Idea- same setup as what you have, but after the jump into the goodie bin, there's a declination and an opening and the worms can fall out onto the ground. Place with the chickens and then it's an auto feeder.
At a remote fisheries research station, in Manitoba, we did something similar. Dead fish were put on top of chicken wire. The maggots fell down into tubs. We fed hundreds of hatchery pickerel that way. It was incredibly productive. The only downsides were the smell (minor issue), and we had to put down a bear that became a nuisance. One of my best memories was collecting the spawning pickerel eggs and milt. Best summer job EVER!
I had thought this too but chickens being smart things would just sit there pigging out and the other chickens lower on the pecking order would miss out...if you added a windmill style gizmo with cup that flicked them around that could be fun
thank you for your "stupid simple" methods. one thing I've learned in my 59 yrs is that there's a whole lot of people that love to make things difficult/complicated. I'm all about the simplest, easiest, fastest and cheapest way of doing everything, while getting the same or better results than any of the complicated methods. lol that's how I roll. when you're raising/homeschooling 8 children on a shoestring budget you learn these things lol. I'm very happy I found your channel
I honestly think some people build these elaborate systems just because they like to tinker and that's fine but some of us have to much to do to spend time tinkering on little projects. Running farms and acreages is nothing but constant work.
I love the simple setup of your black soldier fly bin. Thanks for sharing. Fermentation made simple. 1) Put rain or dechlorinated water in a 5 gallons food grade bucket. 2) Put your whole grains in the bucket of water. The water level must be several inches above the grains for absorption. Cover the bucket with a lid that has holes/ or slightly lift the lid for ventilation. ~ I ferment enough grains for an entire week, and I ferment a new batch in the middle of the week. 3) Sock the grains for three days and stir throughout so that all the grains are fully absorbed. 4) After the fermentation process, store the grains with the liquid in the refrigerator so that it will not spoil. 5) Each day drain the water off a portion and serve it to the chickens. ~Each morning I put a portion of the fermented grains with the chicken feed plus a dash of the DE. The wet grains slightly soften the feed and the chickens love it.
Thanks, Jeff! Really appreciate you sharing this. I’ve always wanted to do this but like you, felt like it was a tad tedious/expensive for the supplies. Gonna have to get one of these setup this year
Great video! HEY another guy said to just put some wide slits in the bin filled with scraps. A few drainage holes in the bottom. He claims the larvae crawl up the side and fall out for the chickens to harvest all by themselves.
I accidentally made an earwig farm by stacking some old roof tiles, now I use them all the time, every month or so I pick up the pile of 4 tiles and brush off the earwigs into a container and place the tiles back down, I have 5 traps/nests around the garden keeping them off my veggies without Poison and best my chickens love them 😀
I hope you did find the easiest way to ferment feed. Again, people try to make it so damn hard and it doesn't have to be. Get a food grade 5 gallon bucket from tractor supply. Put in equal parts feed and water and leave some space at the top of the bucket so it can expand. Stir it all around real good add a dash of apple cider vinegar if you want to, but you don't have to. Stir it every day for three days. Then start feeding it. When the bucket gets a little low, add water and feed again it will ferment overnight because of what was left in the bucket to begin with. It is a never ending bucket. And you only need one bucket. A couple times a year. I completely rinse out the bucket and start new but you don't have to. Keep it stirred and you will do fine. it should be about the consistency of oatmeal. You don't need to leave water on top etc. etc. It is the easiest thing ever.
@@aronbalabs9389 I wouldn't put kitchen scraps in there. Just toss them to the chickens and let them eat it. I have fermented all kinds of chicken feed, including a grower, which is what I feed all my chickens all the time now. In the past I fermented layer feed. I have fermented, pellets or granules. also feed that is more whole ingredients. it's really good for this time of year when it is so damn hot. The chickens get more moisture from their feed.
I have been doing this for 3 yrs... I make a big bucket of feed and water ... and my chickens go to it before dry feed... I started noticing my chickens would eat feed ( dry) if I spilled water in it. Thus started me soaking it.
Excellent “simple” presentation! Loved it! For years, I’ve been feeding maggots to my chickens right from one of my compost heaps that will grow thousands and thousands of maggots in the warm weather. But I love this bucket method. Never thought of it before lol thank you for this info Jeff!
I am thinking, just the bin set up at a slight slant to drain any water to bottom of slant with a few small holes if needed, a 2-4" hole in the top for black soldier fly access, a horizontal slot at the high end a few inches up from bottom, for the larvae to crawl out, a piece of flat wood like a 1"x4" that would fit in the slot, the larvae would crawl up and just fall in the floor of the chicken coop if it was inside the coop and all you would have to do is put left overs, animal manure, kitchen scraps in it, the rest would be automatic. The wood slanting up extra would be so it would keep above the food for a while. Subbed, like, and black belled. I may put a video of this up on my channel.
We had a Big back yard (really big); in the big city, had a garden covering about half the yard. We had lots of chickens (76 at the highest count). We bought lots of feed and other things (like crushed oyster shells) but supplemented that in other ways. We let the birds roam through the garden during the day. The garden plants were helped by many bugs being eaten plus the birds did eat certain plants but not too much. The bird poop helped too. We also got old veggies from a local market since they would otherwise toss them out when they are too old to sell. Some stores refused that option saying corporate would never allow it. Seemed silly to me - but whatever…
Why not just feed the scraps in an open heap inside the chicken yard? They eat the waste directly and whatever they don’t want becomes feed for the larva.
I bought an old wooden toybox for $5 with the fly bin in mind. I just slid the plastics inside & it sits under a shady tree looking all cute. We've raised thousands of chickens, rabbits, ducks, etc...and you are so correct. Most things can be done so simply. That's honestly how we are designed to function. Man makes things complicated. Thank you for the morning dose of stupid sanity!!❤
Our black soldier flies breed in an old bath that we use as a scrap/compost bin. It is elevated about a foot off the ground and there's no plug in the drain hole(for drainage): the liquid from this drain goes straight in a bucket and from there goes onto the garden. The fermented seed process is "super stupid simple 🤗 I have two dozen chickens( 2 rosters included) and feed them around five cups of fermented grain per day (without fermenting, I was feeding them up to eight-nine cups) along with garden timings and their crops are always full. Fermenting process: Five cups of grain/cracked corn, wheat, sorghum, a little black sunflower seed, etc in a bucket and cover X2 with water. To start I did this three days in a row and started feeding the first lot on the third day. Nb; drain the liquid from the first batch and reuse in the fourth batch( this liquid is the culture for the lactic acid process to continue your ferment). After you've established the culture, you can cut the batches back to only two, (giving you a forty eight hour ferment) and continually strain and reuse the liquid in the next batch topping up with fresh water to maintain the level of the first batch. I'm in Western Queensland; Australia and our climate never gets really cold; if you're in a colder region, you may need to have three batches to allow for fermentation. It's not rocket science, just give it a go🙏👍
Thanks for this! I ferment my chicken feed and often wondered if I could reuse the liquid. I didn't want it to go to waste so I've just been diluting it and feeding the plants. I'm going to try this instead. I'm sure you do this anyway but I have 3 buckets with holes drilled in the bottom and they fit into 3 buckets without holes. To drain, I simply lift out the inside bucket with the grains and all the water falls into the outside bucket.
Jus find some road kill stick it in mesh wire and hang on a tree or stick and the maggots fall of for the chickies , we also did this for feeding fish by hanging road kill from bridges
Oh my goodness I just tried to watch a video just before this one and had to stop because it was so complicated!!!! Thank you, I prefer stupidly simple!
Thank you for making this project super easy. I hadn’t given this project a go because you have to spend money getting the sifting equipment,containers and crap that takes money. We’re old and having to tighten the already tightened belt like every one else. Again thank you for making it simple. You just gained a Follower
We saw the video about the grasses, now, this one. Wow! THANK YOU!!! Yes... we just subscribed. Why isn’t anyone else posting these GREAT ideas. We’re very glad we found yours!!!
very good! We don`t have those fat ones, but the chicken like it. Thank you! And it`s natural food . The fermented wheat is wonderful I make that since I heard that on " chickenlandia" years ago. The chicken get so much nutrition out of it.
Thank You for this information and very simple way to grow larve. Yeah, it drives me crazy to see all those complicated ways that are out there and supposed to be simple. Your way is just what I’ve been looking for
I love fermenting my feed. I just take a couple scoops, throw it in a jar, put water in and wait a few days. Sometimes I cover it, sometimes I don't. I've had flies lay eggs and it turns into a little larvae snack too. It looks gross but the girls go bananas for it.
Thank you Jeff. I think I have almost everything on hand to do this! I appreciate you sharing this for us simple folks out here with limited resources!
Do you know another thing i saw......when ever there is a dead animal on your farm, place the carcass in a bucket with some holes around the bottom......and the maggots will fall out onto the ground as the carcass rots. I like this idea also....gonna try this for sure.
Thanks for the tip. My chicks are about 8 weeks old now and I'm sure they'd love this idea. QUESTION: How do you keep the raccoons/skunks/possums etc., from tearing apart your grub farm every night?
raccoons , skunks, and possums are an issue for me too. my solution is i put out a trap every night with easy foods. easy foods like a handfull of cat food will be choice over a more difficult to get at souce. but i keep my soilder fly bin in the coop.
I never considered closing the loop on this circle of life by collecting larvae for my hens instead of trapping the flies and throwing them away. Great idea.
I have a similar chicken run! I have 2 coops, because I have a few rooster, head rooster(a bantam), runs our tiny coop, with his little ladies, and then the bachelors and a few younger hens, live in the other. I can't wait to try this, thanx for adding this video!
Y did a great job showing the people's past it's important to do this saves a lot of the new people into thinking they have to go buy feed all the time.
I hate hyped stuff and I’m incredibly practical not wanting any fluff or spending an arm and a leg on frivolous unnecessary stuff. I just subscribed to your channel because THANK YOU!! Common sense is lacking so finding someone capable of thinking this way is highly refreshing!
I literally use the food from my quails poop trays. I don't like to try to pick out the good bits of food they fling out. I also don't want to waste the food. So I literally gather a big pile of it, poop and all, and put it in a bin like you do with your food remnants. I mix in some wood shavings or dead leaves and I get tons of larvae. Like you I don't give a crap about what kind they are. The chickens love eating any of them. Lol Thank you for making a stupid simple set up and showing people they don't need to make things complicated!
5-8-23 thank you for this video this is the simplest way I have ever seen. I think people make this complicated because they want to make a video. Your idea is genius so simple. Thank you.
I love videos that overcomplicate the simplest thing, they're hysterical. Bullshit boggles the brain, and never is that more true than in the current TH-cam universe. This video was a breath of fresh air!
I love, love, love stupidly simple!!!!! You just came up on my feed, and I am kicking myself for not finding your channel earlier. Thank you so much!!!!!! I tried the other "stupid" ways with BSF, 😑
I’ve got a super simple way to ferment feed. Works for us. One container. Overnight fermentation. We use a stainless steel pot with a lid. At night we leave a little bit of previous fermented food behind and mix in 1 part feed to 1.5 part water. When pouring in water rinse the sides. Ferments overnight perfectly ready for next morning. Once in a while reserve some food and wash out the pot well. Maybe every two weeks.
Cheers.....I grow mine in an upright 12" PVC pipe set upright set down into the soil with a plate on top and half a cork glued on the to keep the gap. Your hen run is lovely and generous however a couple of shade trees would be generous for your egg queen's 🥂
Dude, that is stupidly simple. I will definitely try this method. My neighbor wants to do a compost as well and I have chickens so I could get double out of there
This is definitely stupid simple! I had BSF invade my compost tumbler and flourished all last summer in a SPINNING compost bin. I tried to transfer them into one of those semi-complicated plastic totes with PVC pipe, and while I did get a few mature larvae to climb up and out, I never got any new takers to lay eggs in the new bin. I will try again this summer because I finally have chickens, and I do still want finished compost some day! Right now the chickens' favorite place to scratch is under the compost tumbler. I may have to block the area off if I want to get BSF this year.
Just a comment my nephew had a problem with earwigs, he bought 6 chick's, when they were about half grown he leed them where earwig were massing, his feed bill went to almost nil all summer. Your system is only common sense. Thanks for sharing.
an old poaching trick for catching fish is to create a "honey hole" so fish will hang out and wait for food or food on a hook. you find a limb hanging out over the water and put some "ROAD KILL" in a wire basket and tie it close to the branch. flys will lay eggs and hatch into maggots that end up falling into the water which will draw in the fish that will take a bite of what ever hits that water. so an old umbrella type folding clothes line on a fence line post with 2 or 3 wire baskets attached will allow you to fill the wire baskets from outside the fence, the falling maggots will feed the chickens. in the south we feed the catfish in our farm ponds, they got so conditioned that the water would start boiling when they sensed the vibrations caused by foot steps, they would bite an empty hook!!!
I used your method, but added two flat pieces of scrap wood to go across the top of the bin like your stick and used rubber band to attach cardboard strips to the underside of those scrap wood and the soilder flies are laying a ton of eggs in them. It's worked like a charm, I'm dumping about 2 cups per day of black soilder flie larvae to the chickens!
@alexgarner594 its corrugated cardboard, that has ridges/holes big enough for the black soilder flies to lay their eggs. It's free, so it's what I use.
We have a composting bin that turns. We leave it slightly open. Every few days we dump it into trays and the chickens eat the larvae then we put the compost back.
I love your videos! @jeffgray Question about the fly larvae bin.. I'm new to this stuff, and was wondering how the worms go to the smaller larvae catcher bin. Do they just end up in there naturally for easy removal? Also, do some larvae make it to fly form before harvest? I'd rather them not reach adulthood since I live in a suburban area. I'm thinking about doing this for our chickens but am curious about these two things. Thanks so much!
The worms crawl upwards out of the muck when they’ve reached maturity (ie, ready to pupate). Hence the reason for the slope of the inner tub. When the crawl up, they eventually fall into the hole that’s been cut in the inner tub and they’re caught by the small bin. They can’t pupate and turn into flies until they reach soil. Which they can never do with this system.
When I was a kid we raised chickens and sold eggs. I remember my dad telling me about a certain kind of maggot that can get in a chickens crop and eat the crop and go up the neck. He called it "limber neck". How do you know if any of the maggots you are raising are "bad" maggots? That was a long time ago, 60 years. Maybe I remember wrong.
Used Coffee Grounds is a very good base for BSF and they will occasionally graze on it, so it acts as a backup emergency food source for them. Optional bases: Sawdust or other "browns (aka, fiber)" to act as non-food bedding, so they have a place to get away from the food and keep the temps from getting too high as food breaks down and BSF larvae heat it up. Also it helps some of the food get hidden from the surface, which helps avoid attracting some pests and helps absorb excess liquids. If you give them high fiber foods, the fiber will build up over time for you, but I recommend starting with a fiber source and used dry coffee grounds are the easiest and free from Starbucks. and of course, give them actual food.
Good info. Also soak your feed before feeding and you get more volume. Most stores will give you expired greens and produce if you pick it up 2 days a week. Some ask you to sign a liability waiver but most stores will donate them to you. Yokes will be orange when you feed greens!
Fermenting is more simple than your bin. 5 gallon bucket with lid Place scratch inside. Put a yeast packet in. Full with water to the top of grain Let it sit Add water as needed Never use all the soured grain so it will jump start the next batch. So you only need year the first go round
Yep and then I'm so glad you brought it up man you alright there so many videos on TH-cam unbelievable I started reading about it 10 years ago I'm doing it now I dispose of everything into that container they break it down for me I have another container just so I can use that for my chickens..
❤ that's what I needed! I saw several solutions, but yours is the fastest and most easy. The only thing i will add is a tube that transpots the worms directly to my ladies.❤
Great bread, well done. I prefere to have bread cool down in basket with towel on top of it. If i cut bread while its still hot, the "smoke" from the bread is moist so the bread can dry out. Not sure about this bread though, just an idea. Thx 😊👍
wow you need some bushes or trees to keep them cool. You wouldn't like being out in high temps with no shade, the inside of that tiny house has no air blowing through it.
To whom it may concern. Black soldier flies will eat you out of house & home. I suggest growing a sacrificial crop of acorn squash or watermelon which is fed solely to the grubs. A thriving colony will eat an entire watermelon (bowling ball size) in 24-36 hours. Also starbucks coffee grounds are given away free and are a great way to feed the bsf colony when kitchen scraps aren’t enough. A big bsf bin has its own kind of momentum, and a break in feeding will usually cause a noticeable slowdown in mature grub collection. Be ready with melons and coffee grounds. Also if you are going to put any meat type scraps in the bin, be sure it can be covered in a layer of carbon (straw, shredded cardboard). I put a 7 lb striped bass in a bsf bin and without carbon, there was a little stink. I covered it with some straw and the grubs ate the whole thing in 72 hours. So remember that the carbon/nitrogen rules apply to a bsf bin just like a compost pile. Last tip. Since the bsf manure is black gold for your garden, try to put as few seedy veggies in the bin as possible (bell peppers big problem) unless you want a bunch of volunteer veggies when you use the manure in your garden.
If it were stupid simple, you would not have to bring them the larva, the larva would migrate to where the chickens can harvest them all by themselves, I mean seriously, you already have the chickens harvest their own grain, RIGHT? Just suspend the main tub above the ground at the same angle, but instead of a huge hole, make a slit the chickens can't get through, then put the catch tub underneath the slit and have it open to the chickens so they can see one fall and snatch it up, and if the chickens are elsewhere, they will collect until they return!
Simplest one I developed is 2 flower pots one slightly smaller then the other. Drill some holes down the sides so moisture can get out. Put the lager one in the ground. I use mine as a meat digester. top pot fits upside-down snuggle on top . The rim just inside that of the larger pot. This collects maggots that fall out. They also crawl out the drain holes at the top and collect in the indentation on the top (the bottom of the smaller pot that is upside down.) Fill with scraps, a layer of straw/grass stops from smelling as you fill it. This is in the run. Every morning the chickens once let out beline straight for it to eat the maggots either in the lower rim or the top pot or from the top. I've tried making a larger one with a bin and lid but the simple basic black pots worked best. I just can't buy them big enough where I live. If the top pot some how could be made so the top came off to make filling it easier rather than having to take the hole smaller pot off to fill and then turn it upside down agin would be easier.
THIS is genius! How may holes need to be in the bottom larger pot? Do you fill up the bottom pot all the way to the top with meat and layer of grass on top? Or half way or over fill or? This is a great idea!
@@nikkinik4188 at first it needed air circulation so layers of grass between carkuses. But now it's well established I just use the grass at the top(bottom of the top smaller pot, top when turned upside down.) I think I put 4or 5 holes with my largest drill bit down 2, opposite sides. But it would depend on the size of the pot. At first I was skinning the birds as I couldn't pluck them this wasn't good inthere the skin and feathers seemd to smother it, maybe didn't let the maggots out? But plucked feathers seem OK.
okay just made mine, ill keep you posted. Took about 6 minutes with stuff i found laying around, plus the tote that I already had. Thinking about putting an egg in there to rot, along with fruit that was already rotting on the ground (sapodilla and early mangoes, im in So Fl) mixed with hay and compost.
I like it. Currently have no use for it, the "simple" set up, but I have filed the concept somewhere in my brain. I will be interested to see how you do with your fermenting experiment.
So if that's the amount you give them every or every couple of days, how would it reduce food costs? It seems just like a treat or desert rather than lowering the cost to feed them.
Hi! Thank you for the "easy video". I would like to see the set up for your chickens. I currently have chickens, but looking to remodel their area. Would like ideas for a way to move them around in the pasture. I'm in SC also :) Thanks!
Renee. You may want to put them in a chicken tractor & move them around and help fertilize the ground beneath. They will harvest all of the bugs and weed seeds.
I bought a screenhouse from Costco. Birdfeeder pole to hang food and water buckets on sunk into dirt. Cardboard box with one nest box in it . Chickens follow me (and bucket of grubs) to chicken camp in morning and back to coop in evening. Fairly easy to move to new spot after a couple of days of use
I've been using this method for a few weeks, since I saw your genius video. Lots of larvae, but none are crawling up the ramp to the top hole. Instead they were wriggling out through (and getting stuck in) my drainage holes. So I just enlarged my drainage holes so they're slightly larger than the BSF larvae, kept the bin at its normal tilt, and put another small bin below the drainage holes. I now have a big pan of squirming gold for my fluffy butts! Any tips on getting them to crawl up instead of down? I'm happy with the way things are working now, just curious if I'm missing something.
Idea- same setup as what you have, but after the jump into the goodie bin, there's a declination and an opening and the worms can fall out onto the ground. Place with the chickens and then it's an auto feeder.
At a remote fisheries research station, in Manitoba, we did something similar.
Dead fish were put on top of chicken wire. The maggots fell down into tubs. We fed hundreds of hatchery pickerel that way. It was incredibly productive.
The only downsides were the smell (minor issue), and we had to put down a bear that became a nuisance.
One of my best memories was collecting the spawning pickerel eggs and milt.
Best summer job EVER!
I had thought this too but chickens being smart things would just sit there pigging out and the other chickens lower on the pecking order would miss out...if you added a windmill style gizmo with cup that flicked them around that could be fun
@@patrickbutler1715 lol... endless possibilities for creative/inventive constructive types.... God bless
@@patrickbutler1715 would make sense then to put up a couple extras to give them all options
Make some drawings and I bet people would make them.
thank you for your "stupid simple" methods. one thing I've learned in my 59 yrs is that there's a whole lot of people that love to make things difficult/complicated. I'm all about the simplest, easiest, fastest and cheapest way of doing everything, while getting the same or better results than any of the complicated methods. lol that's how I roll. when you're raising/homeschooling 8 children on a shoestring budget you learn these things lol. I'm very happy I found your channel
I’m proud of you for being a mother who homeschools and homestead. If no one has told you, you’re doing a great job
Agree 👍
Your children are the future of this country.
Thank you for you service.
I honestly think some people build these elaborate systems just because they like to tinker and that's fine but some of us have to much to do to spend time tinkering on little projects. Running farms and acreages is nothing but constant work.
I love the simple setup of your black soldier fly bin. Thanks for sharing.
Fermentation made simple.
1) Put rain or dechlorinated water in a 5 gallons food grade bucket.
2) Put your whole grains in the bucket of water. The water level must be several inches above the grains for absorption. Cover the bucket with a lid that has holes/ or slightly lift the lid for ventilation.
~ I ferment enough grains for an entire week, and I ferment a new batch in the middle of the week.
3) Sock the grains for three days and stir throughout so that all the grains are fully absorbed.
4) After the fermentation process, store the grains with the liquid in the refrigerator so that it will not spoil.
5) Each day drain the water off a portion and serve it to the chickens.
~Each morning I put a portion of the fermented grains with the chicken feed plus a dash of the DE. The wet grains slightly soften the feed and the chickens love it.
What is the point of this I've never heared this I own 10 chickens please explain
I love how genuine this guy is literally only watched 2 videos this one and the one on how to get tall ryegrass in your pastures and I’m subbed now
you're not the one who thinks like that :) and yes I'm subbed and tryıng to watch all the videos :))
yea me too. Those are the exact videos I watched and subscribed for.
Thanks, Jeff! Really appreciate you sharing this. I’ve always wanted to do this but like you, felt like it was a tad tedious/expensive for the supplies. Gonna have to get one of these setup this year
planted rye in a back 40 plot last year, bastardo rats got all the sprouts, will watch vid. God bless
Can you post the link to the ryegrass video? I'm not seeing it on his listing.
Great video! HEY another guy said to just put some wide slits in the bin filled with scraps. A few drainage holes in the bottom. He claims the larvae crawl up the side and fall out for the chickens to harvest all by themselves.
I accidentally made an earwig farm by stacking some old roof tiles, now I use them all the time, every month or so I pick up the pile of 4 tiles and brush off the earwigs into a container and place the tiles back down, I have 5 traps/nests around the garden keeping them off my veggies without Poison and best my chickens love them 😀
I hope you did find the easiest way to ferment feed. Again, people try to make it so damn hard and it doesn't have to be.
Get a food grade 5 gallon bucket from tractor supply. Put in equal parts feed and water and leave some space at the top of the bucket so it can expand. Stir it all around real good add a dash of apple cider vinegar if you want to, but you don't have to. Stir it every day for three days. Then start feeding it. When the bucket gets a little low, add water and feed again it will ferment overnight because of what was left in the bucket to begin with. It is a never ending bucket. And you only need one bucket. A couple times a year. I completely rinse out the bucket and start new but you don't have to. Keep it stirred and you will do fine. it should be about the consistency of oatmeal. You don't need to leave water on top etc. etc. It is the easiest thing ever.
"equal parts feed and water.."
What feed can be fermented? Kitchen scraps?
@@aronbalabs9389 I wouldn't put kitchen scraps in there. Just toss them to the chickens and let them eat it. I have fermented all kinds of chicken feed, including a grower, which is what I feed all my chickens all the time now. In the past I fermented layer feed. I have fermented, pellets or granules. also feed that is more whole ingredients. it's really good for this time of year when it is so damn hot. The chickens get more moisture from their feed.
I have been doing this for 3 yrs... I make a big bucket of feed and water ... and my chickens go to it before dry feed... I started noticing my chickens would eat feed ( dry) if I spilled water in it.
Thus started me soaking it.
Excellent “simple” presentation! Loved it! For years, I’ve been feeding maggots to my chickens right from one of my compost heaps that will grow thousands and thousands of maggots in the warm weather. But I love this bucket method. Never thought of it before lol thank you for this info Jeff!
Thank God for people like you who simplify things for simple people like me
I am thinking, just the bin set up at a slight slant to drain any water to bottom of slant with a few small holes if needed, a 2-4" hole in the top for black soldier fly access, a horizontal slot at the high end a few inches up from bottom, for the larvae to crawl out, a piece of flat wood like a 1"x4" that would fit in the slot, the larvae would crawl up and just fall in the floor of the chicken coop if it was inside the coop and all you would have to do is put left overs, animal manure, kitchen scraps in it, the rest would be automatic. The wood slanting up extra would be so it would keep above the food for a while. Subbed, like, and black belled. I may put a video of this up on my channel.
We had a Big back yard (really big); in the big city, had a garden covering about half the yard. We had lots of chickens (76 at the highest count). We bought lots of feed and other things (like crushed oyster shells) but supplemented that in other ways.
We let the birds roam through the garden during the day. The garden plants were helped by many bugs being eaten plus the birds did eat certain plants but not too much. The bird poop helped too.
We also got old veggies from a local market since they would otherwise toss them out when they are too old to sell. Some stores refused that option saying corporate would never allow it. Seemed silly to me - but whatever…
Why not just feed the scraps in an open heap inside the chicken yard? They eat the waste directly and whatever they don’t want becomes feed for the larva.
I bought an old wooden toybox for $5 with the fly bin in mind. I just slid the plastics inside & it sits under a shady tree looking all cute.
We've raised thousands of chickens, rabbits, ducks, etc...and you are so correct. Most things can be done so simply. That's honestly how we are designed to function. Man makes things complicated. Thank you for the morning dose of stupid sanity!!❤
Our black soldier flies breed in an old bath that we use as a scrap/compost bin. It is elevated about a foot off the ground and there's no plug in the drain hole(for drainage): the liquid from this drain goes straight in a bucket and from there goes onto the garden.
The fermented seed process is "super stupid simple 🤗
I have two dozen chickens( 2 rosters included) and feed them around five cups of fermented grain per day (without fermenting, I was feeding them up to eight-nine cups) along with garden timings and their crops are always full.
Fermenting process:
Five cups of grain/cracked corn, wheat, sorghum, a little black sunflower seed, etc in a bucket and cover X2 with water. To start I did this three days in a row and started feeding the first lot on the third day. Nb; drain the liquid from the first batch and reuse in the fourth batch( this liquid is the culture for the lactic acid process to continue your ferment).
After you've established the culture, you can cut the batches back to only two, (giving you a forty eight hour ferment) and continually strain and reuse the liquid in the next batch topping up with fresh water to maintain the level of the first batch.
I'm in Western Queensland; Australia and our climate never gets really cold; if you're in a colder region, you may need to have three batches to allow for fermentation.
It's not rocket science, just give it a go🙏👍
Thanks for this! I ferment my chicken feed and often wondered if I could reuse the liquid. I didn't want it to go to waste so I've just been diluting it and feeding the plants. I'm going to try this instead.
I'm sure you do this anyway but I have 3 buckets with holes drilled in the bottom and they fit into 3 buckets without holes. To drain, I simply lift out the inside bucket with the grains and all the water falls into the outside bucket.
Starting with KNF LAB would be a nice way to speed all this up and keep the “mother” concept going
Thank you for this, two years later this is still the most simple way that I've seen to harvest fly larvae
Jus find some road kill stick it in mesh wire and hang on a tree or stick and the maggots fall of for the chickies , we also did this for feeding fish by hanging road kill from bridges
Oh my goodness I just tried to watch a video just before this one and had to stop because it was so complicated!!!! Thank you, I prefer stupidly simple!
Thank you for making this project super easy. I hadn’t given this project a go because you have to spend money getting the sifting equipment,containers and crap that takes money. We’re old and having to tighten the already tightened belt like every one else. Again thank you for making it simple. You just gained a Follower
Just found you! YOU ARE AWESOME; Your personality, your content, everything! You should have 10 million subscribers. ... Subscribed and sharing :)
We saw the video about the grasses, now, this one. Wow! THANK YOU!!! Yes... we just subscribed. Why isn’t anyone else posting these GREAT ideas. We’re very glad we found yours!!!
very good! We don`t have those fat ones, but the chicken like it. Thank you! And it`s natural food . The fermented wheat is wonderful I make that since I heard that on " chickenlandia" years ago. The chicken get so much nutrition out of it.
Great video Jeff, new subscriber & new parent of a 17 bird free range flock.
Thank You for this information and very simple way to grow larve. Yeah, it drives me crazy to see all those complicated ways that are out there and supposed to be simple. Your way is just what I’ve been looking for
Dude. I love your videos. They're informative and hilarious. Its like listening to Jack Black discuss homesteading. Awesome!
I have been researching so many of these and yours is far and away the simplest.
Agreed
This is awesome! I have been drawing out plans for a BSF farm and this is perfectly simple and effective!!
I think we can say super smart simple. Love Jeff’s approach to nature. Much respect.
Yes, work smart so you don't have to work hard!
I have no respect for someone who doesn't provide shade for their animals....
@@kathrynletchford5114burrrrhurrrrr
I love fermenting my feed. I just take a couple scoops, throw it in a jar, put water in and wait a few days. Sometimes I cover it, sometimes I don't. I've had flies lay eggs and it turns into a little larvae snack too. It looks gross but the girls go bananas for it.
Thank you Jeff. I think I have almost everything on hand to do this! I appreciate you sharing this for us simple folks out here with limited resources!
Do you know another thing i saw......when ever there is a dead animal on your farm, place the carcass in a bucket with some holes around the bottom......and the maggots will fall out onto the ground as the carcass rots.
I like this idea also....gonna try this for sure.
Thanks for the tip.
My chicks are about 8 weeks old now and I'm sure they'd love this idea.
QUESTION: How do you keep the raccoons/skunks/possums etc., from tearing apart your grub farm every night?
didn't you see the rock? 😄
@@youtubeKathy
Yes. 🙂
Do you know how determined wild animals are?
dogs, at least a big one to bite and a small one to make noise.
raccoons , skunks, and possums are an issue for me too. my solution is i put out a trap every night with easy foods.
easy foods like a handfull of cat food will be choice over a more difficult to get at souce.
but i keep my soilder fly bin in the coop.
I never considered closing the loop on this circle of life by collecting larvae for my hens instead of trapping the flies and throwing them away. Great idea.
I have a similar chicken run! I have 2 coops, because I have a few rooster, head rooster(a bantam), runs our tiny coop, with his little ladies, and then the bachelors and a few younger hens, live in the other.
I can't wait to try this, thanx for adding this video!
Y did a great job showing the people's past it's important to do this saves a lot of the new people into thinking they have to go buy feed all the time.
👋as a new person, I can attest that you've saved me a lot of time! Thank you, subbed 🥳
I hate hyped stuff and I’m incredibly practical not wanting any fluff or spending an arm and a leg on frivolous unnecessary stuff. I just subscribed to your channel because THANK YOU!! Common sense is lacking so finding someone capable of thinking this way is highly refreshing!
I literally use the food from my quails poop trays. I don't like to try to pick out the good bits of food they fling out. I also don't want to waste the food. So I literally gather a big pile of it, poop and all, and put it in a bin like you do with your food remnants. I mix in some wood shavings or dead leaves and I get tons of larvae. Like you I don't give a crap about what kind they are. The chickens love eating any of them. Lol
Thank you for making a stupid simple set up and showing people they don't need to make things complicated!
5-8-23 thank you for this video this is the simplest way I have ever seen. I think people make this complicated because they want to make a video. Your idea is genius so simple. Thank you.
I love videos that overcomplicate the simplest thing, they're hysterical. Bullshit boggles the brain, and never is that more true than in the current TH-cam universe. This video was a breath of fresh air!
I came. I laughed. I learned. We are all suffering analysis paralysis, thanks for brining back simple thinking. 😊
I love, love, love stupidly simple!!!!! You just came up on my feed, and I am kicking myself for not finding your channel earlier. Thank you so much!!!!!! I tried the other "stupid" ways with BSF, 😑
Okay now this is my kind of BSFL farming.
Thank you.
Subscribed!!
Exactly what I was looking fir!!! Thanks a bunch.
I’ve got a super simple way to ferment feed. Works for us. One container. Overnight fermentation. We use a stainless steel pot with a lid. At night we leave a little bit of previous fermented food behind and mix in 1 part feed to 1.5 part water. When pouring in water rinse the sides. Ferments overnight perfectly ready for next morning. Once in a while reserve some food and wash out the pot well. Maybe every two weeks.
Dang just found this video, YOU ROCK!!!
I'm a new subscriber! I MacGyver the heck out of everything I can... Love this.
Love how not stupid but simple this is! Thanks.
Finally, someone with the same definition of "simple" as me
Super simple video, thanks! I just came across your channel and hope you've already posted fermented feed too. Super simple to make as well.
Cheers.....I grow mine in an upright 12" PVC pipe set upright set down into the soil with a plate on top and half a cork glued on the to keep the gap. Your hen run is lovely and generous however a couple of shade trees would be generous for your egg queen's 🥂
Dude, that is stupidly simple. I will definitely try this method. My neighbor wants to do a compost as well and I have chickens so I could get double out of there
This is definitely stupid simple! I had BSF invade my compost tumbler and flourished all last summer in a SPINNING compost bin. I tried to transfer them into one of those semi-complicated plastic totes with PVC pipe, and while I did get a few mature larvae to climb up and out, I never got any new takers to lay eggs in the new bin. I will try again this summer because I finally have chickens, and I do still want finished compost some day!
Right now the chickens' favorite place to scratch is under the compost tumbler. I may have to block the area off if I want to get BSF this year.
Just a comment my nephew had a problem with earwigs, he bought 6 chick's, when they were about half grown he leed them where earwig were massing, his feed bill went to almost nil all summer.
Your system is only common sense. Thanks for sharing.
an old poaching trick for catching fish is to create a "honey hole" so fish will hang out and wait for food or food on a hook.
you find a limb hanging out over the water and put some "ROAD KILL" in a wire basket and tie it close to the branch.
flys will lay eggs and hatch into maggots that end up falling into the water which will draw in the fish that will take a bite of what ever hits that water.
so an old umbrella type folding clothes line on a fence line post with 2 or 3 wire baskets attached will allow you to fill the wire baskets from outside the fence, the falling maggots will feed the chickens.
in the south we feed the catfish in our farm ponds, they got so conditioned that the water would start boiling when they sensed the vibrations caused by foot steps, they would bite an empty hook!!!
I used your method, but added two flat pieces of scrap wood to go across the top of the bin like your stick and used rubber band to attach cardboard strips to the underside of those scrap wood and the soilder flies are laying a ton of eggs in them. It's worked like a charm, I'm dumping about 2 cups per day of black soilder flie larvae to the chickens!
They’re laying eggs in your cardboard strips?
@@alexgarner594 yep
Do you put your bin in the shade or the sun?
@eh6971 it's in the sun...it's partial sun, late afternoon it's shaded.
@alexgarner594 its corrugated cardboard, that has ridges/holes big enough for the black soilder flies to lay their eggs. It's free, so it's what I use.
We have a composting bin that turns. We leave it slightly open. Every few days we dump it into trays and the chickens eat the larvae then we put the compost back.
Did anyone else recognize he nailed exactly on how many black fly clips there are on TH-cam wow that's amazing 😅
You are my type of guy! No tools needed-projects are my favourite kind of projects.
I love your videos! @jeffgray
Question about the fly larvae bin.. I'm new to this stuff, and was wondering how the worms go to the smaller larvae catcher bin. Do they just end up in there naturally for easy removal? Also, do some larvae make it to fly form before harvest? I'd rather them not reach adulthood since I live in a suburban area. I'm thinking about doing this for our chickens but am curious about these two things. Thanks so much!
The worms crawl upwards out of the muck when they’ve reached maturity (ie, ready to pupate). Hence the reason for the slope of the inner tub. When the crawl up, they eventually fall into the hole that’s been cut in the inner tub and they’re caught by the small bin.
They can’t pupate and turn into flies until they reach soil. Which they can never do with this system.
I get a lot in the compost by leaving the food scraps in plastic bags for a while then tip it in the pile. This would be nice to manage them thanks
When I was a kid we raised chickens and sold eggs. I remember my dad telling me about a certain kind of maggot that can get in a chickens crop and eat the crop and go up the neck. He called it "limber neck". How do you know if any of the maggots you are raising are "bad" maggots? That was a long time ago, 60 years. Maybe I remember wrong.
Eat the crop?
@@ogadlogadl490 its some organ chickens have
@@nunyabiznes33 TY
Such a specialised insect probably doesn't eat kitchen scraps. But it's worth checking for sure.
You had me cracking up at the end. I love simple.
Used Coffee Grounds is a very good base for BSF and they will occasionally graze on it, so it acts as a backup emergency food source for them.
Optional bases: Sawdust or other "browns (aka, fiber)" to act as non-food bedding, so they have a place to get away from the food and keep the temps from getting too high as food breaks down and BSF larvae heat it up. Also it helps some of the food get hidden from the surface, which helps avoid attracting some pests and helps absorb excess liquids. If you give them high fiber foods, the fiber will build up over time for you, but I recommend starting with a fiber source and used dry coffee grounds are the easiest and free from Starbucks.
and of course, give them actual food.
I liked your video solely on the fact you accurately told us how many black soldier fly videos there are 😅😂. Made me chuckle cuz its true
I like the simple approach.
Good info. Also soak your feed before feeding and you get more volume. Most stores will give you expired greens and produce if you pick it up 2 days a week. Some ask you to sign a liability waiver but most stores will donate them to you. Yokes will be orange when you feed greens!
LOL, great simple not stupid way to do it. Black fly larva at the feed store are so expensive.
28 dollars for a bag at tractor supply!
Fermenting is more simple than your bin.
5 gallon bucket with lid
Place scratch inside.
Put a yeast packet in.
Full with water to the top of grain
Let it sit
Add water as needed
Never use all the soured grain so it will jump start the next batch.
So you only need year the first go round
You got a sub from me. Keep it stupid simple. I like the way to explain things! Second video i watched and im coming back for more!!
👏 Thank you for the heads up. I would have wasted my money on all the extra stuff for nothing.
Yep and then I'm so glad you brought it up man you alright there so many videos on TH-cam unbelievable I started reading about it 10 years ago I'm doing it now I dispose of everything into that container they break it down for me I have another container just so I can use that for my chickens..
nice job. I'm going to make one this year
Subbed. Your no non sense style is perfect for 2023 buffoonery.
Wow, thank you. Simple cheap effective is the opposite of stupid. Good engineering!
Just found your video in my search for growing chicken feed. Great video! Funny, strait to the point and stupid simple. 😆👍
Just subscribed 🥰🌱🐥
You could name your format "Stupid simple" It might make you and your channel even more recognizable!
You are like the jack black of gardening. You are hilarious!
yes your damn right!!! i don’t need BSFL mega condo
Thank you for keeping it simple
❤ that's what I needed! I saw several solutions, but yours is the fastest and most easy. The only thing i will add is a tube that transpots the worms directly to my ladies.❤
Great bread, well done. I prefere to have bread cool down in basket with towel on top of it. If i cut bread while its still hot, the "smoke" from the bread is moist so the bread can dry out. Not sure about this bread though, just an idea. Thx 😊👍
THANK YOU!! THANK YOU!! I really wanted to do this for my chicken but it was SO complicated that I never did so this is a game changer!
wow you need some bushes or trees to keep them cool. You wouldn't like being out in high temps with no shade, the inside of that tiny house has no air blowing through it.
BSF larvae hatched right in the poop trays of my quail pen. Easy peasy. 😂
Excellent video. This is what people need to see. You got lost at the end there lmao.
Great video, thanks
To whom it may concern. Black soldier flies will eat you out of house & home. I suggest growing a sacrificial crop of acorn squash or watermelon which is fed solely to the grubs. A thriving colony will eat an entire watermelon (bowling ball size) in 24-36 hours. Also starbucks coffee grounds are given away free and are a great way to feed the bsf colony when kitchen scraps aren’t enough. A big bsf bin has its own kind of momentum, and a break in feeding will usually cause a noticeable slowdown in mature grub collection. Be ready with melons and coffee grounds. Also if you are going to put any meat type scraps in the bin, be sure it can be covered in a layer of carbon (straw, shredded cardboard). I put a 7 lb striped bass in a bsf bin and without carbon, there was a little stink. I covered it with some straw and the grubs ate the whole thing in 72 hours. So remember that the carbon/nitrogen rules apply to a bsf bin just like a compost pile. Last tip. Since the bsf manure is black gold for your garden, try to put as few seedy veggies in the bin as possible (bell peppers big problem) unless you want a bunch of volunteer veggies when you use the manure in your garden.
Good stuff. Thanks for sharing.
If it were stupid simple, you would not have to bring them the larva, the larva would migrate to where the chickens can harvest them all by themselves, I mean seriously, you already have the chickens harvest their own grain, RIGHT?
Just suspend the main tub above the ground at the same angle, but instead of a huge hole, make a slit the chickens can't get through, then put the catch tub underneath the slit and have it open to the chickens so they can see one fall and snatch it up, and if the chickens are elsewhere, they will collect until they return!
Simplest one I developed is 2 flower pots one slightly smaller then the other. Drill some holes down the sides so moisture can get out.
Put the lager one in the ground. I use mine as a meat digester. top pot fits upside-down snuggle on top . The rim just inside that of the larger pot. This collects maggots that fall out. They also crawl out the drain holes at the top and collect in the indentation on the top (the bottom of the smaller pot that is upside down.)
Fill with scraps, a layer of straw/grass stops from smelling as you fill it.
This is in the run. Every morning the chickens once let out beline straight for it to eat the maggots either in the lower rim or the top pot or from the top.
I've tried making a larger one with a bin and lid but the simple basic black pots worked best. I just can't buy them big enough where I live.
If the top pot some how could be made so the top came off to make filling it easier rather than having to take the hole smaller pot off to fill and then turn it upside down agin would be easier.
I REALLY want to understand but don't. Do you have photos?
@@CatskillCrafting how do I add a photo?
THIS is genius! How may holes need to be in the bottom larger pot?
Do you fill up the bottom pot all the way to the top with meat and layer of grass on top? Or half way or over fill or?
This is a great idea!
@@nikkinik4188 at first it needed air circulation so layers of grass between carkuses. But now it's well established I just use the grass at the top(bottom of the top smaller pot, top when turned upside down.)
I think I put 4or 5 holes with my largest drill bit down 2, opposite sides. But it would depend on the size of the pot.
At first I was skinning the birds as I couldn't pluck them this wasn't good inthere the skin and feathers seemd to smother it, maybe didn't let the maggots out? But plucked feathers seem OK.
Thank you wholeheartedly.
okay just made mine, ill keep you posted. Took about 6 minutes with stuff i found laying around, plus the tote that I already had. Thinking about putting an egg in there to rot, along with fruit that was already rotting on the ground (sapodilla and early mangoes, im in So Fl) mixed with hay and compost.
How's it working out?
Thannnnk God for this vid... ours got rain in it and just became sludge. Top was not sealed properly so this is insane genius. Thank ya.
You have given very honest information.I agree with you.Thanks!
Thank you for this. I've been fermenting for almost a year now.
I like it. Currently have no use for it, the "simple" set up, but I have filed the concept somewhere in my brain. I will be interested to see how you do with your fermenting experiment.
So if that's the amount you give them every or every couple of days, how would it reduce food costs? It seems just like a treat or desert rather than lowering the cost to feed them.
I’ve seen more intensive BSF action, I like how straight forward it is but that’s not enough of an impact on the feed bill.
wow, very clever
Thanks Bud for simplicity
I just built a super simple bin. Waiting to see how works.
I love this, I am going to do this. Thanks for sharing, I have just subscribed.
Jeff. could you build 5 raised beds and fence them off. Then put scraps in all 5 and rotate the birds to a different bed each day?
Hi!
Thank you for the "easy video".
I would like to see the set up for your chickens. I currently have chickens, but looking to remodel their area. Would like ideas for a way to move them around in the pasture.
I'm in SC also :)
Thanks!
Renee. You may want to put them in a chicken tractor & move them around and help fertilize the ground beneath. They will harvest all of the bugs and weed seeds.
I bought a screenhouse from Costco. Birdfeeder pole to hang food and water buckets on sunk into dirt. Cardboard box with one nest box in it . Chickens follow me (and bucket of grubs) to chicken camp in morning and back to coop in evening. Fairly easy to move to new spot after a couple of days of use
I've been using this method for a few weeks, since I saw your genius video. Lots of larvae, but none are crawling up the ramp to the top hole. Instead they were wriggling out through (and getting stuck in) my drainage holes. So I just enlarged my drainage holes so they're slightly larger than the BSF larvae, kept the bin at its normal tilt, and put another small bin below the drainage holes. I now have a big pan of squirming gold for my fluffy butts! Any tips on getting them to crawl up instead of down? I'm happy with the way things are working now, just curious if I'm missing something.