Five Key Points of Maggot Farming Explained, Master the Key Technical Methods

Essential Conditions for Maggot Farming Natural conditions Temperature is an essential condition for maggot farming.

Below 20°C, flies stop reproducing or enter a hibernation state, neither eating nor moving. Plastic greenhouses can only be used for seasonal farming; in late autumn, severe winter and early spring, the temperature cannot meet the requirements, and at this time farming inside the greenhouse is futile.

Maggot feed The feed for productive maggot farming must be cheap waste, preferably chicken manure produced by poultry farmers themselves. Calculated at 3 jin of chicken manure producing 1 jin of maggots, the amount of feed required for productive farming is very large. If soy sauce residue, tofu residue or other waste is purchased, the cost is too high, and the result is often not worth the loss.

Self-consumption capacity For productive maggot farming, it is best if the household itself is a poultry and fish farming specialist, able to produce and sell its own output, so as to reduce the feed cost of poultry and fish and improve economic returns.

Site selection for the farming site Maggot farming is to a large extent harmful to hygiene; therefore, when choosing a farming site, the following points should be noted:

Stay away from residential areas Chicken manure or other waste accumulating in the yard allows adult flies to enter rooms and land and crawl, affecting human health.

Pay attention to the prevailing wind direction Pay attention to the local prevailing wind direction, and set up the maggot farm on the downwind side of the chicken farm, so that odors do not drift into the rearing room and chicken house and affect the healthy growth of the keepers and the flock.

Stay away from water sources The maggot farm must be far from private water sources and public water source areas, so that sewage does not seep into the ground, causing water quality deterioration and affecting the water used by the flock.

Waste storage site The productive maggot farming site must have a dedicated area for stacking chicken manure and maggot farming waste, to prevent environmental pollution.

Construction of rearing rooms and sheds For insulated rooms and sheds, the area should be calculated at 1 sq m per 1 kg of maggots produced. A room or shed that is too large is not conducive to heat preservation, while one that is too small cannot guarantee output. This is a major challenge in maggot farming, as it involves investment. If funds permit, a cold-proof insulated room can be built for year-round farming; if funds are insufficient, a greenhouse-type seasonal farming setup can be used. Simple outdoor farming is affected by temperature and rain; the farming period is longer in the south and shorter in the north, and this method can neither guarantee output nor is good for environmental hygiene, so it is not recommended. For the construction of sheds and rooms for productive farming, note the following points:

Cold protection and heat preservation To ensure the temperature inside the shed or room is above 25°C, the walls must have a certain thickness, doors and windows must be tight, and there must be heating and temperature control facilities indoors. Plastic sheds are not suitable for farming because the temperature is too high in summer and difficult to reach 25°C in severe cold seasons.

Rain protection and shade Farming inside a shed requires attention to rain protection, so as not to disrupt the maggot farming environment. In midsummer, attention must also be paid to avoiding direct sunlight, to prevent the maggot feed from drying and hardening and causing the maggots to die.

The specific structure, scale and shape of the room or shed can be adapted to local conditions; there is no need to force uniformity, as long as it is suitable.

Productive farming management Productive maggot farming management can be broadly divided into two parts: attracting flies to lay eggs and the growth of the maggots.

Because of the female fly's instinct for safe hatching, it mostly lays eggs in quiet places rich in nutrients or in sheltered spots. By understanding this habit of the female fly, containers such as plastic square trays or cans and bottles can be used, with nutrients placed inside (meat bones, leftover soup residue, fish innards, watermelon rind, wheat bran, sugar liquid and other waste), and placed in quiet spots to attract flies to lay eggs. When the eggs hatch into maggots, they can be moved into chicken manure to grow.

In the feeding management during the growth of the maggots, one should grasp the habit that once the maggots mature they no longer feed on the feed and begin to crawl outward into the soil to pupate, and collect or scoop out the maggots in time.

Maggot rearing can be divided into dry and wet types. Dry rearing is: spread chicken manure on a plastic sheet or cement floor, 80 cm wide, 10-15 cm high, with no limit on length. After moving fly eggs or hatched young maggots onto it, sprinkle water to maintain a certain humidity, and the eggs or young maggots can hatch and grow. Wet rearing is: build a non-leaking water pool in the room or shed that is 30 cm deep, 60-80 cm wide, with no limit on length; put water in the pool, add chicken manure and stir into a thick slurry, then move in fly eggs, and they can hatch into maggots and grow. Whether dry or wet rearing is used, when the maggots are growing, the maggot manure must be cleaned up in time and fresh chicken manure replaced regularly to increase output.

Maggot processing and storage The collected or scooped maggots should be promptly put into hot water to scald them to death, then taken out and sun-dried (or oven-dried), or directly mixed into feed made from crushed corn and fed promptly. Wet maggots mixed into cornmeal must not be left for long, to avoid mold and spoilage.

The daily output of maggots is large, and after drying, the moisture content must be well controlled for long-term storage. When processing maggots, rotten and spoiled dead maggots should be picked out, so as not to affect the quality of the maggot powder.