Trouble breeding bush flies

[cheyne]

I'm having trouble getting my bush flies to breed. I've got the temp in my fly box at 27 degrees but when I put my bran, milk powder and water in they don't seem to be laying and it smells sour after 24 hours. I am using 5 parts oat bran, 1 part milk powder and 1 part milk. How do I stop it going sour and get them to lay.

[gomer]

Try bran from a livestock shop.It is sold as a horse feed in 20 kg bags and they sell it in smaller lots broken up.I only put about 8 heaped table spoons of milk powder in two take away containers made up together.Mix should be moist but not wet.Also you may need to increase the amount of flies or lessen the amount of mix initailly. You may have to much mix and not enough flies.

[wagga]

temp in my fly box at 27 degrees but when I put my bran, milk powder and water in they don't seem to be laying and it smells sour after 24 hours. I am using 5 parts oat bran, 1 part milk powder and 1 part milk. .

I breed my flies at a higher temp around 30 - 32 Deg. If the mix smells sour it sounds like the mixture is too wet with not enough flies in the box. The box should sound like a swam of bees.

My mix is 2 lt ice cream container of bran sprinkled with about a table spoon of milk powder and about 250 ml of water placed in 2 x 'Chinese food' take away containers. Mix it through until the mix looks wet (holds water with no excess dripping when squeezed). Too wet of a mix it will smell and the bottom of the container will still look untouched OR if not wet enough the bran will form a 'house brick'.

Tips: place a small amount of the 2 day old maggots back into each new container (helps aerate the mixture)
feed out only 1 container retain the other for the new containers / next generation of flies.
day 2 maggots turn mix over into another container (feed again if required)
when the flies are producing huge amounts of maggots in each container (divide the maggots again this will give you a larger/fatter maggot.)

I hope this helps.

[vettepilot_6]

I'm having trouble getting my bush flies to breed. I've got the temp in my fly box at 27 degrees but when I put my bran, milk powder and water in they don't seem to be laying and it smells sour after 24 hours. I am using 5 parts oat bran, 1 part milk powder and 1 part milk. How do I stop it going sour and get them to lay.

Don't use milk...use water

[finchbird2015]

Hi cheyne yes it does take a couple trys to get things right. What works for me is 1 part milk powder ( i use calf rearing milk powder heaps cheaper) 4 parts pollard (no my mix doesnt set like a brick) 3 parts water. My mix is quiet moist but not soggee but not wet, i do this so it is easier to make 10mm holes from top to the bottom of the marg containers thru the mix.this lets the flies lay eggs all the way thru the mix (not my idea was Criag or Sams and yes it does give you more maggot's
My temp is set at 27deg yet as my box is in a tin garden shed temps get up to 32deg but that doesnt seem to worry them.
Mike Filder says to use oat bran as it is more nutritious than standard bran.
I leave my maggots in the box for 4-5 days then whip them out into another bowl out of the fly box somewhere cooler (the maggots together generate a lot of heat themselves) i then feed them 3 parts pollard, 1 part milk powder and 1 part chick starter crumble, 3 parts water.Once they start to pupate i transfer them to the fridge.
Fridge temp is on 1 this slows there change down.
Do they smell ? yes hence why they are in the garage shed and using a seprate fridge.
I also feed them apples cores not fresh ones but 3 days old ones. I give them the left over cucumber slices that the birds dont eat right down, they go for these real quick.
Hope that helps but as the others have said you need the flybox buzzing!!!!! to get good results.

Andy

[cheyne]

I'm having trouble getting my bush flies to breed. I've got the temp in my fly box at 27 degrees but when I put my bran, milk powder and water in they don't seem to be laying and it smells sour after 24 hours. I am using 5 parts oat bran, 1 part milk powder and 1 part milk. How do I stop it going sour and get them to lay.

Don't use milk...use water

I use water. Dunno why I wrote milk

[vettepilot_6]

Probably heaps of ways but my mate uses long life milk powder bran and water...barely smells and he is breeding heaps of flies. ..