Skip to Content.
Sympa Menu

livingontheland - Re: [Livingontheland] Maggots for poultry feed

livingontheland@lists.ibiblio.org

Subject: Healthy soil and sustainable growing

List archive

Chronological Thread  
  • From: Harvey Ussery <huboxwood@earthlink.net>
  • To: livingontheland@lists.ibiblio.org
  • Subject: Re: [Livingontheland] Maggots for poultry feed
  • Date: Thu, 20 Jul 2006 14:06:14 +0000

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




Archive powered by MHonArc 2.6.24.

Top of Page