# maggots as chicken feed



## paulwheaton

I held off a day on uploading this. Talking about feeding maggots to chickens didn't seem appropriate for christmas day.

YouTube - paulwheaton12's Channel


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## UncleJoe

I didn't go to the video but I'll comment anyway. 

On the chicken forum I belong to, there was a thread that discussed maggots for chicken food. There's a lot of protein in those little critters. 
Now for the really disgusting point of my post. I scan freecycle and craigslist for people giving away freezer burned meat, and there' more than you might think. I'll take a couple chunks at a time and put them out to attract the flies. In a few days the open bag is full of maggots and I dump it into the chicken run. Can you say feeding frenzy?

OK. You can all go back to your dinner now.


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## AnimalcrackerHerder

We periodically cultivate a batch of maggots to feed to the chickens. I am glad to find out that we aren't the only ones who do this. The chickens just go nuts for them!


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## The_Blob

UncleJoe said:


> I didn't go to the video but I'll comment anyway.
> 
> On the chicken forum I belong to, there was a thread that discussed maggots for chicken food. There's a lot of protein in those little critters.
> Now for the really disgusting point of my post. I scan freecycle and craigslist for people giving away freezer burned meat, and there' more than you might think. I'll take a couple chunks at a time and put them out to attract the flies. In a few days the open bag is full of maggots and I dump it into the chicken run. Can you say feeding frenzy?
> 
> OK. You can all go back to your dinner now.


better THAT than having them do it the old fashioned way & get little pieces of poop on their beaks as they're rooting through the dung


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## *Andi

I think I will pass ...

and let my chickens do it the old fashioned way. :dunno:


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## Frugal_Farmers

This is too cool--just brainstorming on how I can build a "maggot incubator box" with screens to shake em out as they mature.


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## horseman09

About every other year we get 100 Giant White Cornish chicks in the mail. After they are about 6 weeks old, we start letting them out in the barn and pasture with the horses during the day. Not only do these chicks mostly feed themselves by scratching for maggots and bugs in the barnyard, but we have virtually no flies. 

Incredibly, come butchering time they are absolutely the most delicious chickens we have ever eaten! Store-bought compared to free-range/pasture fed chickens, the store-bought ones are just plain tasteless.


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## BadgeBunny

Frugal_Farmers said:


> This is too cool--just brainstorming on how I can build a "maggot incubator box" with screens to shake em out as they mature.


 Oh thank goodness ... I was trying to figure that out too!! Gotta figure a way that it doesn't smell too much ... I live in town so the neighbors will be very unhappy if it smells like rotting meat around here.


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## KittyCat

*maggot incubator box*



Frugal_Farmers said:


> This is too cool--just brainstorming on how I can build a "maggot incubator box" with screens to shake em out as they mature.


Several years ago I came over a publication, whose readership was college level aquaculture. It described a maggot incabator feeder device. Simply, it is a cylinder of wire with grids too small to allow flys to enter through the sides. At the top a cap seals the cylinder, at the bottom a space exists between the cylinder and and an attached plate that extends beyond the cylinder. The rotting meat is placed in the cone, the cap is closed, and the flies enter from the bottom. The cone hangs several feet above the ground, the maggots hatch, migrate to the bottom plate and crawl off to the awaiting hungry fish below. Substitute the word fish with chicken and you have a chicken maggot incubator feeder.


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## UncleJoe

How about a pic to go with this?


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## *Andi

UncleJoe said:


> How about a pic to go with this?




gross ... and there goes breakfast!

lol


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## AnimalcrackerHerder

*Andi said:


> gross ... and there goes breakfast!
> 
> lol


I know, right? Its only been the last couple of years that I have been able to look at them without having them turn my stomach. :ignore:


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## cranky1

oh, give it a rest people, in the first world war they put maggots on the rotting flesh of wounded soldiers. they ate the rotted flesh and left the healthy flesh to heal. maggots are good. and chickens really like them. carry on with your breakfast. cheers. oh i think i just made myself sick!


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## jjwilson72000

I have a friend who drills small holes in the bottom of five gallon buckets and hangs them around the chicken run. He throws meat or roadkill or fish guts in the buckets and when the maggots arrive they start to fall out of the holes. After the chickens figured out where the maggots come from he lowered the buckets and the chickens will peck at them which makes them sway around and the maggots will fall out of the holes.


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## dawnwinds58

*How to "Auto" cultivate maggots for chicken feed.*

Here's the info on cultivating maggots for chicken feed. It needs to be downwind of your house and family areas and in the back side of your chicken yard. Works like a charm.


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