Breeding Bush Fly Maggots

[Shark]

1/2 full one litre icecream container on bran to about a desert spoon of milk powder and less than 1/2 cup of water.
A coffee lid of saturated bran goes in the box for 2 days at 28 degrees then is buried under the above mix. This is kept warm for a further 3 days then is fed to the birds. Pupae are added to box at least weekly.

[Fincho162]

For getting the flies to lay we use just bran, whey powder and water presented in a sloppy form...............
Once the flies have blown it and it turns into a delicious churning mass of maggoty members we take it out and place into 3litre plastic cake trays on top of the fly box and then they are fed only pollard and whey until at the desired size...............the reasons behind using pollard have been well flogged here so wont repeat but it also goes through a sieze easily and makes cleaning a dawdle...............when at the right size they are fed pollard to dry them out and remove any trace of the gut stripe..................

Have a paranoia about feeding them dry and clean based on a mate who once worked for an English Zoo where they lost their entire softbill collection to botchalism through faulty unclean maggots......................

HTH

[E Orix]

There are various ways to breed Bush Fly Maggots and mine differs greatly with Fincho,maybe I am lazy who knows but we do not breed our Flies in a sloppy mess.
Our Bran,Whey Water ratio is damp, if you put some in your hand moisture will not seep out but if you squeeze it moisture will seep out.
Having the flies lay in it for 24 hours it is taken out and some fresh medium is put on the TOP.The following day they are not seperated but fed directly out.
I work on the theory that nothing rotten is fed to them,providing the rest of the system is clean the risk is minimal.
The only thing that may create a problem is if you live in a tropical climate.
As I said before there are different successful ways but the simpler the better if you are not experienced,just another method.

[Tintola]

Have a paranoia about feeding them dry and clean based on a mate who once worked for an English Zoo where they lost their entire softbill collection to botulism through faulty unclean maggots......................

HTH

These were probably blowfly maggots fed on rotten meat not the ones we use fed on milk powder.

[GP Finches]

Where do you buy whey powder?

[Tintola]

Bump......Another one gets archived prematurely

[Fincho162]

Possibly correct with blow flies - not sure what muscids they have over there!!!

But a lesson to all...............

Don't know about it being a sloppy "mess" as it is never actually that - controlled slop as we like to call it - but anything that is put out for the purpose of collecting flies, no matter how "sterile" (!!!!)......deserves to always be treated with 'respect' before feeding to birds..............have a mate in China that does this in a similar manner................but his are blended for a human protein drink.................I kid u not!!!

[Tintola]

Bump again.... For some reason this topic keeps jumping into archives without going to active topics for a couple of days. I wish someone would tell us how this system/forum works.

[SamDavis]

The wetness (is that a word?) of the mix I use sounds to be about halfway between E.Orix and Fincho162 - roughly equal volume of bran to water. It starts out pretty wet as I find this seems to attract the flies more readily, so more eggs and then many more maggots per batch. My egg laying containers stay in the flybox for 2 days and are about the size of chinese takeway containers. After 2 days they've got a bit of a crust on top but still very moist underneath. I transfer the muck (some are just starting to hatch) to a larger container and add extra bran/milk mix. After a few days the whole shebang has turned dark brown, is quite dry and the maggots are ready to feed. I don't separate the maggots from the bran, I just feed out as is. And I've never noticed any black stripe in my maggots.

If anyone's interested I'll take a few photos tomorrow of my setup as I do the changeover...

[Greg41]

I would like to see as many photos as possible, my next project is to build a fly box and breed maggots, have just managed to get the meal worms up and breeding.

Cheers Greg