Healthy soil and sustainable growing

[Harvey Ussery <huboxwood@earthlink.net>]

> Instead of slaughtering wild animals to grow maggots why not just grow 
> them in your own feces.  They grow in it just fine too.
> Uriel

1) I do not slaughter wild animals to grow maggots. If you read my 
original post you will see that I said:

> A buddy of mine who 
> is a trapper supplies me with "primary ingredient" [30-35 lb beavers]

So the beavers I am cycling thru my maggot buckets are beavers that have 
already died by someone else's hand, as a result of decisions taken by 
someone else. My (grateful) use of them seems at least as respectful as 
tossing them out into the weeds.

Which is not to say that I will never kill an animal and put it thru the 
maggot cycle. However, doing so is something I would not do casually. 
For example, if there were a groundhog in direct competition for what's 
growing in my garden, I would not hesitate to "fight dirty" with him, 
and you can bet he'd provide protein for the flock via the buckets. In 
other words, I would honor his death by entering his remains into the 
cycle that nature has so wisely devised for us all.

By the way, I have also picked up the odd roadkill to put thru the 
buckets. Also, when I slaughter poultry, I now add the offal to the 
maggot buckets as well--I'm finding that an excellent way to recycle them.

2) Don't think it would be a good idea at all to feed maggots from human 
feces. See Joe Jenkins THE HUMANURE HANDBOOK, the bible on the subject 
of recycling humanure. He points out that the manure from even a healthy 
human can contain serious pathogens. He also outlines a method for 
recapturing that fertility through proper composting, and using it as 
high-value compost in the garden. That is my preferred method for 
recycling my own poops.

As for poops of other species, some of them can indeed serve as 
substrate for maggot production, to the benefit of the chicken tribe. My 
longterm guru Joel Salatin has (for at least the two decades I've known 
him) followed the beef cattle on his pastures with a big flock of laying 
hens. The hens pick apart the cowpies for the maggots (indeed, Joel 
times the moving of the hens to correspond with the ideal stage of 
development of the maggots), getting for themselves top quality (free) 
protein, but providing other services as well--spreading fertility from 
the poops more widely over the pasture, sanitizing them for pathogens by 
exposing them to nature's cleansers, air and sunlight, etc.

~Harvey

--
Harvey in northern Va
www.themodernhomestead.us