Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

Janet, you are sooo lucky. Mushroom compost is best in the world for vegetable gardens. The last mushroom farm closed here years ago and I can not get my favorite compost anymore.

I can get all the mushroom soil I want free for the taking.
By the time it has spent time in the barn raising mushrooms, it is very nice stuff! The objectionable part is -before- it make it to the mushroom barn.

thanks for the reminder Janet, I've got to call the local farm about getting some mushroom compost (to grow some mushies under the big grow bed )

They arrived today 800 BSF larva, aka (pheniox worms) put them in a bucket of chicken poop and into the green house for their lunch, hope they are hungrey. How long does it take to get a bucket of chicken poop smell out of the living room? I may be in trouble here!

Did they supply any instructions GF, like ramps to get out when ready etc, interested in any info

Hi Ell, Care instructions came with them yes. Realize they sell these as a food for lizards and such. Bucket of poop not included.

Care Sheet For Phoenix Worms
Keep your worms in the original closed container to preserve the correct moisture balance. Phoenix Worms will keep at room temperatures from 60-70 degrees. For even longer shelf life, keep cool (45-60 degrees) but do not refrigerate.
Large size Phoenix Worms are farther along in thier life cycle and will darken in preparation for pupation more quickly than the smaller sizes. This is normal and the worms are not dead. Calcium levels are highest in the darker worms. We suggest feeding the darker worms first while the are still wiggly.
Packing media can be easily removed from your worms by pouring out the worms to be served and allowing them to dry for a few miniutes. Media will fall away from the dry worms. Any clinging residue can be easily blown off before serving.
Serve dry Phoenix Worms in a shallow dry dish. Any moisture that is present will enable Phoenix Worms to climb out of the dish and hide in the substrate.
If you have other question, please contact us at yada yada yada.

They quickly went into the bucket o poo and hopefull will eat up. Only saw one dark colored one as I purchased the medium size it may be awhile before they fatten up? I'll rig up a ramp system for them but hoping to get em dating so a small netting framed around the poop bucket?
Gary, Have you figured a time frame for their growth and how much they eat perhaps?

Chicken poop is right rank!!! You are in so much trouble with the boss!!

My Red Wrigglers are not here yet. They projected a ship date of this past Monday. Obviously they didn't ship. Grrr.

Thanks GF, certainly not interested in passing on info on how to produce your own perpetual colony - fair enough too, they would lose out on an ongoing income

has anyone in oz found a commercial source for these? might give 'em a go

oops she just got home..

i think i just heard her! Gee sound travels well on a still night

John, was that fresh chick pooh? The picture looks too nice to be pure pooh. I wonder how much room the flies need to reproduce? I would like all the fly work in some size aquarium, but that may not be large enough. If not, they may have to be free flying in the greenhouse. Then where will they decide to put their eggs? I sure wish I had a better idea of how to go about this.

Much thanks to our pioneers...Gary and John. Best wishes to both!

Steve - up here they just come naturally. Iget them in my worm farm and the copost. Do you have a compost heap. If not - put your scraps in a container of some sort - cover it but not so much as to stop flies from getting in. After a while you might find you are the happy owners of BSF.

Reminds me of a fishshop owner in england...
He used to supply pre-flies, (white maggots)
to his fishing clientle, one weekend(mon-tues for him) the power went of and his backup failed.
He arrived on wednesday to find a black swam of blowflies clouding the inside of his entire shop!! lots of fly poop...
let it be a lesson to you...

back on topic-- I wonder if the larva are sterile and so wont produce offspring...guess that would be another experiment!!
C1

I doubt if they will be sterile. The wormman keeps most of his radioactive material in another building