The Poultry Keeper

milkmaid · Joined: 19 Apr 2005 Posts: 7313 Location: isle of lewis

my husbands ears pricked up at this ,he said anything that would stop salts bum from smelling would be worth it , Rolling Eyes

stephen · Posted: Sat Mar 24, 2007 8:57 am Post subject:

Well the litter tray was far less nuclear this morning, so we'll give it a little while longer and see what happens!

milkmaid · Joined: 19 Apr 2005 Posts: 7313 Location: isle of lewis

stephen · Posted: Thu Apr 12, 2007 5:49 am Post subject:

Well more updates - bear in mind these have to be anecdotal and are not scientific as we don't have controls etc!

1. Cats - Feeding bokashi to the cats has settled their stomachs a lot and has pretty much denuclearised Jyrkï.

2. Urine - The cats have had a couple of accidents (yeah, right!). We've used bokashi for the cleanup operation to break down the scent in it so they don't return to the scene of the crime and it does seem to have worked.

3. The Barn - when Nigel cleans out the barns he uses bokashi to wash them down. After a week, when we are due to clean them the next time, it doesn't really smell like a barn like it used to.

4. The indoor rose - we've never had huge successes with indoor plants, and indoor roses usually die within seconds of me buying them. We've been using the bokashi on the one we bought about a month ago, it's still alive, and producing new shoots and flowers

5. The Bokashi Bin - this has been in operation for nearly a month now. It's got about 3 weeks of kitchen scraps and waste eggs; it doesn't smell rotten in the slightest, other than the vaguely fermenting sweet smell of the bokashi. The inside kitchen scraps bin in squirted with bokashi when it's emptied, it too has no odour. The outside council bin isn't, and reeks to high heaven!

Oh, we've also been making our own bokashi bran (which has worked really well for the composting bin), and additional batches of bokashi liquid are being brewed from 50ml of "mother" liquid from the last batch and 50ml of black molasses / treacle. It's working a treat, and brings down the cost of bokashi very substantially. Basically, £30 and we're set as long as we have a mother culture to innoculate a new batch with.

Heather · Posted: Thu Apr 12, 2007 9:04 am Post subject:

That sounds really cool Very Happy

Loudmouth Schnook · Posted: Tue Apr 17, 2007 2:24 pm Post subject:

Hmmmmm.... sounds worth it! Thanks for the info Steph!

mcleod-girls · Posted: Tue Apr 17, 2007 7:34 pm Post subject:

what an interesting thread Very Happy

em-chicken · Joined: 04 Jan 2008 Posts: 18 Location: Lancashire

Hello to this forum! I have just stumbled across you and this thread and would like to add something to it regarding Effective Microorganisms (EM), bokashi and poultry.

Apart from keeping Welsummers, I am also involved with EM, being one of the UK distributors and so know about the subject.

As has already been mentioned elsewhere EM works fantastically well with chucks, not only for treating their housing where it can eliminate all ammonia production and at the same time, the EM will keep down and suppress harmfull pathogens. Infact, there is eveidence that where EM has been used on poultry units in the Far East (where it is very popular) that it has helped to prevent avian flu infections.
In these situations, the EM is mist sprayed on a regular basis in the units.
I know of other intensive units in europe which use it and the results are dramatic! Feather loss is almost eliminated and the birds will continue laying for considerably longer than those in convential systems.

When poultry are fed on 'bokashi' or have EM added to their drinking water, the result is that the microbes become established in the gut - this has a two fold effect - it improves their digestion (thereby reducing their feed requirement) and secondly, the EMs will boost their immune system, primarily due to the fact that they produce anti-oxidants, enzymes and a whole other bunch or beneficial goodies.

My small, free range flock of about 30 birds get EM on a regular basis and I have never had a health problem - their eggs are fantastic!

There is more information on my website www.emsustains.co.uk but if you have any questions, feel free to contact me.

Happy chickens are Em chickens!

kated · Joined: 01 Nov 2006 Posts: 1978 Location: norfolk

Hi em-chicken and welcome.

Tried the link but it's dead......sounds really interesting though.

CP · Posted: Fri Jan 04, 2008 8:09 pm Post subject:

Link doesn't work for me either. Sad

Magpie · Joined: 28 Aug 2007 Posts: 620 Location: Norfolk

It's the comma at the end of the link that is breaking it. Try www.emsustains.co.uk

Tim

kated · Joined: 01 Nov 2006 Posts: 1978 Location: norfolk

Blimey! who does your specs? I want some! Very Happy

Anyway, thanks, had a good look at the website.

Magpie · Joined: 28 Aug 2007 Posts: 620 Location: Norfolk

em-chicken · Joined: 04 Jan 2008 Posts: 18 Location: Lancashire

Sorry about the the bad link - have corrected it!

Well spotted!

ntsmama · Joined: 06 Dec 2007 Posts: 246

I have a question reagrding em culture and cleaning.
I've read in many places that you can use it to do laundry, dishes, clean floors etc.
But does it remove germs and things like listeria/salmonella/other such nasties?
Or does it just introduce good bacteria and its a case of who wins?

I ask because I'm very keen to cut out as many chemicals around the home as possible.
I use tea tree oil in the kids' nappy bucket (washable nappies) and soapnuts for laundry.

To clean out the chooks' houses, could i use diluted tea tree oil, rinse and then spray em culture? Or would cleaning with em culture be enough?