EM-1 (effective microorganism) & bokashi for chickens

[quailswiss]

Has anyone tried to feed bokashi compost (after a week of fermenting) to chicken or ideally quail?

 

[pdirt]

I've mostly only done bokashi with chicken feed and wheat bran. When we made bokashi with kitchen scraps (including meat and bones), it stunk. I'm not sure I would want to feed that to my chickens, but then again, people talk of their birds going through nasty and moldy compost piles with glee.

When I make it with chicken feed, I use a mixture of bokashi wheat bran and EM with molasses. I usually ferment it for a few days to a week before using. The traditional process does it for two weeks before using. Two weeks makes a better ferment, but I'm fine with a shorter window of time.

 

[Double Kindness]

I have bokashi a friend brewed for me and I make my own chicken feed from grains and seeds, how should I go about doing this to their feed? I started some feed fermenting a few weeks ago, but I'm not sure if I'm doing it right.

Do I want to keep it anerobic, or do I stir, and how often?

 

[pdirt]

I have bokashi a friend brewed for me and I make my own chicken feed from grains and seeds, how should I go about doing this to their feed? I started some feed fermenting a few weeks ago, but I'm not sure if I'm doing it right.

Do I want to keep it anerobic, or do I stir, and how often?

FYI, "bokashi" is what you get when you ferment any organic matter with the liquid EM culture. The bokashi movement started with home composting...using EM fermented wheat or rice bran mixed in with kitchen scraps. After 2 weeks, the fermented mixture is buried in soil to finish the composting. Is your "bokashi" your friend gave you a liquid or is it fermented wheat bran? You want the liquid for making EM-fermented feed (bokashi).

For making regular fermented feed, yes, you will want to stir it. For making EM-fermented feed (bokashi), you want to keep it anaerobic, so don't stir. You also don't use as much water in bokashi. I figure I use about 1:2 water:feed, rather than the 1:1 most people use for regular fermented feed. The official instructions are to ferment it, anaerobically, for 2 weeks before using. I don't always wait that long, but do wait until it has begun to smell sour, at least a week. If you have pH test strips, all the better, you want it to be a pH of 4.5 or lower.

PM me with your email address and I would be happy to send you a booklet I wrote up about using EM with backyard poultry.

 

[Double Kindness]

It is liquid bokashi, I have it stored in my fridge. I switched to home made gluten-free feed from grains and seeds, but see a lot of seeds in the droppings. My email address is the same as my user name @gmail.com thank you!

 

[Lacy Blues]

Maybe you need more grit to grind up those seeds?

 

[pdirt]

It is liquid bokashi, I have it stored in my fridge. I switched to home made gluten-free feed from grains and seeds, but see a lot of seeds in the droppings. My email address is the same as my user name @gmail.com thank you!

It's best stored at room temperature. Make sure it's stored in a plastic bottle. Check the bottle every few days for the first couple weeks to see if it bottle is bulging, if so, simply unscrew the cap a little to release the pressure and re-tighten. Email sent.

What sort of seeds are you seeing in the droppings?

 

[LindaB220]

Hi, pdirt. It's been a while. I started my baby chicks on fermented feed on April 28 when I got them. I changed to EM-1 a couple of monts later. My chicks have never been healthier. Never lost a chick to illness. I'm getting 40 ISA brown pullets and am going keep them separate from my White Rocks and others. Feeding organic fermented feeds. Very excited about going into the egg business..
I do have a question though. I'm i the south and it doesn't get very cold. I don't ferment the feed as long as you do. Possibly I need to check the Ph on it. I don't notice the ferminted smell as much as in the summer. Maybe I need to pay more attention to what I'm doing. I tend to start feeding it after a couple of days. They all love it. I got a really good Bob Blosl White Plymouth Rock cock recently. Docile and easy going. The first day I got him he looked at the bowl and looked at me. Looked at the bowl and stood around. The girls started running toward it and going crazy. He pecked, and pecked again. Then he started shoving the girls out of the way to get more. Hilarious . He's settled down some but still loves his ff. I make it in 5 gallon buckets and I think I'll bump it up to a 18 gallon tote. It will sit longer and mellow more.

 

[Lacy Blues]

Linda, you don't smell it as much now because of the cooler temps. Maybe put it by your heat vent to speed it up.

 

[pdirt]

Hi, pdirt. It's been a while. I started my baby chicks on fermented feed on April 28 when I got them. I changed to EM-1 a couple of monts later. My chicks have never been healthier. Never lost a chick to illness. I'm getting 40 ISA brown pullets and am going keep them separate from my White Rocks and others. Feeding organic fermented feeds. Very excited about going into the egg business..
I do have a question though. I'm i the south and it doesn't get very cold. I don't ferment the feed as long as you do. Possibly I need to check the Ph on it. I don't notice the ferminted smell as much as in the summer. Maybe I need to pay more attention to what I'm doing. I tend to start feeding it after a couple of days. They all love it. I got a really good Bob Blosl White Plymouth Rock cock recently. Docile and easy going. The first day I got him he looked at the bowl and looked at me. Looked at the bowl and stood around. The girls started running toward it and going crazy. He pecked, and pecked again. Then he started shoving the girls out of the way to get more. Hilarious . He's settled down some but still loves his ff. I make it in 5 gallon buckets and I think I'll bump it up to a 18 gallon tote. It will sit longer and mellow more.

If you're fermenting with EM-1, the "official" way is to do it as an anaerobic ferment...meaning you don't stir it after the initial mix up and keep the container sealed from air. And you should wait 2 weeks before using it (I use it around a week, but I check the pH first, 4.5 or lower). There is a small chance that bad bacteria could grow in the anaerobic environment but 2 weeks is a safe window for the EM to take control of the microbe-sphere.

It won't smell as fermented in winter, even in the south, because it is not as warm. I would tend towards two weeks in winter and a week in summer, and checking pH is always best when using EM.