I am trying to feed some chickens with a maggot bin and I am not getting any maggots. I will tell what I have done thus far. I got a five gallon (20L) bucket. I drilled many hole all over it (about 3/8 of an inch), including the bottom and the lid. I put some food in it (veggie scraps, using meat is not really an option in this case). I hung it on a tree in the coop. Maybe I should wait a few more days, but I'm impatient, and being in the tropics, I expect everything to be fast. After about 3 days there are no maggots. There are fruit flies though. Along with the fruit flies there are also ants (the tree is crawling in ants, and they have gotten into the bin). Are the ants a problem for maggots? After doing some thinking, I know of ways to avoid the ants, but what do I need to attract some bigger flies? On a side note, I went down to the worm bin and found it was crawling in maggots (and worms). Which got me excited, so I fed them to the chickens and the chickens loved it. Then I thought about the differences between the worm bin and the maggot bin. Worm Bin is cool dark and moist, the maggot bin is drained (b/c of holes) therefore dry and light (not a lot of shade) Worm bin is void of ants, the maggot bin has two types of ants in it Worm bin reeks of putrefied organic matter, the maggot bin smells like decaying compost, but not nearly as bad as the worm bin. Maybe the worm bin attracts the flies because of the smell. Maybe not, any suggestions on how to improve the system will be greatly appreciated. I'm new this and just trying to learn a ton while I can. Thanks.
Re: Feeding chickens with a maggot bin in the tropics... Sounds like your worm bin is too wet and with too much food for the number of worms in there... That is if you are trying to grow worms? And is sounds like your maggot bin is too dry with not enough food. As far as I know ants really only like it dry.
Re: Feeding chickens with a maggot bin in the tropics... 3/8 inch doesn't sound very big for flies to get through. I know they will crawl through really small spaces but maybe only if its worth it ;-) What kind of flies are you after? Maybe leave the lid off for part of the day? Why can't you use meat?
Re: Feeding chickens with a maggot bin in the tropics... I've had a quick look and it seems that wet and putrid seems to be needed for maggots. Animal poo helps. So do dairy leftovers (cheese, yoghurt, sour cream etc), and of course meat. May be you could look for a really ripe bit of road kill and relocate it maggots and all to your maggot bin? Or you could just hang the worm bin in the chook run!
Re: Feeding chickens with a maggot bin in the tropics... Perhaps leave the lid off the maggot bin for a day or so until it gets seeded. You could soak old meat scraps (cooked and raw), bones etc in a bucket of water for a week or so. Then use this rancid liquid to keep the maggot bin moist.
Re: Feeding chickens with a maggot bin in the tropics... Thanks for the speedy responses. There are some great suggestions, I will try to wet the scraps and see if that makes a difference. It smells right now, so maybe that will work. As for they type of maggots/flies I am trying to attract, anything that will feed chickens. I am currently at a vegetarian community, therefore it is difficult to get meat...mind you I heard there is rat floating in one of the pools... If wetting the material doesn't work, I may increase the size of the holes and see if that makes a difference. Thanks again.
Re: Feeding chickens with a maggot bin in the tropics... I've never had flies lay eggs in my open compost that was just vege scraps. I used to leave an open 20 litre bucket at the backdoor and fill it with kitchen scraps over a couple of weeks or so, never had maggots in it. You need meat I think, or some kind of animal bits (flies will sometimes lay maggots on wool blankets in hot weather). Or maybe it's different in the tropics? Vegetarians... use roadkill then. Or meat scraps from the butcher if the community is ok with that. Manure might work too.
Re: Feeding chickens with a maggot bin in the tropics... what a great resolution Take a dump in it :lol:
Re: Feeding chickens with a maggot bin in the tropics... interesting. maybe you could adapt the idea; bit of lateral thinking; in the tropics you have lots of insects....how about a small solar light, or several to attract insects at night? i appreciate the effort to align ones enterprise with systems of decay,,,but a vegetarian community sans meat, even road kill, even a fish; possibly should not pursue an alignment with a decay organism primarily involved in the decay of meat....and one must be careful in a vegetarian maggot bin that fruit fly are not the maggot. I'm recommending a light for insects, and (composting) veg scraps on the ground where earthworms can graze the bacteria there-on. the "system of abundance'' being ignored some in a hanging maggot bin, is the soil based organisms of decay,,,many of which are large enough for chooks to eat. I'm thinking your local equivalent of 'slaters'. yes, this from the man who (used to) feed polystyrene to chooks. I was wrong that time. But I'm feeling a new wave of righteousness coming on,,,to the extent that I must pose the question " is it ethical for a vegetarian to align themselves with a maggot?....talk about the ultimate carnivore the bastards will eat you whilst you live. Presuming a moral foundation to your vegetarianism exists ( which I do, no problem - just playing devils advocate here - stay with me)...where does it end, would you eat a carnivorous plant?....anyway, maggots are a carnivores ethical option....sorry. I imagine this vegetarian community gathered round the old maggot bin, the kids are all there and an elder is waxing lyrical; ' see younguns, those chooks never planted a garden and now they've got to eat maggots! big hug, regards, Kimbo.
Re: Feeding chickens with a maggot bin in the tropics... permasculptor, what a great idea, maybe I will tomorrow morning and see what happens...although I do have some cow dung laying around, maybe I will try that. kimbo.parker, I thought about having a light just above a bucket of water and seeing if that would work. Agreed about the ethics of using maggot to feed you chickens. I'm not vegetarian though and the idea of feeding chicken maggots is great (IMO). If I was vegetarian it would be for sustainability reason, not animal rights and therefore wouldn't have a problem feeding maggots to chickens. Maggots are great at turning un-eatable food into protein. Now a vegan community may have a problem with this, but then why would a vegan community even have chickens? Maybe I will pose this question, is it ethical for a vegetarian community to eat foods with yeast and bacteria? Why do animal rights have more importance over fungi, bacteria and plant rights?
Re: Feeding chickens with a maggot bin in the tropics... I've had maggots grow in bags of stable sweepings that I brought home from nearby horse stables. They seem to love the horse manure. Just keep it slightly moist and I'm sure you'll grow heaps!
Re: Feeding chickens with a maggot bin in the tropics... I like to raise maggots in my compost, using coffee grounds, avocados that are rotten, any fruit skins, tea leaves. While we do sometimes use small carcasses, we never need to. We are in the lowland humid tropics here in Belize. The flies come for any kind of veggies and coffee grounds. We load it all up, and when the box is wriggling, dump it and have the birds scratch it for me, breaking the cycle of flies, feeding the birds, and having them scratch in the composting material.