Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

AA.....no mate, I haven't got into the composition of fly pupae yet. I'm thinking of feeding the maggots out while they are still in the larvae stage.....although I've read that fishermen will use either.

Jamie.....the thin shells suggest two things.....either your chooks are getting old (three years or more) or they are deficient in calcium. You fix the first problem with an axe and the second with a calcium replacement.

The other possibility is that the chooks are not breaking the eggs when they sit on them but rather that, having discovered that they have thin shells, they may have developed the habit of eating them. While different folks will tell you all sorts of interesting stories about how they cured this problem (like using plastic eggs or eggs filled with mustard or chilli), my experience says that the axe is again the best remedy.

If the birds are young (or your children have named them).....remove all of the sugar cane mulch (and the maggots) out of your nest boxes. Feed the maggots to your fish or the chooks and place some shell grit in the nest box. The chooks will eat the shell grit and nest in it, too. You can also save your egg shells and sterilise them in the oven the next time you have a roast and, having crushed them up fine, mix them in with the chook food.

If you want to breed maggots, watch for the next photo from my maggot breeding trial.

......and here it comes!

Gary

Hi,

The ugly mess in the above photo looks worse than it is. I mixed my fairly innocuous brew of stale bread and milk in with worm castings.....to allow the maggots to clean themselves.....and it's discoloured the whole thing. I was going to use bran as the cleaning agent but I've read that fishermen prefer sawdust so I might try that instead. The current mess is simply going to reinforce my partner's stereotype about maggot breeding (and breeders).

As you can see from the first photo (taken last Tuesday), things have happened pretty quickly in just four days.

This lot will probably become brunch by about Sunday morning.

Gary

yuck

Does it smell as good as it looks

i doubt i will bother with maggots (or gents if you preffer that name) too messy, mabey some other insects or just worms

Its interesting to see it though (and not have to smell...even though you said it just smelt yeasty)

Hi,

As I said it looks far worse than it smells.

The reason that I'm thinking about maggots rather than worms (or meal worms) is that maggot breeding is less than seven days from the cradle to the grave......and so it's possible to produce a consistent, continuous supply of animal protein. Worms, by contrast, take 90 days to grow to breeding age.

While worms have a better image, they don't live in any more hygienic circumstances than my maggots. At the end of the day, it's all about bacteria and fermentation.

......and I will overcome the aesthetic problem. I've learned that I can even colour the worms using food colouring.

Hi,

It's now 12 days since I posted the photos of my current growing systems.

Here's the latest photos.......refer to Page 9 if you want to gauge their progress in 12 days.

I expect you will see them kick along a bit more soon if my experience is anything to go by.

Hi,

I inadvertently posted photos from a couple of days ago.

This is the latest photos of the grow bed and the coco trays.

How do you grow those beans without lots of insect bites in them?!!!

Well, actually, it's the beans in dirt garden being hammered.

Is that lots of mould in the photo of maggots. might have to harvest earlier it's a nono adding bread mould with white worms. Fish get a bit crook, not lost any, but pretty careful of the mold now i learnt the hard way (and after being told)

Isn't there a liquid you could throw them in then rinse it off, alcohol?

Some more photos....

Will be very interested to see how the root crops go Gary. I hope they do well, just means that most things will be able to be grown in the system.

Hi,

I've just posted this information in another thread and it occurred to me that it belongs here, too!

I'm currently running about a kilo of fish to about 55 litres of water....based on 44 fish at 250g average = 11kg in 600 litres.....and my only gravel grow bed is a square metre in area.

I water my non-recirculating growing systems every couple of days and top up about 80 litres of water every 2 - 3 days (depending on the weather.

I plan to grow the fish to about 500 grams before I start to harvest them. Those that remain will continue to grow so I'm hoping that I can maintain a relatively stable fish biomass (and nutrient production).

At that point, I will be running a kilo of fish to 22 litres of water......and watering at least double the non-recirculating area that I am currently.

Gary

Well done, truly pioneering it there Gary.

Will we see AP fruit trees in your future?

I've been watering a plum with AP water, not much, not often. It's shot up 2 metres in 4 months. Was 1 metre, now 3, though no fruit tis it's 1st year. I don't know how it stacks up, first plum I've planted.

Gary - have you weighed your fish at all. I'm not sure they would average 250g at this stage. I was really shocked to find out how little mine weighed when I did a couple of the bigger ones. This is what makes me think that I may well eat some of my fish when they are only 350-400 grams. Still have some decent meat on them at that stage.