Black soldier fly larvae - economically better than other feed?

[mousebandit]

We're looking at setting up a system to raise the black soldier fly larvae for chicken feed, but the more I look at things and think about it, the more I wonder if it's really any better economically than say having worm beds and harvesting worms for feed or just feeding the household scraps directly to the chickens?

We absolutely want to come up with plans to produce our own chicken feed, especially through the winter. Just not sure what's going to give us the most bang for our buck. Definitely looking at growing extra squashes and such to over-winter and give to them, but thinking about protein needs as well.

Hoping some others out there have gone through the pros and cons already and/or have done a BSF project and can give me their opinions.

We will be keeping probably a dozen to two dozen hens through the winters. I am also toying with the idea of having a large BSF project in the summer to primarily feed a big batch of cornish X that would all go into the canner about the same time. That might be worth it, because the entire feed cycle would be during the summer life cycle of the BSF and the meat chicks have such high protein needs that the BSF converting the veggie scraps to protein would be a good payoff. (hope this isn't too scattered - just thinking on paper, so to speak!)

Anyway, I'm thinking that worm beds or bins underneath rabbit hutches in summer would be as easy or easier than BSF (in general), and they can eat the rabbit poop. BSF can too, but I'd have to have some way to get it into the them, and that sounds like another project, LOL!

Also worm bins can be put in the ground in the greenhouse and go all winter in Oregon, and I don't think I would want to try to keep BSF in a greenhouse.

So, any other thoughts out there? Anyone actually do the BSF bins?

Thanks!
Tracey in Oregon

[PD-Riverman]

Worms in the ground does not work for me----to many fire ants here. I keep my worm bins in a stripped out camper in the shade of some trees in the warmer months. I did the soldier fly for my chickens last year. The chickens like them a lot better than worms. I been so busy with some rentals I just got my soldier flys started back up this year. I feel that once you got the "bin" set-up for them it is very simple to keep them fed. My bin is homemade and self collecting. Once a day I glance at the collection container---if it has alot of larvae in it I feed some to the chickens and freeze the rest for winter use. I want to get several bins going in several locations and experiment with solar drying some as well as having atleast one bin feeding the chickens(having it in the chicken yard) automatically. My chickens love crickets and I have been feeding them a few hundred a day almost daily. Raising the crickets is not to much work when you get set-up. This is my third year raising crickets and I started with about 30 crickets. I raise them through the winter too but I feel the heat for the crickets cost more than they are worth. Good Luck!