Black walnuts, maggots and chickens

Not exactly sure where to post this so feel free to move it.

I was considering the black walnuts that fall every year.

As the hulls get super rotted, they fill up with maggots.   I’ve left them in a sealed feed bin and they still fill up with maggots that eat the husks.

Is there a way that I can use the maggots as a resource to feed chickens in fall? Like maybe collect the nuts and put them in a bucket system similar to black soldier flys or maybe a system where they could fall out of holes in a bucket?

I’d be afraid of throwing the nuts in the pen and the birds pooping on them and then trying to get them clean enough to crack and eat but maybe there is a way for them to eat the maggots and dehull the nuts for me?

I’ve washed the hulls off the nuts when they got super rotted before.  The water could have made an excellent natural dye, and another observation, where I poured the water, within about a half hour worms started pouring out of the ground. Like TONS of worms.

Any thoughts? I feel like there are a lot of connections here that I am missing out on

Hi Eric, when black walnut hulls get wormy and soft it's the perfect time for hulling. Put them on a tarp so the maggots won't escape and burrow in the ground to pupate. Put on rainboots to stomp on the walnuts or use a hammer. Either way the hulls come off in big chunks and the nuts are easy to clean afterwards. Chickens love scratching around and eating worms in the pile. I used the hulls as mulch for my garlic bed without any ill effect. They can be dried to make natural dye too.

That's definitely an interesting idea. I do wonder if the larvae are perfectly safe for them to eat. I know walnut hills in moderation can be an excellent vermifuge, so could possibly even be very good for them, but I've never seen anything on how they react with chicken anatomy.

I'm aware of the practice of hanging a carcass over water and letting the maggots drop to feed fish, but similarly, I would be concerned that they might have some nastiness on them that might not be good for chickens.

i’ve fed relatively large amounts of walnut hull fly maggots to my chickens a few times. maybe up to about a pint or so of maggots at a time to 7 or 8 birds, a handful of times in a season. i suspect any dangerous compounds are seriously diluted in those little fat- and water-filled bodies. i’ve certainly never noticed any ill effect.

eric, the majority of the worms seem to migrate out of the hulls and into the ground - i expect they prefer to pupate there - so it should be possible to temporarily store the nuts in something that lets them drop through into some kind of collection vessel (or indeed, just the chicken yard), and then still be able to hull and cure the nuts without the the danger of chicken poop.

Hi Eric,

If you can't find any good use for them, I have heard that Black Walnut hulls can be used to make a valuable tincture. It is reported to be rich in iodine, and traditionally painted on the knees as an iodine supplement in order to prevent the body from utilizing radioactive iodine in contaminated areas. Unfortunately, this may be a myth as I have never seen iodine in any form listed as a chemical constituent in scientific papers about Black Walnut husks but the tincture is valuable regardless.

Given your interest in using these maggots to feed your chickens, have you ever tried to build a bio-pod to harvest black soldier fly larvae?

Hope this helps,
Eric S.

Eric Silveira wrote:Hi Eric,

If you can't find any good use for them, I have heard that Black Walnut hulls can be used to make a valuable tincture. It is reported to be rich in iodine, and traditionally painted on the knees as an iodine supplement in order to prevent the body from utilizing radioactive iodine in contaminated areas. Unfortunately, this may be a myth as I have never seen iodine in any form listed as a chemical constituent in scientific papers about Black Walnut husks but the tincture is valuable regardless.

Given your interest in using these maggots to feed your chickens, have you ever tried to build a bio-pod to harvest black soldier fly larvae?

Hope this helps,
Eric S.

I make black walnut hull tincture once a year to use as a de-wormer for the chickens. I also have used it myself but less frequently. I also have heard it’s one of the few natural sources of iodine and also can be made into a dye. I would imagine if chickens were eating a lot if maggots from the hulls that maybe it would help deworm them a bit, especially if they eat bits of the hull accidentally. I do think you can overdo it with black walnut though, but I don’t remember what the consequences would be.

If I had black walnuts, I wouldn't think twice tossing the wormy nuts into the chicken run. I know black walnut is poisonous to other plants but I'm not aware of any issue with chickens as like another poster mentioned that they utilize a tincture for their chickens. The maggots are then therefore fair game! We can call it seasonal enrichment.

Interesting topic,this would be a good study for someone in the ag sector to perform on chickens.If The larvae carry over the worm fighting properties they could be collected and sold commercially  as black soldier flies are,to chicken producers as a natural and possibly organic dewormer.

The walnuts are starting to fall here,seems to have been a good year for them.

Eric Silveira wrote:Hi Eric,

If you can't find any good use for them, I have heard that Black Walnut hulls can be used to make a valuable tincture. It is reported to be rich in iodine, and traditionally painted on the knees as an iodine supplement in order to prevent the body from utilizing radioactive iodine in contaminated areas. Unfortunately, this may be a myth as I have never seen iodine in any form listed as a chemical constituent in scientific papers about Black Walnut husks but the tincture is valuable regardless.

Given your interest in using these maggots to feed your chickens, have you ever tried to build a bio-pod to harvest black soldier fly larvae?

Hope this helps,
Eric S.

To make tinctures you have to use green hull before it darkens.  It is a good source of iodine.  I doubt there is enough concentration to get what you need  by painting the tincture on the knees;  however, there is enough of something that it kills fungus.  Could be the juglone, not just the iodine.