Healthy soil and sustainable growing

[Harvey Ussery <huboxwood@earthlink.net>]

> If you dampen grain of almost any type but especially pelleted grains and
> leave them out you'll get a fine crop of maggots in just a short while.
> Admittedly this isn't free, the way road kill is, but you can get free grain
> sometimes from feed stores that have had bags tear or at mills where grain
> has spilled during loading and unloading.
>
> Claudia

Claudia, have you actually tried this? I got some industrial-strength 
warnings against feeding maggots, based on a potentially lethal 
condition the old-timers called "limberneck." Turns out the condition is 
 paralysis based on botulin poisoning. The source that sent me the 
warnings seemed to think that feeding *any* maggots could cause the 
botulism, but the references actually given were without exception to 
cases where prepared feeds had spilled, gotten wet, soured, and became 
alive with maggots. It was that which the chickens ate, and that was the 
source of the limberneck.

Because of that reading, I've avoided experimenting with generating 
maggots from grains or grain products. However, I have never had a hint 
of a problem converting beaver carcasses or slaughter offal, nor has 
Joel Salatin feeding maggots in cowpies. (I also used the "recipe" for 
"Protein from Thin Air" at the journeytoforever site. Didn't get 
anywhere near the production from that approach, that's why I switched 
to carcasses, but I certainly didn't have any disease problem.)

So if you've actually been feeding grain-based maggots with good 
results, I'd sure like to hear more details about your approach.

~Harvey



--
Harvey in northern Va
www.themodernhomestead.us