Aussie Finch Forum

I was visiting a friend yesterday who just happened to be sorting out his fly box[ what other sort of friends do you need ?] I commented that the maggots
he was sorting were a lot larger than the ones I was breeding, his reply was that the more flies in the box the smaller the maggots, I don't see how
this could be . Has any one got an opinion on this or why I'm breeding a lot smaller maggot. They are raised in flakey bran and a bit of whey powder.

Cheers Greg.

Greg/Pauline wrote:I was visiting a friend yesterday who just happened to be sorting out his fly box[ what other sort of friends do you need ?] I commented that the maggots
he was sorting were a lot larger than the ones I was breeding, his reply was that the more flies in the box the smaller the maggots, I don't see how
this could be . Has any one got an opinion on this or why I'm breeding a lot smaller maggot. They are raised in flakey bran and a bit of whey powder.

Cheers Greg.

I have noticed this with my fly box-a week or so back I was down to about 30 odd flies and the maggots
were 3 times the size as normal-now have plenty of flies and they are about 1/3 the size.
Jack

I've noticed the heat has a lot to do with maggot size. Too hot, less time to develop the maggots before they turn to pupa.

Too cold, the same effect (Turn to pupa before they grow to ideal size)

it is simple maths. You have a defined resource (aka 500ml of bran and milk mixture) you have 10 flies and each one lays say 100 eggs = 1000 larva each having a line share of the 500ml of bran. On the other hand you have 100 flies each laying 100 eggs you have 10000 larva each having a line share of the food, naturally within the constraints of a limited resource that latter batch will be smaller, simple eh!!.

Maths is simple. Although we have many other defining factors that influence the growth of a maggot to consider in this particular equation.

Trilobite wrote:it is simple maths. You have a defined resource (aka 500ml of bran and milk mixture) you have 10 flies and each one lays say 100 eggs = 1000 larva each having a line share of the 500ml of bran. On the other hand you have 100 flies each laying 100 eggs you have 10000 larva each having a line share of the food, naturally within the constraints of a limited resource that latter batch will be smaller, simple eh!!.

You are absolutely correct Trilobite. Craig

Thanks for the answers, I'll take them all on board and do some experimenting, good thing about flies it dosn't take long
for trial and error to show the best way.
Cheers Greg.

Yes Trilobite is correct. All you need to do is provide additional feed for your maggots when there are lots of them. Tip the egg collecting containers into a larger round container so that there is larger surface area and shaller depth of food and then add more food. If there are many maggot divide them up into two lots and feed again.

Maths is simple. Although we have many other defining factors that influence the growth of a maggot to consider in this particular equation.

Yes your correct, development is rate limited by temperature of the box, metabolic heat will also raise the core temp of the fly container and byproducts of metabolism may also rate limit development, but I bet you 100% if you take an Occams razor approach to this exercise and keep everything constant other then larva number you will get the result that we all get. Search and read about the "tragedy of the commons" same principle applies.

Don't forget that small larva are relished and easier to process by young chicks then big juicy fat ones.

However don't leave your container in for too long when making a batch to let pupate and hatch for the next generation so that the number is smaller and the larva bigger and flies larger and more robust when they hatch.

And yeah maths is simple along with me, and like finches 2011 says just tip the container into two or a bigger one and add more food. Simple eh!!!