Cleaning Maggots

[Blu-Rey]

After letting the maggots grow out for a day or so after taking them out of the fly box, what is everyone's process to clean the maggots.
Do you separate them into just clean pollard (if so how)

Trying to avoid dirty vents on young coming out of the nest

[E Orix]

My initial thought was do you really need to clean the Maggots at all because I do not.
Then I started thinking about it and there are factors, firstly the area you live in, from what I have been lead to believe
is people living well above Sydney need to be careful. The ambient humidity may create such things as yeast and bacterial
problems. In theory if you have a large amount of flies and remove the Maggots each day you shouldn't have a problem because
they are not eating anything rotten. The other factor that may cause a problem if your bran/milk/water ratio is wrong and too wet.
After all that you can clean them by simply separating them as best you can then dump the lot in some clean POLLARD not bran.
Pollard is far easier to put through a sieve and you should end up with a dry mass of Maggots.
I do not know if it happens for others but our maggots are taken out,placed in an ice cream container and put into my heated(28C) insect room.
Some new mix is placed on the top and by the next day nearly all Maggots are on the top. Initially because of food but in the end the heat generated by them tends to keep the at the top. Mine are then simply tipped out and fed as is. As mentioned before on humidity, I live in
a dry area.

[Blu-Rey]

Thanks e orix.
That's what I was talking about, but rather how to separate them into clean pollard.??

I had read comment that craig 52 had placed on here when he was trying to convert blue-caps to maggots and had the same problem and haven't been able to find out what he did to over come the problem.???

Craig. ??

[vettepilot_6]

Have seen somewhere where maggots are placed into a tray at one end then a hair dryer used to help them move to the other out of the bran...if that makes sense?

[Craig52]

Thanks e orix.
That's what I was talking about, but rather how to separate them into clean pollard.??

I had read comment that craig 52 had placed on here when he was trying to convert blue-caps to maggots and had the same problem and haven't been able to find out what he did to over come the problem.???

Craig. ??

I did a fairly long post on this this morning and got side tracked before i posted it, when i went to post it i got logged out and lost the whole damd post So to put it briefly, after you feed/grow them out and the bran has turned brown and dry place the kitty litter tray in the fridge for an hour or two. The maggots will form a bunch in the middle of the tray to try and keep warm and at the same time they purge themselves due to the cold.
I use a large paint scraper to remove them from the old used bran quite easily and place them into a container of fresh dry bran and tumble them to loosen them up and place it back in the fridge on No 1. I add to this and take from this container when needed to feed out so it is used daily and topped up with maggots and bran every few days.
Bluecap young were the only finch that suffered from uncleaned maggots with diarrhea problems but with the proper clean out of the maggots the symptom disappeared and i bred fairly good numbers.
I still stick to this regime with what i specialise in now with no problems, i also feed my maggots out with clean bran at just enough to cover them otherwise they can dehydrate and die.
Softbill breeders have no problems with dirty maggots due to their different digestive system to a finch but imo if you keep finches with them you could have problems. Craig

[Blu-Rey]

Thanks Craig

[finchbird2015]

ive always cleaned mine in pollard, leave them in for 24hrs and they come out nice and clean and white. I harvest mine by using left over cucumber and old apples,the maggots love it , i just lift the fruit up and scrape them off into the pollard repeating until ive got most of them.

[STUART WHITING]

Thanks e orix.
That's what I was talking about, but rather how to separate them into clean pollard.??

I had read comment that craig 52 had placed on here when he was trying to convert blue-caps to maggots and had the same problem and haven't been able to find out what he did to over come the problem.???

Craig. ??

I did a fairly long post on this this morning and got side tracked before i posted it, when i went to post it i got logged out and lost the whole damd post So to put it briefly, after you feed/grow them out and the bran has turned brown and dry place the kitty litter tray in the fridge for an hour or two. The maggots will form a bunch in the middle of the tray to try and keep warm and at the same time they purge themselves due to the cold.
I use a large paint scraper to remove them from the old used bran quite easily and place them into a container of fresh dry bran and tumble them to loosen them up and place it back in the fridge on No 1. I add to this and take from this container when needed to feed out so it is used daily and topped up with maggots and bran every few days.
Bluecap young were the only finch that suffered from uncleaned maggots with diarrhea problems but with the proper clean out of the maggots the symptom disappeared and i bred fairly good numbers.
I still stick to this regime with what i specialise in now with no problems, i also feed my maggots out with clean bran at just enough to cover them otherwise they can dehydrate and die.
Softbill breeders have no problems with dirty maggots due to their different digestive system to a finch but imo if you keep finches with them you could have problems. Craig

I know it's been mentioned and discussed many a times but interesting read there Craig,

Although I don't need to go all through the process of breeding the maggots in light & heat boxes because I can buy enough maggot in mass bulk if need be, when it comes to cleaning them through and refrigerating I pretty much do the same principle

One thing I will say though is that yer absolutely spot on about the blue cap waxbills not accepting uncleaned maggots as easily as some other waxbills, I've also experienced this in the past aswell but thankfully have now got around the issue by thourghly cleaning the maggots through beforehand,

I don't actually use bran but prefer to use Maise meal, it's basically a dried formula of sweetcorn/ Maise powder and is perfect for the job, after I've purchased 1-2 gallons of maggots at a time I place them into 3-4 tubs of equal quantity mixed with the Maise meal and clean em through for about 3 days in the fridge before feeding em to the birds,

This normally is about enough time to properly clean the maggots through, I normally wait for the black feed spot within the maggot to virtually disappear, when it gets to this stage I can now feel confident enough to say that the maggots are OK for small waxbills and other small estrildid finches

As you rightly mention that softbills don't really seem to have this much of a problem when it comes to rearing youngsters because softbills don't have a crop and all live food goes straight down the birds throat and not stored in a crop

Be lucky

[matcho]

I have just made a fly breeding box, just like Sams, I have watched his Youtube and this to me is simple. odor free so I see no reason to change anything. To me simplicity and time and the end product be it the maggots or the young birds that rely on them is the goal I seek.

Next question...........how the hell do I get it started in the Inner Western Suburbs of Sydney this time of year?

Ken.

[starman]

Next question...........how the hell do I get it started in the Inner Western Suburbs of Sydney this time of year?

Ken.

Hi Ken,
Try putting an add in the 'Wanted to Buy' section (or perhaps, more accurately...'Wanted to Cadge')....some nearby AFF member might come to the party with some starter stock to get you up and running.