Here's a LINK to the outing we had at Romans place. Scroll down to the bit about the fly tin: Wet coffee grounds prove attractive for flies to lay their eggs and produce lots of maggots for the chooks.
Speaking of larvae to feed the chickens - don't forget the old tin hanging in the chook run with a piece of old meat/bone in it to encourage the flies to lay their eggs. When the larvae hatch they fall through to the chooks. I'll see if I can find a pic. Roman (Spur) uses this method for one.
If I put too much watery food in (old fruit) and the worm population is not high enough to break down the food before the BSF move in, I get an increase in BSF and more mush rather than worm castings.
Its in good balance at the moment. The larvae in earlier photo was in the same level as these worms, but not snacking on the recent offerings as the worms were.
LOL. Worms don't like them because the BSF out-eat the worms. Oddly enough, I don't have them in my worm farm. It's foam boxes with lids. However, I do have them in all my compost bins which works a treat for me. Even better, the fish and chickens eat them. Periodically, I pick them out by hand when I can see I'll get a good harvest. (Shh... that's our secret Elaine.)
We're not going to agree ;-) They make an acidy soup, no idea whether this is nutritious for the soil's microbes or not. Worms don't like them in their worm bed (in the incarcerated-worm-farm).
The larvae I saw were a creamy-white. Shot into the Museum to have them IDd. Turns out it could never be flies (as in house, blow etc) since they need high protein and only lay on meat.
Familiar scene. Buggers lay a clutch of golden eggs adhering to the inside of the lid. Daily chore was to rub them out until I got fed up with it and ditched the worm farm altogether.
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Here's a LINK to the outing we had at Romans place. Scroll down to the bit about the fly tin: Wet coffee grounds prove attractive for flies to lay their eggs and produce lots of maggots for the chooks.
Speaking of larvae to feed the chickens - don't forget the old tin hanging in the chook run with a piece of old meat/bone in it to encourage the flies to lay their eggs. When the larvae hatch they fall through to the chooks. I'll see if I can find a pic. Roman (Spur) uses this method for one.
If I put too much watery food in (old fruit) and the worm population is not high enough to break down the food before the BSF move in, I get an increase in BSF and more mush rather than worm castings.
Its in good balance at the moment. The larvae in earlier photo was in the same level as these worms, but not snacking on the recent offerings as the worms were.
LOL. Worms don't like them because the BSF out-eat the worms. Oddly enough, I don't have them in my worm farm. It's foam boxes with lids. However, I do have them in all my compost bins which works a treat for me. Even better, the fish and chickens eat them. Periodically, I pick them out by hand when I can see I'll get a good harvest. (Shh... that's our secret Elaine.)
We're not going to agree ;-) They make an acidy soup, no idea whether this is nutritious for the soil's microbes or not. Worms don't like them in their worm bed (in the incarcerated-worm-farm).
Ah... I love them. Man those things can convert waste into castings faster than anything I know.
The larvae I saw were a creamy-white. Shot into the Museum to have them IDd. Turns out it could never be flies (as in house, blow etc) since they need high protein and only lay on meat.
Familiar scene. Buggers lay a clutch of golden eggs adhering to the inside of the lid. Daily chore was to rub them out until I got fed up with it and ditched the worm farm altogether.