Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

Just for reference for those building their own, Earthbound was trialling a container her found that had built in ramps however it was pretty unsuccessful. He put this down to the ramps not having a small wall, or barrier, on the inside edge, in fact it was a curved edge, and consequently the BSFL kept falling off as they climbed. The biopod certainly has a small barrier on that inside edge.

The reason the ramp is between 35º and 45º is because house fly larva can only climb a 30º ramp while BSFLs can navigate the steeper slope. The idea is to keep house flies in the bucket and thus a) reduce mature house flies and b) feed the dead/dying house fly larva to the much less pesky BSFLs.

I'm going to Travis Hughey's place on Thursday and look forward to seeing a major BSFL operation he runs to feed his chooks and fish. He told me today he makes his bins out of blue barrels, so I am curious to see his design.

CB

Be interested to see what you learn CB.

EB maybe able to fix his with a bead of silastic at about 45 deg on the edge,
MM ramps are cheap, I used some old PVC pipe cut in half again at beginning of thread, I am yet to harvest them as eggs just laid but will post results
CB don't forget the photo's

Take some photos of the bins for us.

Have you guys seen the new biopod?
A homemade version of this one wouldn't be that difficult
http://thebiopod.com/pages/biopod-plus.html

I had a great visit with Travis Hughey. He has a number of incredibly simple, yet elegant solutions for a ton is AP related stuff... Early in my visit he used the term 'proprietary' with one such solution and so out of respect I did not take a bunch of pics...

His biopods were so simple I laughed!! One barrel, two five gallon buckets and two pieces of 2x4 about 10" long make two 'pods... It was one of those, D'uh!! moments! Basically, the barrel was cut in half on an angle so that each half retained one complete end and tapered to a wide end that is then curled and by screwing the sides to the ends of the 2x4. Then a huge rounded notch is cut in the 5 gallon collection bucket and the tapered end of the barrel leans on the bucket... Very simple... He had a line of these so each supports the one on the other side to prevent rolling with a simple brick or block on the outside of the end pods... Simple!

Waiting for weather to warm up a shade more before baiting the local BSFs with my pods...

CB

no pics of the pod. Thats a bummer. Sounds like a nice setup. I am trying to make one these dual purpose worm bin and BSF pod. Basiclly you put news paper down on the bars and then when the bin is full you can rake the bottom and the compost will fall out the bottom. Its called a flow through or continious worm bin. This is the way the worm factories do it. I figure I will end up with BSF in it anyway so why not harvest them.

Interesting idea!! Keep us posted!

CB

I GOT MAGGOTS well larvae and plenty of Maggots, my first few in Picture

way to go. I am planning on building a combination wormbed/BSF bin this weekend. I am modeling it on a industrial flow through wormbin but I am building ramps into it for the BSF. Total planed surface area will be about 8 sq feet or a little less than 1 sq meter.

Congrats Nocky but I am jealous. I can't get them to happen. I went and put the cat's food into the bin, just so I had a maggot of sorts..

So please anyone in WA that has a surplus and would like to share a handful or two of BSF, I will pay the postage and packaging

... I ended up with some BSF larvae in my little blue barrel system tank... and don't even know where they came from...

Bragger ROZ

Bloody Fantastic Paul welcome to the club ! We can now teach you the secret handshake and the password !