FAQ: How fast do the BSF larvae grow, when can I expect to get protein for my farm animals?

To start growing BSF larvae you first need eggs. We can point you to the right direction, not a problem, or if you want to breed them yourself, that’s totally fine as well. We actually can help you with that, too.

You see, our containers are not used just for growing BSF, but breeding also, but it happens in another container. Once your BSF operations grow bigger, a good setup would be to have 1 breeding container to match 4 growth containers.

The growth period is 10-14 days, so you get a new batch approx. every 2 weeks. During that the time the larvae will eat itself 7000-8000 times bigger, in theory even up to 10.000 times.

One container can produce 2-3 batches per month, which means in practice roughly 1200 – 1500 kg larvae and 2000 kg of frass, depending on the nutritional value of the biowaste. Huge, right?!

Those that rear BSF larvae in open air conditions, tend to have big differences between batches, as temperature, moisture, etc. all effect the growth rate, just like the material you feed the larvae. This is exactly one of those things we’ve improved in the process: our Manna MIND 20ft control box monitors the growth conditions 24/7 and adjusts all relevant factors automatically, so that you the BSF farmer, don’t have to worry about a thing, we send you automatic alerts if any input at all is required. It takes minimal effort in both working hours and no previous BSF experience or official education to get started with Manna’s solutions.

And what we hear from our customers, even those that have grown BSF larvae before, are amazed by the size of our larvae!