Healthy soil and sustainable growing

[Harvey Ussery <huboxwood@earthlink.net>]

The following is copied from an article I'm working on for Backyard 
Poultry, describing a bucket system for breeding fly maggots from 
carrion as a free source of high-quality protein for the homestead 
chicken flock. There is a reference to the page on the Journey to 
Forever that initially inspired my experiments. However, the system I 
have devised is my own. (Think I should patent?)

~Harvey
www.themodernhomestead.us

Please note that the following material is copyright by Harvey Ussery, 
July 2006, and is reproduced here for the benefit of members of this 
list only.

*****************************

Protein from Thin Air: Breeding fly maggots for poultry feed

I was inspired to experiment with fly maggots for poultry feed by a 
``recipe'' on the Journey to Forever site 
(http://journeytoforever.org/farm_poultry.html#flies), based on kichen 
rejects---cooking water, scraps, soured milk, etc. The batches produced 
did indeed generate maggots, but were not productive enough for my 
needs. Then I noticed references elsewhere on the Journey to Forever 
site to the practice in Europe in earlier times of fattening poultry on 
maggots from fish heads and chunks of scrap meat. Instantly I thought of 
my buddy Sam, and the carcasses generated by his ``nuisance trapping'' 
service, and a new source of free protein on the homestead was born.

Using food grade 5 and 7 gallon buckets I had on hand, I drilled 
numerous 3/8-inch holes in the bottoms, sides, and screw-on lids. (Holes 
of this size allow flies to enter, but prevent pecking by the chickens.) 
Sam keeps me supplied with 30-35 lb beaver carcasses. These I seal 
inside the buckets. After just a couple of days, the local bluebottle 
flies have ``blown'' the carcasses with their eggs, which have hatched 
into a mass of greedily feeding larvae, or maggots.

Please note that for this system to work, it is essential that the 
buckets be suspended, either by hanging (from a tree or a rafter of a 
shelter) or by placing on a wire platform. When the larva has attained 
sufficient growth to pupate, it has the instinct to leave the feeding 
medium and burrow into the ground to pupate---it will not pupate in the 
feeding medium. By suspending the bucket, I ensure that the larvae will 
free-fall, attracting the attention of the ever-alert chickens, who 
instantly snap them up without fail.

I have found the beaver carcasses from my friend to be tremendously 
productive. He also passes on the occasional raccoon, and I have even 
cycled the odd roadkill through my buckets. When I slaughter poultry for 
the table, I now run the offal through the buckets as well---a more 
efficient, and productive, way of disposing of them than burying. I even 
put in any domestic birds that died by accident, though of course do not 
use carcasses of birds who may have died of disease.

No doubt the reader has anticipated potential problems with the use of 
carrion to breed maggots, so let's consider them.

Odor: The first beaver Sam gave me I simply stuffed, whole, into my 
largest bucket. The bucket produced an abundance of maggots but, not 
surprisingly, smelled pretty ``ripe'' during the last few days of 
``processing.'' I now have five working buckets, so I chop each beaver 
carcass into five pieces. I line the bottom of the buckets with litter 
from the poultry house (mostly oak leaves), lay in the beaver chunks, 
then pad with more leaves around and on top, and screw on the lids. (The 
loose leaves do not impede access to the carrion by the flies.) With 
this adjustment, I find that the processing time---the time from carrion 
addition until the maggots have rendered it to fur and bones---is 
greatly accelerated, and there is very little smell. Indeed, I catch a 
whiff only when I am working in the immediate vicinity of the buckets. 
(Suburban flock owners, however, would do well to seek free protein 
elsewhere.)

Curiosity seekers: The buckets would certainly draw dogs, foxes, 
raccoons, and other curiosity seekers if allowed access to them. 
Therefore this system is useful only where access can be denied. I use 
electric net fencing [see my article on electronet in the April-May 
issue], and never have any problem with raids on the buckets. Placing 
the buckets inside permanent predator fencing would work as well. Only 
once have I had a visit from buzzards. They were drawn to that first 
heavily scented bucket. They hung around most of a day, clearly 
intoxicated by the heady aroma, but frustrated they could not get at its 
source. They finally gave up and lumbered into flight, never to return. 
I think the lack of repeat visits has much to do with the greatly 
reduced odor in the buckets these days.

Breeding flies? Many people have objected to my system because it 
amounts to a deliberate breeding of flies. Actually, my methods should 
decrease the ambient fly population. Imagine there are 100 female flies 
in the vicinity, and I manage to convince them that my carrion buckets 
are the best place imaginable for laying their eggs. They do so (rather 
than laying them elsewhere). But not a single fly larva gets to pupate 
and hatch---my sharp-eyed chickens see to that. I've just reduced the 
local fly hatch by 20%.

Disease: Naturally my reader, however dedicated to the ideal of 
self-sufficiency, will worry about the potential for generating disease 
out of carrion being worked by maggots. I am duty bound to pass on 
industrial-strength warnings I've received to that effect: There is a 
condition the old-timers called ``limberneck,'' which turns out to be 
paralysis caused by botulin poisoning. My friends who warned me about 
limberneck insisted that it could be caused by maggots ingested by 
chickens from any source. However, in all the links they sent, the 
references actually described the condition associated only with spilled 
feed which had become wet, had soured and begun working with maggots, 
and then been consumed by the birds. For that reason I have always 
avoided using a grain mash as a maggot breeding substrate. However, I 
fed carrion-bred fly larvae the entire fly season last year, and this 
season I have honestly lost track of the number of beaver carcasses I've 
put through my buckets---and I have not had a hint of a disease problem. 
Neither has my longtime mentor Joel Salatin, who follows beef cattle on 
his pastures with a big flock of laying hens, who scratch apart the 
cowpies for the maggots growing in them. Based on such solid experience, 
I conclude that the homestead flock owner does not need to fear disease 
if he chooses to tap into this rich source of free protein.