Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

In my quest for finding used cooking oil for converting into biodiesel I have been offered the unused cooked chicken from a local chicken place. I have a grinder and the means to make this into a dried meal. Is this a possibity for feeding tilapia? Is there enough protein in the cooked chicken? Would the bones be useful if pulverized? As I have stated in the past I will be soon opening a home for orphans and vulnerable children out in the bush here in Botswana. I will be having lots of live stock as well as an aquaponics system so the chicken can be used for pig feed if not for the fish.

I would think they would be too greasy.

You might look into black soldier fly larvae, they could eat the chicken and convert it into a more useful form maybe..

how about just plain dried/pulverized red meat. unfortunatly everything but the mooo is used here in botswana so a butchery would offer no cheap disguards...however i see cows and donkeys hit by cars here often. if harvested before the rotting process takes place could this be a possibility. this may sound disgusting but no more than using maggots i would think. i'm not looking for the ultimate best possible food scenerio just some cheap easy ideas to start with. when the system is established then i will be able to experiment on my own to see what works best for my part of the globe. i think the experimenting will be half the fun.

Black soldier fly larvae should work well on any vegetable or meat, some road kill might work pretty well with them (was thinking too that road kill would work for a town or county if they have to remove the dead animals from the side of the road anyway). When they self-harvest you can feed them to the fish then or you could dry them in the sun to feed to the fish later.

Hmmm... plenty of road kill around here Dave.
Bugger the neighbours aren't on the road a bit,
it might give me a chance to make them useful

so i'm guessing that the protein content of bsflies is higher than just plain meat. is this the case for all maggots? what is the advantage of using bsfly larvae vs any other fly. how do i get them in botswana? Don't know if anyone has ever heard of Mopane worms? They are a rare delicacy here and come out once a year. I'm sure they are high in protein and will be experimenting with them when estaplished, only i actually love them too. they are the larvae of a large moth and are about the size of my thumb. any thoughts?

Just be aware of salmonela