How big of a container should I use for BSFL for 10 chickens? I know this is not an exact science - I just want a ballpark estimate for a starting point. Thanks
Alvin
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That is a great question Alvin. We have grown them in many different sizes from 1 gallon up. What we use now is 55 gallon barrels split in half. They work very well. One of those would provide you chics with some BSF but if you are buying a barrel to split, use both. The extra BSF will be appreciated by the chickens. We split lengthwise and hang them overhead to save space and so the chickens can’t get into them if a lid gets blown off in a big wind.
@AFHGlen do you have photos of your system that you can share? Do you have shade over the whole system?
ECHO North America has tried several different systems. I’ll paste the diagram for a fairly simple one that worked pretty well for us below. I’ve also seen similar systems to the one below where it’s placed in the coop so that the larvae simply crawl out and fall to the chickens once they get the urge to pupate. This system can feed more than 10 chickens with these dimensions and sufficient feedstock being added:
There is a smaller, bucket system that JC Barrios presented to ECHO but we don’t have much experience with it. I’ll paste a photo of it below.
In general, the depth of the larvae feed is important to maintain enough oxygen (the weight of the feed doesn’t make it go anerobic). And you can fit the size of your container to your production needs based on that thickness of feedstock that remains aerobic.
There is overhead cover because they hang from the roof of the chicken house. That allows the chickens to eat them as they fall.
I will try to share a pic…having done that before. You might see in the edge of the barrels we cut two lines about 5 inches long. That allows us to bend down a tab with makes a “ramp” the larva to climb out as they are ready to pupate. Probably wouldn’t be necessary but it is easy to do.
They fall on the floor for the chickens to self harvest. It’s a largely automatic system.
Attached is a picture, showing how they hang from the ceiling.
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This might offer a few helpful tips apart from the size issue and I thought a video might be more helpful than the photo above but it didn’t seem like I could post a video. So here is a URL where I have posted a few videos including 2 on BSF on our website.
https://artforhumanity.org/what-we-do/tolc/teaching-materials/
I have not started yet at all. So, of course I have no photos…
I’ve seen this diagram (that you posted) before in ECHO literature – The smaller diagram on the left left side is a complete mystery to me. Where is it? Is it a part of the larger diagram on the right-hand side??
The smaller diagram on the left side is a “bird’s eye view” looking down from the top of the bin. Yes, it is part of the larger diagram on the right-hand side!