BAM is a patented product produced by Harry Arakaki of Organa Agriculture Hawaii, Inc., Waianae, Hawaii.  We also keep some bottles of BAM around that we sell to local customers at the same price ($40 plus HI State Excise Tax).

We use BAM, at the concentration of 800:1 in the drinking water for our animals to provide beneficial microorganisms in the digestive system to help prevent disease.  In February and March of 2006, we had six weeks of solid rain.  All of our chicken pens were flooded and I used pallets and upside down plant trays to give the chickens dry surfaces to stand on in addition to their perches.  Everyone was stressed, the animals and us.

The good thing about BAM is that it can't hurt and it seems to be doing a lot of good  

We have also found during the rains,  that BAM is often more effective at treating  ill chickens than antibiotics.   I did have one favorite miniature hen come down with a cold and rattles in her lungs and loss of appetite.  I gave her 1/4 of a choramphenicol tablet and also about 6 ml of 50% BAM through a feeding tube.  She had no rattles the next morning and was interested in food.  I continued the treatment for 3 days to be on the safe side. 

I also often irrigate animal wounds with BAM.  I have even put it in my own eye when I had a minor infection.  It stung a little but in seconds my eye felt clearer.

I have another rooster who has had chronic lung rattles for months.  I have been giving him a sip of straight BAM twice a day for several weeks.  I  also bring him in to the warm feed room for the night and don't let him stay out in the cooler covered roost areas.   Several weeks after I started, he is not rattling any more, but he has become fond of the BAM and comes looking for me. 

For the few chickens that got wet and overly cold and wet, and seemed to be going down, I would put them in a warmed hospital cage and give them a sip of straight BAM, twice a day for a few days.   All of them recovered except for one very nice rooster who seemed to have some other problems.  Most of the outside birds choose to roost in the covered areas, but some of the Polish and Silkie rooster diehards would sit out in the rain all night by choice and stayed healthy even though they were totally bedraggled and muddy for weeks on end.

In commercial chicken operations, BAM in the water has been found to reduce salmonella to regulatory levels in chickens raised for food.

Recently, Baby, our big Andalusian-cross, suddenly came down with something that really had me scared.  He stopped eating and appeared to be feverish and in pain.  I broke my thermometer and couldn't measure his actual temperature until the next day, when he was 101.2 F..    His eyes were sunken in his head and looked haunted.  I gave him about 20 mls of straight BAM and a bute tablet every 4 - 6 hours.   All through the night, he chose to stand out in the pasture in the rain, with his head hanging down touching the ground.   I went out every few hours through the night.  The other horses stayed in the dry barn and ran out every so often to check on him.  The next morning I haltered him, he still looked pretty pathetic, but I took him into the barn and gave him some more BAM and bute, and fiddled around checking his feet for about 10 minutes.  Then I brought out hay for the other horses and darn it if Baby didn't turn around and nicker at me that he was hungry.  I didn't give him any more BAM and bute and within 2 days, he was back to normal.

Lastly, I have some longstanding abscesses in my jaw from stressing out and clenching my teeth as I sleep.  The dentist said that often these kinds of things will resolve over time by themselves.  A few weeks ago, they really began to hurt and I thought that I was in for major pain and expense.  I also had a painful, swollen node under my chin and felt pretty awful.    I took about a teaspoon of straight BAM and held it in my mouth for a few minutes every two or three hours.  Within two hours, the pain in my jaw had reduced to minimal levels and within 2 days it was gone altogether and the painful node under my chin had totally resolved.  

I don't know why BAM works, but what I think is happening is that the good bacteria in the BAM crowds out the bad bacteria.  What we have learned about soil health is that healthy soils have a living web of bacteria, fungi and various organisms .   I think that we need to have a living web of beneficial organisms inside ourselves also.

BAM is also used to perk up septic tanks and sprayed on animal yards and smelly areas to control odor.