Friday, April 4, 2014

I am having more and more conversations with permaculturists seeking to produce their own chicken and duck food, both to reduce costs but also to avoid GMOs. For years I've been okay with scavenging restaurants scraps, still am, but my two best ones either closed or stopped throwing out scraps. Yesterday I re-did a "roach and pill bugs farm" and today will start another. My past efforts to raise Black Soldier Fly larvae failed though I know a few folks who've succeeded. I've increased the number of water filled containers here that I raise duckweed and hot water cabomba in as the chickens love both. They also love the Florida Pellitory that grows far too plentifully here and that I pull up so much of. My back east bed is rapidly getting weedy once more, so I will again try to protect the crops thriving in large container gardens in there then open up the bed so my flock can once again stuff themselves on fresh green weeds plus scratch in the mulch for bugs....last year they made it 99% weed free in three weeks. This summer I'll try growing sorghum plus greatly increased sowings of gandule beans to see how that goes. For years I've brought home 5 gallon buckets of seashell grit from Picnic Island Beach for their gizzards and calcium needs. I'd love to hear of other folks' efforts in this regard.


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LbaibfhtC94

2 comments:

  1. John hi my names Sheldon and I live in Bartow. Reading your email about failed black soldier fly larvae, have tried it to without success. But resently saw a youtube vid that looks like it will work. It's under black soldier fly farming ,NW Red worms farm. Up to 1# of larvae a day, going to try it.

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  2. Thanks Sheldon, good luck and keep us posted!

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