Homestead Ventures · Project Concept · Costa Rica
The kitchen throws it. The stalls make it. Black Soldier Fly larvae eat it. Fourteen days later it’s feed for the trout ponds and the hens — and the leftover bedding rolls into the worm beds.
One insect. Two revenue lines. Zero smell when it’s run right. Waste in, protein out, frass to the worms — the loop that turns a chore into a product line.
The Raise
Homestead Ventures is actively raising capital to launch the Chirripó BSF program as a real, profitable feed line — not a preview and not a compost pilot. Founding partners come in now, at seed terms, before the first bag of larvae leaves the farm gate.
Where we start
The first bin sits on already-secured land at the foot of Mount Chirripó. Feed the first hens. Prove the cycle through a full wet season. No capital goes to land acquisition on day one.
Where we grow
Once the bin runs clean, add a drying rack and package larvae as trout ration for local highland producers. Frass to the worm beds. This is where the Costa Rica loop compounds.
Who we need
A limited founding cohort. Founders come in first, at seed terms, and are named on the feed line. Standard partners come in as the round fills. Equity, not donation.
Interested? Reach out and we’ll walk you through the numbers, the timeline, and the specific terms for the slot you want.
Inquire About the Round →Why BSF, Why Here
Chirripó’s warm-humid climate is exactly what Black Soldier Fly wants year-round. What kills mealworm operations at altitude is what BSF thrives on. The feedstock is already on the farm.
BSF is not a hobby. It is the waste-to-protein hinge of the Costa Rica stack: kitchen scraps and stall waste go in, larvae come out as feed for hens and trout, frass rolls into the worm beds. Nothing is ornamental. Everything feeds the next product.
The species
Hermetia illucens
Black Soldier Fly. Native to the Americas, thrives in humid tropical climates. Adults don’t bite, don’t eat, don’t spread disease.
Cycle
14 to 21 days
Egg to prepupae harvest. Fast, predictable, repeatable. A running feed line, not a seasonal crop.
Protein
~40% dry weight
Larvae are ~40% protein and ~30% fat when dried. Real feed value for hens and trout — not marketing.
Self-harvest
Prepupae walk out
Mature larvae climb out of the bin on their own to a collection tray. No sifting. No sorting. That is a real labor advantage.
Feedstock
Kitchen & stall waste
Vegetable scraps, spoiled fruit, horse manure, spent grain. What we already throw out becomes the input.
Output
Hens & trout
Live larvae for the poultry pen. Dried and packaged for the highland trout program. Feed, not human food.
Byproduct
Frass
What’s left after the larvae are harvested. Rolls into the worm beds or straight to the garden.
The rule
Feed, not food.
We are raising insect protein for hens and trout. This is a livestock feed program, not a human-food play.
Costa Rica has no established insect-feed market at scale — not yet. Honesty is the label: feed line first for our own animals, then the neighbors, then the region.
The Chirripó zone already has a working highland trout program. Cold streams, real producers, real demand for feed that doesn’t rely entirely on imported fishmeal. Free-range hens are on every homestead. The buyers are already here. The feed line is the missing piece.
The Fly We Want
The Black Soldier Fly. Native to this hemisphere. Nothing exotic. Nothing invasive to Costa Rica.
Hermetia illucens is native to the Americas and now cosmopolitan through the humid tropics and subtropics. Adults live roughly five to eight days, do not have functional mouthparts, and do not bite or transmit disease. They exist to mate and lay eggs. A single female can lay 500 to 900 eggs in a batch.
The larvae do the work. In good conditions they consume close to twice their body weight per day in organic material. In roughly fourteen to twenty-one days they mature into prepupae — the harvest stage — and self-migrate out of the bin to a dry area, where they get collected clean.
That self-harvest behavior is the real labor advantage. You don’t chase the crop. The crop walks to the tray.
Not everything is easy. Wet-season moisture control matters. Bin design matters. Odor management matters. We are not going to pretend the first bin runs itself. But the biology is on our side, and the climate is on our side, and the feedstock is on our side.
How the Three Ventures Lock
BSF, horses, and worms on the same Chirripó land. Every product feeds the next.
The Costa Rica homestead is not three separate hobbies. The three ventures interlock at the material level — not marketing, not story, but flows. Waste goes into BSF and comes out as protein. Horse manure goes into worms and comes out as castings. BSF frass goes into worm beds and comes out as more castings. Nothing stays waste.
Frass is the hinge. It’s what BSF leaves behind after the protein has been harvested — a fine, dry, nutrient-rich residue. That’s what the worm beds want as an add-on feedstock, and what the gardens want as a soil amendment. The animal pays twice.
The Math · From Bin to Bag
Real BSF operations start with a bin, not a warehouse. The math scales with the feedstock — and the feedstock scales with the horse band.
Phase 1 · starter bin
~1 bin
Sized to kitchen waste plus the first hens’ needs. Prove the cycle through one full wet season before adding capacity.
Cycle time
14–21 days
Egg to prepupae harvest in Chirripó conditions. Predictable, repeatable, month-round in this climate.
Feedstock
~2× body weight/day
Larvae process roughly twice their own body weight in organic material per day. That is the throughput number every planning calculation starts from.
The Business Plan
Not a moonshot. A staged build where the waste is already on the farm and the buyers are already down the mountain.
The First Bin
A starter bin at farm scale. Starter grubs from an established BSF operation. Kitchen scraps plus stall waste as the first feed.
The first larvae go to our own hens. Frass goes to the worm beds. We run the bin through one full wet season before we call it proven.
Trout Ration & Drying
Drying rack and packaging setup. Larvae subbed in for imported fish feed on the local highland trout program. Frass to the worm beds as a named input.
Founding feed-line partners get their names on the label. First-year pricing locked. Real feed value, published on the bag.
Farm Gate Feed
As the Quarter Horse band grows, so does the feedstock and so does the bin count. Neighbors buy larvae for their own poultry, trout, or aquaponics.
Frass sold as-is or fed further through the worm beds. Optional later: eggs (BSF starter stock for other CR operations). Three CR products, one farm gate.
Claims · Say Only What Holds
We are raising insect protein for hens and trout. We are not selling a superfood, a supplement, or a snack.
BSF larvae are livestock feed. That is the market. That is the label. Published aquaculture research supports partial and, in some studies, full substitution for fishmeal in salmonid diets — but the responsible framing is partial substitution, measured on the specific ration, not blanket claims.
Frass is a soil amendment. It’s useful. It supports plant growth. We are not going to claim it cures blight or replaces a complete fertility program.
Costa Rica’s insect-feed sale regulations are still being worked out. We treat that as a to-do we will honor before the first paid bag ships, not a formality already handled.
Founding Partners
Same frame as the Sicily ventures. Early supporters are not buying a plaque. They are in before Chirripó BSF is a Costa Rica feed line.
Fund the first bin.
Your capital covers the first bin, starter grubs, shelter, and wet-season proofing. Where the numbers land is confirmed in the round terms. First larvae go to your named animal — hens on the homestead or trout at the local program.
Fund the feed line launch.
Your name goes on a specific feed program — the trout ration, the hen mix, or the drying line. Every batch that goes out under that program, you get an allocation or a share of that revenue.
Horses + worms + BSF as one stack.
Cycle proven, feed line moving. Your capital sits across all three Costa Rica ventures — the horse band, the worm beds, and the BSF bins — as one integrated Chirripó operation.
If Founding Partner Is Not the Fit
Not everyone we talk to is positioned for a founding-partner slot — and that’s fine. If you want to see this feed line come to life, there’s a way in at every level.
$50
A simple way to be part of it — and to hear from Chirripó every month.
$150
The tier where you actually see the residue — and put it in your own soil.
$500
The full backing tier — and an open door to the mountain.
Every supporter, at every level, helps turn a chore into a product line. A small bag still counts as a launch.
The Costa Rica Stack
This is one of three linked ventures on the same Chirripó land. Manure feeds worms. Waste feeds BSF. Frass feeds worms too. One inquiry form. Three real products.
Venture · Working stock
American Quarter Horses from a Pérez Zeledón program, raised and bred on the mountain. Working stock, ranch value, and the manure that starts the whole loop.
See the Project →Venture · Garden currency
Horse-manure vermicompost turned into bagged castings for gardens, fruit trees, and neighboring farms. What the horse doesn’t keep, the worm turns into soil.
See the Project →The other island · Sicily
Fair Questions
Mealworms struggle in humid tropical climates — they want cooler, drier bins. BSF thrives in Chirripó humidity, cycles faster, and self-harvests out of the bin. In this climate, on this feedstock, BSF is the right insect.
Published aquaculture studies show partial substitution for fishmeal works well — often 25 to 50 percent, sometimes more depending on species and ration formulation. Full replacement is a research question, not our first bet. We’re aiming for meaningful substitution on the local highland trout program, measured on their fish, not a promise about every fish.
Managed correctly, no — BSF bins run drier and less pungent than open manure piles or hot compost heaps. The bacteria that make manure stink don’t thrive in a BSF bin. That said, a mismanaged wet bin will let you know it’s mismanaged. Design and moisture control matter.
BSF adults live five to eight days, don’t have functional mouthparts, don’t bite, and don’t spread disease. They exist to mate and lay eggs. They’re nothing like house flies. That’s a big part of why this insect works as a farm-scale feed source.
The bin needs to stay damp but not saturated. Rainy season in Chirripó is real — roof, drainage, and bedding choice are the difference between a smooth run and a bin that crashes. That’s exactly what Phase 1 is for: learn the wet season, on this land, before we scale.
Into the worm beds (they process it further into castings), straight to the garden as a soil amendment, or eventually sold as-is to local growers who want a dry, nutrient-rich residue. Nothing gets thrown away twice.
Live larvae or dried protein for hens and trout. Origin: Chirripó zone, Costa Rica. Species. Harvest date. Feed-use only. When we’re selling to neighbors, it goes with the paperwork Costa Rican insect-feed rules require — not before.
A bin at the farm gate. Feed on the mountain. Nothing thrown away twice.
This page is a project concept and capital raise. Cycle times, throughput, protein content, and substitution rates are working targets and planning figures, not promises. Actual bin numbers will be measured on the Chirripó operation before any feed pricing is set. BSF larvae and frass are livestock feed and soil amendment respectively — not human food. Costa Rica animal-movement, insect-feed sale, and fertilizer-labeling requirements will be handled separately before commercial distribution.