Best way to store feed?

[Jessica Lyn]

To get the best pricing on food buying bulk seems to be the way to go (about 100lbs) for my small flock, my only concern is appropriate storage so I don't have food loss.

How do you store your feed so no critters get to it and it stays dry and fresh for the longest amount of time?

 

[arwoon]

I keep mine in five gallon buckets with sealing lids, and a large insulated Plastic igloo cooler.

 

[WhySayWhat]

I have feed still in (cleaned) plastic cat litter totes from a flock that hasn't been alive for 5+ years. I just haven't thrown it out yet, not feeding it to my current flock. The plastic totes kept critters out and were manageable for me to lift. Now, I put the open bag of feed in a large outdoor garbage can on wheels that's inside the run, no issues yet!

For a large quantity, we store the extra bags in our garage, though those should really be in something I can seal to keep the critters out of too. We got rhough the big bags in about 2 weeks, so I've been buying them 3 at a time.

 

[GC-Raptor]

I buy enough feed for 6 weeks to 2 months and keep inside my house in a spare room. I've never had feed go bad before 5 months after mill date.

I only keep a large coffee can of feed in the storage area in each of my 2 small coops of 9 chickens total. GC

 

[rosemarythyme]

For long term storage the absolute best bet would be a chest freezer - freezing feed would keep it as fresh as possible over longer periods of time, and it keeps pests out too.

In winter weather you might not need to actually freeze it (depending on where it is stored), since the cold will help with that, but in hot humid summers feed will spoil much faster at room temperature.

For me, since my garage is insulated, I store feed in the garage - minimal moisture and it's cooler than the house in summer. I use metal trashcans just in case any rodents go for it, though never seen any evidence of rodent activity in the garage.

 

[Shezadandy]

We buy by the literal ton as it's the most economic (no longer a price break at 2 tons) and with a large flock eating 25-30lbs a day - 40 bags actually isn't all that much. We keep ours up on pallets in the unfinished basement where it stays the coolest in the summer and of course nice and cold in the winter. Outdoor (feral?- we see them a few seconds each week) cats in the area have gravitated to us and we no longer see mice or chipmunks, but neither gave us too big a problem before the cats moved in. When the flock was smaller we had high quality metal garbage bins that fit 2 or 3 bags at a time, kept the vermin out.

 

[Aunt Angus]

I buy 100lbs at a time and store them in metal garbage cans. I buy the freshest stuff I can find by checking dates on the bag. I have 12 chickens and 4 ducks. It takes them a while to work through it all.

 

[gtaus]

I store my feed in my attached (but unheated) garage in large plastic garbage cans. If I had a rodent problem, then I'd use metal garbage cans. I used to buy feed on sale and stock up for 4-6 months, but lately there has been no good sales on feed, so I only buy a bag of feed as needed.

Pro tip: My farm store will mark down bags of feed that have ripped or broken open in handling. Standard markdown is about 25%. So I always check the feed aisle for those broken bags even if I don't need more feed at the time. In the last 3 months, I got one bag for 10% off, 1 bag at 25% off, and 1 bag at 50% off. Mostly, at my store, it depends on who is on duty that day and what mood they are in when you talk to them. The bags of feed I bought had rips, but hardly any feed was spilled out. So, good deal for me. Sometimes they already mark down the bags on display, but most often I have to ask for the discount on the ripped bag.

 

[saysfaa]

If I were buying feed by the hundreds of pounds, I'd use 55 gallon steel barrels with lids secured with bolted hoop bands. These are the kind people use for burn barrels. Around here, we can get them from food processors so I don't worry about cleaning the barrel thoroughly (the last one I got had strawberry puree in it.)

Since I buy it by the 25 pound bag, I use 5 or 6 gallon plastic buckets with gamma lids.

 

[gtaus]

I've never had feed go bad before 5 months after mill date.

A couple of years ago, prior to COVID-19, I would buy 4-6 months of feed if they were on a good sale. I never had any feed go bad. Just make sure you always use the oldest stuff first by using good feed rotation on your bags of stored feed. You don't want to buy a storage supply of feed to save money and then end up throwing it away because you forgot to check dates and make sure you feed the oldest food first.