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I started another test today to see how long I could keep a final stage BSF larva at room temperature without it pupating. Normally I wouldn't name a test subject, but since I plan on releasing this larva back into the wild after it's service I have done just that. I have named him Bruce for no particular reason. He is unable to climb over the edge of the lid. BSF can only climb vertically on some surfaces and only when they are damp.





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A cool juvenile who never matures, named Bruce.

OK.


"Live like you'll die tomorrow, but manage your grass like you'll live forever."
-S. M. Stirling
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I don't see it that way Theo. I see a brave volunteer, young but mature, willing to risk all to forward the cause of human/BSF relations. Bruce is a hero.



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My wife is wondering how long it will take me to mature, too. ;\)


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DON'T DO IT!



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She would die of shock.


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N.E. Texas 2 acre and 1/4 acre ponds
Original george #173 (22 June 2002)




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Thanks George!



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The BSF really go for the hog feed. I just realized that a BSF bin could be equiped with an automatic feed dispencer making the process as low maintenance as keeping game feeders operating. It would just need an automatic feeder that drops feed with gravity.

This feeder might work but it's smaller and more expensive than I would prefer:

http://www.mightypets.com/product.asp?3=2056



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GW, try using a deer feeder mounted on a bucket. Deer feeders are cheap and you can set them to run multiple times per day.

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Thanks Chris. Is there a particular one you could recommend? I would want to mount it over the BSF and it would need to drop cornmeal straight down through a pipe into the bin. A 50 lb capacity would be good to start with.



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MOST DEER FEEDERS ARE SPIN TYPES YOU WOULD NEED TO MOUNT A FUNEL OVER THE SPINER TO DIRECT THE FEED DOWN INTO YOUR BSF BIN WALMART HAS A GOOD SELECTION OF LOW COST FEEDERS.
GOOD LUCK


FROM RODEO TO STANDIN AROUND WATCHIN THE FISH EAT
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GW, I just read this thread and I have to admit I've passed it by many times just because I don't think BSF live in my area. I gotta tell you though that this is a great experiment and if you can make it work, which you have almost already proven, I may have to look into raising some of these. Great job! This is experimentation for a good cause at its best.


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Thanks bz, I appreciate the encouragement.



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Concerning the throw of the deer feeders; couldn't I just remove/disable the spin plate?

Edit: My ignorance is due to a childhood deprived of hunting. \:\( Thank goodness there were creeks and ponds around! I looked at a feeder at Walmart and it looks like it's specifically designed for corn or other large pieces. I like the cornmeal size feed I'm using now and would like to find something that will work with it.

Last edited by GW; 09/12/07 06:39 PM.


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Today is the third day of feeding the BSF 1 lb of hog feed/day. This is more food than I've been adding and the activity level in the bin is consistently high. Today at noon I checked the bin and several larvae were trying to exit. The last time that happened it was an issue with temperature, but that was on a much hotter day. I believe that the increased activity of the BSF is creating more heat so I'll have to address that. At the time I saw the larvae trying to leave the sun was hitting the bin directly. It's only in the mid 80's and I think that indicates that direct sunshine should be avoided when placing a BSF container.



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What's your water temperature currently?


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Do you mean our well water? We don't have a pond yet. Cindy's pond is being logged now and mine is next. \:\)



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Ooops. Yeah I remember now.


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GW, how about an aquarium feeder? It should handle feed the consistency of cornmeal, but I don't know what size bins they have. I suppose you could feed the larvae a long time on a gallon of feed.

http://www.aquariumguys.com/fishfeeder.html

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bobad, I'm feeding them 1 lb/day which is about 2.5 cups. That's just a quantity I chose based on the population of BSF that I currently have. I don't mind feeding them by hand for this experiment, but for the goal of automatically producing larger quantities I will need to dispense several times more feed.

A 3 ft diameter set up would process around 24 lbs of table scraps/day, but the feed is more concentrated so I would be happy with 12 lbs/day.

That represents about 1.5 gallons of feed per day.

Since this feed is more concentrated (dried), I'm hoping that it will produce larvae at a 4:1 or 3:1 ratio.

12 lbs/day @ 4:1 would be 3 lbs of larvae/day or about 1000 lbs/year.

12 lbs of feed/day @ $.17 = $2.00/day or $730/year.

1000 lbs/$730 = $.73/lb.

To compare that to fish pellets you would need to factor in the 44% dry content of the BSF which equals 440 lbs/year at a cost of $1.66/lb when raised exclusively on feed ($8.24/50 lb). That seems a bit high to me, but the cost can be reduced to virtually nothing provided you have a source of suitable waste to feed the BSF. Obviously there is a lot of guess work in these figures. I tried to be conservative in all of my estimations.

A great place to begin looking for free BSF feed is from your ponds. As DJT suggested, the larvae might eat FA and pond weeds, in fact I'd be amazed if they didn't. Add to that any culled fish and fish guts and the cost will start to drop. If you raise livestock you can probably get even cheaper feed. The BSF could also process feed that is spoiled/moldy/buggy etc.

Thanks for helping bobad. I guess it's pretty easy to get me off on a tangent when discussing BSF. \:\)



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Shortly after writing the last post I remembered reading an article that addressed using duckweed as fish and livestock feed. It turns out that duckweed is very high in protein with a good balance of amino acids. If your pond produces duckweed then you have a free source of BSF food.



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GW, you might want to see if local butcher shops will give away (or sell cheaply) fat and pork hide. I would stay away from waste meat with bones. The BSF should get a good conversion ratio out of pure fat (stored energy).


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I agree DJT, and there happens to be a very large butcher shop a few miles from me. I guess I'll have to test butcher's scraps after I test duckweed. smile


Last edited by GW; 04/21/13 06:09 PM.


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It's been a week that I've been feeding 1 lb of hog feed/day. This is substantially more food in terms of dry weight than I have ever fed them and the BSF seem to have grown very quickly on this diet. Under optimal conditions it only takes BSF 2 weeks to pass through the larval stage. The bin was normally fairly wet when I was feeding table scraps but since this feed is dry grain it has gotten pretty dry in the bin. In the last few days I've seen 3 or 4 BSF mortalities which I have not ever seen before. I previously guessed that the BSF population might be 10,000, but it could just as easily be 20,000 now. I suppose seeing a few morts in a group that size isn't unusual, but it still makes you wonder. The activity level since changing feed has been very high and the larvae are generating a lot of heat. Maybe that's the reason for the deaths.

I've never had to add water to the bin because the scraps were high in moisture, but I've decided to start adding a pint of water each day with the hog feed.

The feed:




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