Jay, I use the ARC maggots and order the smallest ("medium" from memory) once every 2-3 weeks. They arrive in a cardboard tube and are quickly put in the (garage
) fridge in a 4L ice cream container without a lid. I find that by the end of the three weeks very few are left, some have died but most have been fed out. Normally the bulk would be gone in 2-2 1/2 weeks, hence the irregular pattern as sometimes I won't start the new packet for a few days after delivery.
The how much question will depend on your birds. I don't bother counting the maggots
, just grab a few "pinches" out and plonk them in the live food bowl. I find how many are taken depends on other factors like weather (this influences the wild hunting outcomes, warm days and cool evenings seem to provide the best natural hunting) and how many crickets I've put in and so on. Each flight has 1 pair of insectivores (chats in one, wrens in the other). I suspect the painteds nibble at them, but I have no evidence the longtails do and certainly the longtails not in with insectivores have never really touched them. My birds also get mealworms and cake every day, so again quantities vary according to what they eat from that selection. I generally find that the maggots in the milder weather will live for 24-48 hours just in the bowl (always with a little bran in the bowl), some will pupate in this time but the birds will take the pupae too.
If there's plenty left in the bowl I'll leave overnight or all of the next day and then tip bowl in the compost bin. I have a compost bin with wire mesh in each insectivore flight, as the container nears the end I'll tip the remains in there so that some pupate and hatch and so effectively become naturally hunted insects (the wrens have long since learned to just sit on the wire lid and wait, the chats don't seem to so that as much).
