R. Ford

My bins don't smell bad, but they are outside and i will put anything in them. Chicken carcasses, squirrel and deer offal, spoiled meat, etc. If you wanted to give it a try indoors, just get a geriatric potty seat that would normally sit over a toilet, and put a tote or bin in your bathroom and give it a shot. You'll know soon how bad the smell is. As for harvesting, this will depend heavily on where your bin is located within the house, but in general, mine are self harvesting. They climb up a ramp in the bin and ride down a shoot made of 1 1/2" PVC pipe to a collection bucket. You could do this easily if your bin is at least 18 inches tall like a normal Rubbermaid tote, just make your ramp up to the top of it, and then the shoot would run to a collecting container at floor level. They can't climb very well as long as the bin is dry. I think normal house temps would be just fine, as long as you aren't keeping it like an ice box. While mid 80's is optimal temperature, they will breed down to 70 (or so says the mighty google). As far as cleanout goes, I would just take a portion of the bin when it gets full and remove it to your compost pile. If some grubs come along for the ride, so be it. Spread the remainder out in the bin, and keep going.

I think this is feasible, but I would look at it like a two part system. One breeding "egg gathering" containment, and then the actual larvae feeding feces container. Use banded together corrugated cardboard to continue to gather eggs and place them in the bin, harvest a handful of larvae after they pupate and put them into the "egg gathering" area to hatch, breed, and make more eggs. With how much they eat, I would guess that a 30 gallon tote would be about the size needed for 4 people, but you may have to do a little reading up on that and adjust. I know when my bins are full and rocking in the summer time, they can really go through some material. One thing to try to figure out would be the smell though. BSF larvae don't really care for sawdust or other woody materials that are traditionally used to cover and dry out feces. Maybe some dried coffee grounds would act similar and also help cover the stench, but that would also contribute to your food load on the maggots. Depending on size that could be good or bad, but it would be something most would need to source in that quantity. If you give it a go, keep us informed!

Tractor supply used to carry a brand called CE Schmidt that were a duct material similar to Carhartt. In 2015 they were about 12 dollars a pair and I could wear 5 pairs a week (one pair per work day) for 2 years before they wore the crotch out and had to be retired to "working around the house" pants. I'm very hard on pants, and haven't found anything near that price point that would last more than a few months. As a funny side note, my dad told me i need to find a vintage 1970's pair of Tuffskin Jeans. He said they were so stiff denim that the only time you were able to bend your knees or run in them is if you were the third kid they were handed down to.  

I chose the gravel floor base about 4 inches thick to keep it from being mucky under foot. The sink will drain out into the garden area with a pipe, but other watering will just fall on the gravel. My soil holds water like it wants to be a pond due to the extremely high clay content (i live very near to the pottery capitol of the US, and it became that because of the massive amounts and varieties of clay in the area). There are windows on the long back side and the end opposite of the lean to. As far as potting and compost components, I have one compost pile that is within about 20 yards of the building, but the larger piles, as well as my vermicomposting bins are further. I plan to move them closer in the future, but they are currently under shelter in an old pole barn, so i'll have to haul that stuff closer as needed, but I did plan room for 3 55 gallon barrels to sit in the shed. One for finished compost/soil mix, one for plant and veggie material to go to the compost, and one for ground biochar so it's available while potting. Keep the ideas coming!

So I am about a week away from starting my potting shed, and I am seeking advice on any design ideas that would be good to incorporate. This building will serve as kind of the hub for garden and orchard activities. We run a very large garden approximately 1 acre for personal use, as well as at least 1/2 acre of flowers for making market bouquets this year. So far, here are the things I've incorporated into the design.

1. lean to on outside to store hand tools on wall, and powered equipment (gasp) out of the rain.
2.The ground outside the back will be approximately 3 feet higher than the floor, and this is where a few 300 gallon ibc totes will sit to be filled by rain gutters, as well as my 250 gallon compost tea system.
3. There will be ample work benches as well as storage tote racks built inside on one end.
4. gravel floor
5. stainless steel 2 bay sink with side drying counters
6. Mounted fans

I'm seeking any other cool or handy things that can be incorporated into the actual design of the building itself. A greenhouse will probably be one of the next things behind this building at least a month away from now. The building is solar powered and only has rain water or water from my pond by way of water wagon for the time being.

I've seen a dozen or more videos from this guy, and I like the way he lays out the information. He is big on helping the above average home cook increase their culinary skills. I see this stock video as a great way to make some stock (with a few changes of course). My gut reaction to using the meat and discarding it was that this is wasteful, BUT after some consideration, if you had some pigs or even a pooch to take care of the "wasted" chicken pulp, then i think I could accept it for the sake of making an incredible (elevated above your normal cooking level) meal. If i wanted a really high end meal and drove the hour plus each way and paid an exorbitant amount of money for it, I think I would be doing less good for the earth than if i fed my dog some chicken after robbing the flavor out. Put another way, this is no different than giving your dog the gizzards or livers out of a chicken if you don't like them (Those happen to be my favorites, but you could run that rabbit as far as you care to go) You've taken the part you wanted, which in this case was the meat flavor, and passed the rest to animals/compost/ etc.  

I'm in zone 8a middle of north carolina. Last I had bsf larvae was the day after Thanksgiving. I'm sure they will be back in March or so around here.  

I run multiple BSF larvae bins for my chickens. I also have a few rings of wire that I pile leaves and food scraps into, and once the fly larvae gets going pretty well in those rings, I will remove the wire and let the chickens dig through them.

American persimmons are easy to grow from cuttings, but I was told Asian persimmons are next to impossible by a friend who used to run a large tree and greenhouse operation.

Posts above nailed it, moisture is the enemy when it comes to keeping the coop smelling nice. Another thing you can do is put some crushed charcoal in with the bedding, especially under the roosts, thus inoculating it into biochar. You get the benefit of less smell, and your compost pile/garden gets the benefit of the biochar when you clean out the coop.