatJack]

Some chicken farmers in Vermont get donated food scraps from restaurants and do something similar, however they don't specifically harvest fly larva. They build a big compost pile and the chickens just walk on the pile eating bugs and earth worms. There are some fairly big earth worms that can be found at the bottom of compost piles and the chickens like digging them up. There are some videos about this on KZbin.

[@vicariouswitness]

Just do it Alllll!!! It’s all here for us isn’t it.

[@mrbrown6421]

North Central Florida. Yes, the Adult Black Soldier Fly is a very passive insect and is not a problem like the typical house fly. This is an EXCELLENT solution to disposal of household "biowaste" and can be done in town and in the country without the smell. GREAT idea to get stuff from your neighbors. I know its weird to talk about flies, but nature has recycled in this manner for millions of years. MANY THANKS for promoting this effort. Our Chickens: 3 Black Australorps. Lovely egg machines. Mr. Brown

[@iraqiveteranfarmer3204]

Few years ago I had to move my mealworms outside due to gnat infection I was feeding the mealworms grass clippings for moisture and one day it was full of soldier flies! I kept them the hole summer in that tote after I removed the mealworms. Good video brother!

[@rebekahhobbs9605]

Love this! Thanks for the idea!!! We are trying to become more economical with our chickens. You've gained another subscriber!

[@perrybutler5970]

Another great use for these larve is for fish bait, bream and crappie love them. I discovered this by accident when I noticed the larve coming out of a metal trash can I had for storing wheat to keep mice out. The lid had been ajar allowing them access. I look forward to restarting my "bait station". I am going to suggest to our local feed store starting one. The sell meal worms but the fish do not like them as well. These are much better than wax worms as they stay on the hook better and the fish are crazy about them. Do you know if anyone sells them on line? Thanks for the information. PB

[@louisevaughan2165]

I take a feed bag cut the perm sewnend off , split down the side , throw a couple handfuls of feed on the ground, wet itdown a bit, cover , weight the bag down & wait a few days. When I go to lift the bag to ck to see how may bugs & grubs are under it the chickens are right under my ft . They know what is under those bags .

[@Oz-264]

That's kinda how I got started. Left a bag of birdseed in the rain. Found it 2 wks later, full of BSFL! I was already thinking about trying to raise them for feed. Had to play "beat the pupae" to get my bin built! 😄

[@Shortcake39553]

Wow, I saw those crawling out of my compost bin last year and they would die on top of the bin. It's good to know the chickens will eat them and that they're good for eggshells. Great tips and thanks for sharing

[@joshportie]

You can also cover the food with leaves and wood shavings to keep the smell down. Around here i get mainly a type of mealworm but theres some soldier fly larva as well. But I like his method of harvesting much better and covering with leaves and such might prevent that.

[@Shortcake39553]

@@joshportie thanks

[@ziggybender9125]

@@joshportie Which is a must do if you want real compost in the end. The leaves and woods give the pile carbon which is required in quite high amounts for good compost.

[@joshportie]

@@ziggybender9125 oh my chickens do all the turning. Its great compost for sure. I do buckets on a rotation. Leaves and grass food then leaves and grass again. Sprinkle the old chicken feed powder waste from the feeders to entice darkling beatles and a few weeks later its all black and filled with mealworms.

[@BluffandStuffHomestead]

I ordered one of these Protapod bins and it just arrived. The guy (Karl) at Tar River Trading Supply was very helpful. Thanks for the info on this!

[@LazyLabAcres]

Karl is great!

[@myownspiritlevel]

Glad I stumbled onto this! Solves a couple problems for me and my 21 chickens.

[@lesliegrayson1722]

Soldier flys are becoming a real winner on small farms..

[@Watts_Art]

Smell! Thank you, I was looking for info in the comments when you mentioned it 😊 I live in the Arizona desert, we have lots of critters, but I don’t think I’ve ever seen black soldier flies. I’ll have to check into it. This was very interesting/informative! Great video! Thank you!

[@NoNORADon911]

That smell - Lynrd Skynrd

[@scottmason578]

Both sides of my family were poor. My Moms side was real poor, and they had chickens , I asked what did y'all feed them. And she said anything chikens could get from yard, plus any scraps they had. She told of busting up sea shells they had gotten , and feeding to chickens so there egg shells would be harder. Cool Video!

[@mannurse7421]

My maggot feeder is a 5 gallon bucket with holes drilled in it that I hang from a tree

[@fakecubed]

Happy chickens.

[@funtimesthatsit4260]

I am honestly extremely impressed! This is awesome!

[@pikakiflower4840]

Does it attract rats?

[@stttttipa]

Back when I was a kid, we had chickens in the village. They always ate all sorts of bugs, scraps, all the rubbish you can think of. When we ordered firewood, we first gave our chickens a day to devour all the ants, bugs, and those huge larvae that infest it.

[@melissabarrows8189]

Thank you so much for this, my husband I are wanting to try raising chickens

[@LazyLabAcres]

Thanks for watching!

[@mr.mikesart7111]

I was concerned about chemicals on wild bird seed even though mine love it. I started a DIY pot but it didn't drain well enough. I'll hit it again. Thanks for the video

[@johnwood1099]

Good job, You made it into something everyone can apricate.

[@SarahPerine]

Thanks so much for sharing! I’m trying to figure out how to do this year round. Your chickens are so happy and lucky to have the trees!!!

[@byronlaw6724]

Thanks. This answers the question of what to do with meat scraps (which I understand to be no good for composting). Technically, if you are doing this with your food, then you are not wasting any food.

[@vicariouswitness]

The way the ground moves when you throw the larvae on the ground,,, coool

[@andygruenke5959]

Great all around information thanks a lot. Just got into to raising chickens and made my own. I plan on buying that big one as I’m running out of room in the small one.

[@OnlyTheChronic]

Great video! I'm just now getting into this and this was very informative and helped me figure a few things out. Thank you!

[@LazyLabAcres]

Thanks for watching!

[@aliasid6914]

Thank you! Your videos are very informative and fun to watch.

[@LazyLabAcres]

Thank you!

[@marlinblack6597]

Our chooks would lose their minds with a live haul like that. Its a great idea. In Australia we call them black compost fly. I did not realise they climb as they get closer to their metamorphic state. It is an excellent source of live food and well worth a try. Thanks for the info.

[@gardenwarrior4219]

Im in durham nc. I just cancelled trash service because it cost too much. Im glad i found this! I have about 20 chickens and im s excited to give them some yummy treats!

[@Rhonda.D.Wright]

Just found your channel and I’m so glad I did. Thank you for the great content with great teaching content. I look forward to watching more of your videos. 😉

[@tavenchristensen3157]

💥 Your chickens are the fastest, healthiest looking chickens with beautiful shiny feathers that I’ve ever seen. Grubbs are good 4 ‘em. GREAT INFO‼️

[@MrDanno180]

You chickens didn't seen to go crazy for them.

[@smaug.the.stupendous]

That bucket you did there, super simple and super effective!

[@richardcalhoun5163]

Growing up on the farm, uncle put a small amount of cornmeal and syrup in a bucket and put it in a sheltered place away from the rain, he called it raising shit-house maggots for fish bait, after a few days there we so many big maggots with hairy bodies...no slime and no stink.

[@TXDHC]

I do this too! It just happened. I use a free stock protein tub and throw my compost in. Done! I call it caviar! My chickens go nuts!!!

[@papamidnightwolf326]

Thanks for your time 🙏

[@chanelawhina7523]

The larvae literally walk to their death lol. At the start of the video I was wondering how you would retreive the larvae from the pod. Very interesting indeed. Much love from New Zealand.

[@janetteb5090]

Thanks so much for posting this video. Always looking for ways to save. This is awesome and I 'll try it here in NH, I suppose I should check if there are soldier flats here first. I feed organic grain from TS also. I also plan on growing meal worms for our chickens. Have you done that? I'll check out your older videos to see. Again, thanks!

[@eogrady90]

I’m in NH as well. I don’t think I’ve ever seen these flys before

[@BossOfAllTrades]

@@eogrady90 they come trust me you just have to have a good eye, I've seen them around compost piles with lots of organic matter.

[@natashaj.layton3603]

This is awesome! Thank u for sharing!!!

[@brothernorb8586]

Never seen you before, never heard of this. Enjoyable presentation. Much appreciated. Yay algorithms

[@tommac5411]

Nice job producing this instructional video!

[@ElizabethSwims]

Free... also it cost around $300

[@sheldonscruggs4533]

I got one after watching your video and love it.

[@LazyLabAcres]

Awesome!

[@kjirstenboucher9682]

Awesome! Thank you for the info. I'll definitely have to try this. We already have compost/ worm boxes that just sit on the ground, so this would be fantastic.thanks again for sharing!

[@greenishculture]

Awesome! Thank you! Im going to build some for my ponds

[@LazyLabAcres]

Thanks for watching!

[@forced4motorsports]

Nice. I've been doing this on a small scale with a maggot bucket and made a BSF laying box out of wood to hang under the lid. The cardboard would get wet and disintegrate. I toss everything in there including predators that get into 'Hotel California' but don't ever leave. Try to eat my birds you get fed to my birds. Only I get to eat them. I'm going to scale up but not as big as your setup. Just a cleaner catchment system rather than a bucket with holes drilled in it.

[@maitangeiwillardbowora2203]

Thank you.

[@politicalpartyagnostic268]

Thank you for this video. I will do anything to keep my chickens healthy and happy!!! They are such sweetie pies!!! Growing those grubs for feed got started by an individual in South Africa for feeding animals, chickens, pigs, dogs and cats and fish. The process has caught on and is spreading on an industrial basis throughout the world. It is also something that people in South Africa are now eating as well. There are restaurants in South Africa that serve dishes made with the grubs. 😳😩🤮 It will be great for my chickens but oh hell no, I will not eat them!!! I don’t care how fancy the restaurant is!!! No way!!!!

[@ericlotze7724]

I could MAYBE eat them in poweder form mixed into something, but i 100% agree lol.

[@ericlotze7724]

Have you tried a worm bin too? I think worms like more carbon-ey mixes, and BSF love meat/fats, so if you REALLY want to optimize it (As well as get worms for chickens/fishing!)

[@Iz0pen]

Organizations that would like fewer people on the planet are pushing eating insects as they try to hinder traditional animal protein production. They’re trying to get people eating cicadas in the US now. Some people fall for it.

[@Iz0pen]

@MarkK No Klaus gtfoh!🤣

[@BossOfAllTrades]

@@ericlotze7724 Dude Id be down these are like 10x more efficient at feed and biomass conversion as compared to livestock, We could free up acres of land but in the meanwhile it will be used as a good animal feed.

[@chrismorse2096]

Anytime you can supplement feed for cost savings and still maintain or increase health benefits is a awesome win/win… keep up the great videos, very informative and easy to understand! Subscribe/Liked

[@AM-tc9ct]

We discovered these in our compost over the summer and our chicks go bonkers for them. It became a fun afternoon break time to collect them and toss them to the girls. We bound our compost bin in extra hardware cloth to keep rats/mice from getting in so I think that’s how the flies got in to lay their eggs. Looking forward to next spring when temps get up and the flies are laying eggs again!

[@ericlotze7724]

Late at my local time, but i'll dump info here tomorrow for any future people needing it (I'm the "Science Nerd" to complement your down to earth, non-science nerd video lol)

[@alfonsomunoz4424]

That's incredible that they eat so much waste! I thought I saw crawfish parts, then you confirmed it.

[@maverick6461]

Thanks for all the info. Happy chickens, lay great eggs!

[@reneesfoxynews6652]

Not to mention to buy the dried soldier larva it’s like $50 a box. Excellent video. I must do this.

[@bobbilinn4712]

You would have a hard time drowning the larva...they are aquatic/semi-aquatic. They feed on algae and aquatic organisms as well as beehive waste and decomposing matter such as your compost pile. You would have to cut off their means of pupating on dryer surface (higher ground) to drown them. People often mistake them for the docile mud dauber wasps.

[@LazyLabAcres]

Helps keep the smell down lol

[@kaydenl6836]

If I needed to get rid of them, I’d honestly just burn the fuckers LMAO

[@cheebacheeo5876]

I don't have homestead nor chickens and yet I watched this trough 😂

[@jamesduff6937]

Great video! Cheers from Australia!

[@LazyLabAcres]

Thanks for watching!

[@zachnorden933]

In the winters I used to shoot squirrel and place where the chicks couldn't get to them, then through in their yard once maggots had eaten most of the inside. Joel Salatin trick!

[@ruthlapwood2486]

Thanks for the vid. I saw these and was worried about them in my compost and no one recognized these. Great use of grubs for chickens.

[@LazyLabAcres]

Thanks for watching!

[@kenyonbissett3512]

I’ve heard they are great pig food also. Chickens, fish and pigs 🎉🎉🎉

[@nelsongerardojroquendo2661]

Very good idea for getting your waste recycled. Keep it up

[@senseiofsong]

Genius. Pure genius. Sharing with folks I know.

[@andrewmullins4094]

ive noticed when you have a lot of soldier fly larvae together they self sustain heat. i have them in a tote bout 20k of them they are beasts at eating, and they generate mid 80 degrees

[@LazyLabAcres]

it definitely gets warm in there, but once the first cold weather rolls in, all of the adults seem to vanish lol

[@andrewmullins4094]

I'm trying my luck indoors I built a shed out back, because me and a friend started our own business breeding pet feeders. It's heated so I'm hoping it stays consistent enough to make tons of larvae. I know cold winter's lol Michigan here

[@ericlotze7724]

You can actually make "Compost Heaters" (and i would assume this would apply to BFS/Vermi-Composting as well?). Essentially just a diy heat exchanger around the "vessel" with optional insulation around it. Can get decenntly hot water all year long as long as you keep "burning" the compostable "fuel". Would be a neat build.

[@NatureBoy736]

Damn this is a good idea, I also live in NC. Might have to look into this. Thanks for the video/idea.

[@mirthenemrys]

I used to keep a red wiggler farm in a converted garbage bin just for getting rid of food scraps before i kept chickens, these days most scraps of veg/fruit/grain stuff goes to the chickens. Might try this out, since i hate wasting all the meat and dairy stuff i dont give to the chickens.

[@loriecarter3414]

Thank you ♥️🙏♥️

[@mimicleveland7607]

Thank you, this was fascinating. I’m new to quail raising and like the idea of growing part of their feed. I wonder if they are small enough for quail. But birds could tear them apart. Will do a little more research.

[@hanginlaundry360]

Any bird could tear these to bits.

[@BossOfAllTrades]

@@hanginlaundry360 its their natural food source in the wild.

[@r.k1050]

Hi from the UK. I've never heard of this, very clever idea. Thanks for sharing!

[@russelllejeune4031]

Great idea! You may have already answered this but do you cover the tube completely or leave a gap? Love all the coop vids btw!!!!

[@brucelee8189]

The black soldier flies will eat decaying wood, also. That was my first experience with them, I had a leak in my roof, which was causing some wood rot. The soldier flies were everywhere, in my house.

[@crocodilopolis]

You could also buy black soldier fly larvae from someone who sells reptile feeders, rear them to adults and introduce them to your bin if you have trouble attracting them.

[@Johnrider1234]

Ontario canada 🇨🇦. On 84 acres. Great channel guys.

[@armartin0003]

I'd heard about the soldier fly larva before, but never could find out anything more. This fits the gap of information nicely.

[@Note-dy6yd]

Great video. For your next videos please do it with more active demonstrating the details. I still don't know how the worms are being collected.

[@marybeverley4130]

Once the larvae are mature, they want to get to higher ground away from the food so they crawl on the ledge that spirals up the walls to the top where there is a hole that they fall into which puts them in the 5 gallon bucket.

[@positivevibes-c8s]

This is great information thanks, I am going to try this

[@incognitoriaanonymousita]

Awesome. Thank you.

[@michaelhoggard591]

Thanks for the great tips!

[@cityhomestead40]

You GOT MY Attention Bro! we have two fly catch jars or what ever u call them only buy the stinky packs one time year the flies go in lay eggs and die chickens avsolutely LOVE it when i empty into thier area been interested how i could grow and harvest for a while now on a bigger scale so thanks this video has given some great ideas so thanks and Greetings from Paducah Kentucky USA!🙂😎😜🤪💯👍✌

[@LazyLabAcres]

Right on!

[@patrickschooley3503]

Thanks man. Very helpful info.

[@billc.4584]

Dude, you did fine getting your point across. Very clever solution. Best of luck. Peace.

[@CarolReidCA]

I'll have to look into this. Freeze dried larve are expensive, but are great for the city

[@kimrachea2697]

Thanks for your information and sharing the lava of the black soldier fly Very interesting

[@juliahelland6488]

Not sure if we have those flies in Wisconsin, but will check it out. Thanks for sharing!

[@lion2535]

i think any fly will do, because i've seen this done in videos from across the world.

[@hanginlaundry360]

According to a map, yes, but I've never seen one. I wonder if one got live grubs mail order , a population could exist in WI. I remember a guy used to hang a 5-gal bucket off a low branch with 1/4" holes drilled all over the lower portion, and throw roadkill in it . Maggots would fall out and chickens would peck them up as they did. Someone in his comments told him he was probably a "cheap date,", lol.😆

[@Theo-dj7vs]

Youre dense

[@Theo-dj7vs]

Yeah why don't you buy your bug supplies that solves the economic feed issue. Roflmao 😆 🤣 😂

[@hanginlaundry360]

@@Theo-dj7vs Not buying anything. Building my own, if the flies exist here.