How do you store your poultry feed?

[perchie.girl]

Here is an excellent article on Rodent exclusion.

http://icwdm.org/handbook/rodents/RodentExclusion.asp

I personally had a house infested with Rats. You dont want to deal with that believe me. We are talking the size of bedroom slippers and I wasnt keeping Grain or even dog food. They came down from Palm trees surrounding the property and were using my house as a breeding facility.....

Now you know why I want 1/4 inch hardware cloth surrounding areas where I keep feed in sacks.

deb

 

[Chris09]

the main feeds are in metal trash cans and our treats we hang plastic grocery bags on a nail in the shed so the rodents cant ever get to them

If a rodent is hungry they will get to your treats. Rodents do climb very well.

Chris

 

[Chris09]

Here is an excellent article on Rodent exclusion.

http://icwdm.org/handbook/rodents/RodentExclusion.asp

I personally had a house infested with Rats. You dont want to deal with that believe me. We are talking the size of bedroom slippers and I wasnt keeping Grain or even dog food. They came down from Palm trees surrounding the property and were using my house as a breeding facility.....

Now you know why I want 1/4 inch hardware cloth surrounding areas where I keep feed in sacks.

deb

Deb,
If you are talking about the "cheap" 1/4" hardware wire that most farm and hardware stores sell then give them time and they will chew through it.
I had rabbit pens that had doors made of that stuff and lost 2 litters of bunnies do to rats chewing through that wire to get to the kits.


Chris

 

[chocolate m'scovy]

We keep ours in metal trash cans as well. If we leave any bags out, it seems the rats prefer the goat feed.

 

[TheJadeChicken]

We use the black trash cans we buy at the local dollar general for about $13. Each one holds 100 pounds of feed. I have two, right now. One has Producers Pride 13% for my 2 hooved 4 legged pastures ornaments, and the other has 50/50 Flock Raiser Crumbles and Layena Pellets. They work great, the plastic is nice and thick. Holds well together. And even with so much feed the wheels still work. xD Actually need to get about 2 or 3 more.

Forgot to mention. We don't have a problem with mice or rats, save for a little field mouse in the coop. Which I am surprised the mouse hasn't been attacked my chickens. We have 3 inside/outside cats, and 1 I am trying to keep in, but she escapes. And where the feed is high traffic for 2 Chihuahuas, a Chiweenie, a Pom-Chi, a Great Dane, a Great Pyrenees, the neighbor's Lab-mix, and a bunch of humans. The only thing we have to worry about is accidently leaving it open and the Big Dogs getting into the horse feed.

 

[perchie.girl]

Quote:
Oh gosh.... I knew they would go through concrete if they were motivated. Maybe I will just line the walls with Galvanized sheet metal and be done with it. I can laminate the plywood walls with Galvanized sheet metal. The deal is I dont want to do it twice. I do live in a different area where the natives are Kangaroo rats. They dont get as big as roof rats.

BTW I sold that rat infested house and bought land in the Desert about sixty miles away. My land is in a part of the Sonoran Desert.

deb

 

[clucky3255]

HI

 

[clucky3255]

bye

 

[mrsc1951]

Those plastic pails look much like the ones our cat litter comes in. We reuse them for a lot of things, but I've been uneasy about using them for feed. I'm mainly concerned that I might be unable to get all the kitty litter chemicals out and it might be toxic to my birds. Rodents aren't a concern (as the giant vats of cat litter may indicate!), but I'm wondering if any of you have used them and, if so, did you notice any ill effects?

Curious, too, about whether the cans are water tight. I saw someone else asking about this -- sorry if I missed an answer somewhere.

I have used a cat litter container to hold the seed and grain mixture I give my girls as treats for well over a year. I thoroughly washed it and let it dry in the sun. No ill effects have been noted.

 

[Red Barn Farms]

I have used a cat litter container to hold the seed and grain mixture I give my girls as treats for well over a year. I thoroughly washed it and let it dry in the sun. No ill effects have been noted.

As I mentioned in a previous post if you are still hesitant about using a container which has not contained food safe material (cat litter) you can thoroughly clean then use a plastic liner if needed. I'd feel safe using a container which held cat litter too. Or simply use it to store something else or throw it away.