Pelle is a Swede living in Czechoslovakia. Home for the time being is the farm where he lives with his wife and her family — ducks, geese, hens, fish, sheep and a dam or two. The sheep and hens are happily eating Bokashi these days — that’s right, kitchen scraps that have been fermented in the kitchen in the normal way then instead of being dug down into the soil are served up for supper to the animals.
OK, so maybe it sounds a bit odd. But the animals obviously love it and even though it’s unusual in Europe (so far) this is exactly what’s happennng in many countries around the world. A fantastic use of resources and good old-fashioned common sense.
Bokashi is not at all well-established in Czechoslovakia, in fact Pelle learnt what he needed to know here in Sweden from Kai Vogt Westling at Greenfoot and started up a number of experiments on the family farm once he got there. In addition to feeding the animals with Bokashi he’s also spraying EM (Effective Microorganisms) on their food and the ducks, geese and fish all get some Bokashi bran in their food (it’s a good probiotic). He’s also using EM to treat an overgrown dam and improve the water quality of the stream that runs through to the animals.
Anyhow. The pictures above show how Pelle fixed his buckets. Innovative and practical. Above all cheap. Standard restaurant bucket (try your local pizzeria), holes drilled in the base, sitting on a kitchen bowl that just happened to have the right diameter. The weight of the bucket gives it an airtight fit in the bowl, a normal tray would not be tight fitting enough.
So if you’re looking for a quick and easy way to fix a Bokashi bucket here it is! The Czechoslovakian farm maybe you’ll have to live without, but the idea would work anywhere. Good luck! And thanks Pelle.
Bokashiworld 
Bokashi as feed for livestock? WIN! Can we have a guest post or interview or something with lots of details, pretty please?
Merry bucket-mas -G-
DSF
I’ll see what I can do! Pelle, are you out there? Want to leave a comment??!!
/Jenny
Interesting read. Very original and practical how he made his buckets! I love Bokashi, since it is such a good way to compost.
Thanks for posting this.
Roel
Thanks for your comments! Had a few words with Pelle about the chickens — they have a family farm so its not an industrial operation. The hens love the Bokashi and are apparently laying quite a few more eggs since they started on their Bokashi diet a few months ago. From what I understand the Bokashi-chicken feed combination is quite common in Asia, check out these guys in Japan.
/JennyH
Here in South Africa, we are currently feeding 1,000 dairy cows and calfs, with 100g of SCD Bokashi (foodgrade) daily, plus 75ml of SCD EM Bio Livestock.
They have been on it now for 5 months and the results are impressive:
1.25 Liters more per cow per day average;
mastittus and bacterial problems have dropped by 85%
general health has improved, and hoove rot is almost non excisting
use of anti biotics have come down by 75%, and the vetinary bill down by 60%
15 to 17% increase in weight
only 10% diarree problems then before, and when the calfs do get it, an extra dose of Bio Livestock is applied with great results. This results in hardly any medice / anti biotics being administered.
Just started with a trial on 2500 layers (chickens). Here we add 30g SCD Bokashi (foodgrade) per kiligram of feed, and some SCD Bio Livestock in the water.
Starting a trial on rabbits within the next few weeks as well.
I will post some results once we have some available.
In Japan fermented bokashi is send to a factory where they send it through a crucher, then dry it, pelletize it, and sell it as chicken and dog food.
Thanks for the info Vernon. Really REALLY interesting. It will be exciting to see how all this develops on a smaller and larger scale around the world. For once a genuinely good guerilla movement that’s good for our animals and the environment. Please keep us posted, it would be great to know what the chickens and rabbits think!