screening maggots

[Danny]

Hi, Anybody have any simple tips/neat tricks for separating maggots and the old medium. I sieve out all the big bits but there's still a good 30% more old medium that doesn't need to be there. I find when I put it in the dish the birds always miss a few as the medium provides a hiding place so I figure less medium, more livefood access.

Danny

[wagga]

Danny I use my seed winnower. Experiment with the suction strength of the winnower as the smaller maggots will stay with the medium. The medium type used and the condition, wet damp or dry, will change the results.

[Craig52]

G'day Danny,i used to use my seed winnower but found an easy way to extract them from the old brown bran.If you are growing them in a kitty litter tray and they are at the stage of being used,put the tray in the fridge for a couple of hours.The whole lot will all bunch together and if you use a paint scraper the old bran can be pushed away leaving the maggots exposed to be removed by the scraper,i pop them into a small layer of fresh bran to be fed out or to be stored in the fridge to be fed out at a later time but remember,don't use a lid or cover them in the fridge.
The scraper i use is the wide 150mm one plasterers use,they come in metal or plastic. Cheers Craig

[Trilobite]

G'day Danny, i dont even waste my time, all of it goes in to the avairy on a large flat tray and it soon dries out and the birds sift/peck/scratch through it as the day goes on. Then if any are left and pupate and dont somehow get consumed in that manner (birds seem to like pupa better then maggots) the leftover mix goes into another tray and then when they hatch and cant fly for at least the first hour or so until wings harden, the birds pick them off. Nothing gets wasted. By now the mix is very dry and once a week it then goes to the chooks to pick and scratch through. Nothing get away and it gives the chooks someothing to do. I use the KISS principle and have done so for the last three years with no issues, I think the secret is the large flat tray (approx 20*30 cm) which allows them to spread out and dry off fairly quick.

[BOF33]

I use the KISS principle and have done so for the last three years with no issues, I think the secret is the large flat tray (approx 20*30 cm) which allows them to spread out and dry off fairly quick.

Makes perfect sense. No point over-complicating things

[E Orix]

I have an interesting situation happening in my main aviary.
The maggots are not cleaned,they are put out as is with the medium is brown and crumbly.
The next day what is not eaten is tipped into a square plastic bucket(located under the feed station).Originally to collect as rubbish and tossed out.
This is where it surprised me because the Cordons and Fires in particular simply sit around the edge and as the flies hatch
and start to crawl up the side of the bucket they are snapped up.The only birds I have seen actually get into the bucket are the Weavers
and they really get stuck into them.
The only thing that may cause problems is where maggots are feed in the warmer/higher humidity areas.

[Danny]

G'day Danny, i dont even waste my time, all of it goes in to the avairy on a large flat tray and it soon dries out and the birds sift/peck/scratch through it as the day goes on. Then if any are left and pupate and dont somehow get consumed in that manner (birds seem to like pupa better then maggots) the leftover mix goes into another tray and then when they hatch and cant fly for at least the first hour or so until wings harden, the birds pick them off. Nothing gets wasted. By now the mix is very dry and once a week it then goes to the chooks to pick and scratch through. Nothing get away and it gives the chooks someothing to do. I use the KISS principle and have done so for the last three years with no issues, I think the secret is the large flat tray (approx 20*30 cm) which allows them to spread out and dry off fairly quick.

My small single pair softbill aviaries don't have room for a large tray unfortunately.

[Danny]

G'day Danny,i used to use my seed winnower but found an easy way to extract them from the old brown bran.If you are growing them in a kitty litter tray and they are at the stage of being used,put the tray in the fridge for a couple of hours.The whole lot will all bunch together and if you use a paint scraper the old bran can be pushed away leaving the maggots exposed to be removed by the scraper,i pop them into a small layer of fresh bran to be fed out or to be stored in the fridge to be fed out at a later time but remember,don't use a lid or cover them in the fridge.
The scraper i use is the wide 150mm one plasterers use,they come in metal or plastic. Cheers Craig

I use them fresh as they are harvested so they don't get to cool down to any degree.

[Danny]

I have an interesting situation happening in my main aviary.
The maggots are not cleaned,they are put out as is with the medium is brown and crumbly.
The next day what is not eaten is tipped into a square plastic bucket(located under the feed station).Originally to collect as rubbish and tossed out.
This is where it surprised me because the Cordons and Fires in particular simply sit around the edge and as the flies hatch
and start to crawl up the side of the bucket they are snapped up.The only birds I have seen actually get into the bucket are the Weavers
and they really get stuck into them.
The only thing that may cause problems is where maggots are feed in the warmer/higher humidity areas.

I'd like to be able to leave the scraps behind but flies are an 'issue' in the house. Does anyone have a simple design for a self feed fly 'retainer' - somewhere where the flies will pupate and emerge but hang around long enough to get eaten on a self serve basis instead of flying away - I've been trying to design something for the wrens and scarlets so I can supply unlimited 'insects on the wing' but can't come up with an idea that is simple enough as I will need to make the same thing for 28 aviaries.

[natamambo]

Danny I have a 5 litre bucket from the local chicken shop, it has a heavy rigid lid (much heavier than an ice cream container). I've cut a big hole in lid (most of lid) and then put 1/2" aviary wire screwed to plastic over hole, The scraps go in there every day from the maggot bowls and left over cake and stuff and I add regularly to it - lemons, veggie peels and so on. I also add the pupae I buy from ARCade but I find they don't stay alive that long in the fridge, I've left some on the warm to house to hatch without a great deal of success after a few weeks in fridge.

I don't overdo the veggie scraps as that makes it go smelly and by adding maggots in with their medium in to the feed bowls it means that there is always some medium going in to the buckets with the leftover maggots. In this weather I only throw out leftovers every 2-3 days but I guess that's not an option for you.

Judging by the way the wrens in particular sit on the lid waiting, not too many hatched pupae get to fly away .