An E-mail to a Tampa friend with chickens also looking into Black Soldier Fly "farms"

Yo Yo Yo Mary Jo!

When I got home from the gym I used a big pool tablets bucket with a threaded lid with a cool release lever built in, some BIG vinyl tubing I'd dumpster dived some time ago, the top of a milk jug, a paddle bit and a kitchen knife, plus some drinking straws and metal duct tape I usually use on the livingroom mirror floor, and made my first Black Soldier Fly larvae farm. The vinyl escape tube should drop the larvae into a receptacle I made from a kitty litter jug I've stored dry pet food in the past...I have maybe an inch of oak leaf mulch at the bottom for them to burrow into. Into the "farm" I put a few inches of fresh horse poop from the stables across from my gym, some oak leaf mulch, some hard boiled egg yolk from a friend on a high protein diet, plus Subway sandwich scraps from their dumpster. I had just a VERY few larvae from a super primitive prototype I made last week and put them in. BUT...I gather that a GOOD BSF farm will attract egg laying females via openings near the top....I chose to use a FAT drill bit to make maybe 20 holes near the top, but below a lip in the bucket that should shield the contents from rain. Those holes should also provide needed ventilation. I used a VERY thin drill bit to put a few drainage holes at the bottom of the pool tablets bucket for the compost tea to escape from into a drainage tray to use as soil food, or to feed the duckweed farms. Since they are heat sensitive and generate a lot of heat themselves, I set it up in a shady area on the east side of my house, below the eaves. A bundle of drinking straws cut in half attached to the inside of the lid with metal duct tape HOPEFULLY will serve as a place for the females to lay their eggs. I will check the inside this weekend to see what,if anything, is going on. Achieving self sufficiency for my poultry via Black Soldier Fly larvae and my three new duckweed farms has become a new obsession...as if I needed a another one! I'll post a video IF this design works. I love that fact that due to the materials all being scavenged (except for foot of metal duct tape I used) this Black Soldier Fly farm is totally free.

How's progress on your end?

John