Detailed Explanation of Five Key Technical Points for Fly Farming

    Essential Conditions for Maggot Farming Natural conditions Temperature is an essential condition for maggot farming.
Below 20°C, flies stop reproducing or enter a dormant state, neither eating nor moving. Plastic greenhouses can only support seasonal farming; in late autumn, severe winter and early spring, the temperature cannot meet the requirements, and farming in the greenhouse at such times is futile.
Maggot Feed The feed for commercial maggot farming must be cheap waste, preferably chicken manure produced by chicken farmers themselves. Calculating 1 jin of maggots per 3 jin of chicken manure, commercial farming requires a large amount of feed. If soy sauce residue, tofu residue or other waste must be purchased, the cost is too high, and the result is often not worth the effort.
Self-consumption Capacity For commercial maggot farming, it is best to be a poultry or fish farming specialist yourself, so that you can produce and consume your own maggots, reducing feed costs for poultry and fish and improving economic returns.
Site Selection for the Farming Site Maggot farming is to a large extent a sanitation nuisance, so when choosing a farming site, pay attention to the following points:
Stay away from residential areas Chicken manure or other waste piled in the yard allows adult flies to enter homes and land on people, affecting human health.
Pay attention to the prevailing wind direction year-round Note the local prevailing wind direction throughout the year, 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, affecting the healthy growth of the keepers and the chickens.
Stay away from water sources The maggot farm must be far away 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 chickens.
Waste Storage Site A commercial 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 Greenhouses For the insulation room or greenhouse, calculate the area as 1 sq m per 1 kg of maggots produced. A room or greenhouse that is too large is not conducive to insulation, while one that is too small cannot guarantee output. This is a major challenge in maggot farming, as it involves investment issues. If funds allow, an insulated cold-proof room can be built for year-round farming; if funds are insufficient, a greenhouse-style seasonal farming setup can be used. Simple outdoor farming is affected by temperature and rain; farming time is longer in the south and shorter in the north. This method cannot guarantee output and also harms environmental sanitation, so it is not recommended. For commercial farming, pay attention to the following points when building the greenhouse or room:
Cold-proof and insulated To ensure the temperature inside the greenhouse or room stays above 25°C, the walls must have a certain thickness, doors and windows must be tightly sealed, and there must be heating and temperature-control facilities inside. Plastic greenhouses get too hot in summer and struggle to reach 25°C in severe cold seasons, so they are not suitable for farming.
Rainproof and shade-proof When farming inside a greenhouse, pay attention to rainproofing so as not to disrupt the maggot farming environment. In midsummer, also avoid direct sunlight exposure, to prevent the maggot feed from drying and hardening and causing the maggots to die.
The specific structure, scale and shape of the rooms and greenhouses can be adapted to local conditions; they need not be forced to be uniform, only suitable.
Commercial Farming Management Commercial maggot farming management can be broadly divided into two parts: attracting flies to lay eggs and the growth of the maggots.
Due to the female fly's instinct for safe hatching, she mostly lays eggs in quiet places rich in nutrients or in sheltered spots. By understanding this habit of the female fly, you can use containers such as plastic square trays or canning jars, place nutrients inside (meat bones, leftover soup residue, fish innards, watermelon rind, wheat bran, sugar liquid and other waste), and put them in quiet places to attract flies to lay eggs. Once the eggs hatch into maggots, they can be moved into chicken manure to grow.
In the feeding management during maggot growth, you should understand the habit that once maggots mature they stop feeding on the feed and begin crawling outward into the soil to pupate, and collect or scoop out the maggots promptly.
Maggot rearing can be divided into dry and wet methods. Dry rearing is: spread chicken manure on plastic sheeting or a cement floor, 80 cm wide and 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 moisture, and the eggs or young maggots can hatch and grow. Wet rearing is: build a leak-proof water pool inside the room or greenhouse that is 30 cm deep, 60-80 cm wide, with no limit on length; put water in the pool, add chicken manure and stir it into a thick slurry, then move in fly eggs, which can hatch into maggots and grow. Regardless of dry or wet rearing, as the maggots grow, promptly clean out the maggot manure and regularly replace it with fresh chicken manure to increase output.
Processing and Storage of Maggots The collected or scooped-out maggots should be promptly put into hot water to scald them to death, then scooped out and sun-dried (or oven-dried), or directly mixed into corn-crushed feed 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, so after drying, moisture must be well controlled to facilitate long-term storage. When processing maggots, remove rotten and spoiled dead maggots, so as not to affect the quality of the maggot powder.