How long can you store food before it goes bad?

[agirly4chicks]

The reason I am asking is that a new TSC is opening up in my area and they have 50lb bags of poultry layer 16% crumble on sale for $9.99, but my chickens are not due to start laying until the middle of July. I want to get some at this good price and save it. Will the food still be good in July and August?

 

[ducks4you]

You should always feed your animals as fresh as possible. I did, however, keep some layer feed after my first (and only) white leghorn died, and I fed it to my current hen, before I re-supplied, about a year later. I DID give it a really good sniff test, AND there wasn't much left. (If there had been a lot, I would have found another use--garden, perhaps?)

It may depend upon HOW you store it. Many types of animal feed will store fine unless the storage container gets humid. It that happens the food will mold and can become highly toxic. I keep extruded grain w/molasses for my horses and I try to stock up on it, so I'm not always running to the feed store. I keep ALL of my animal feed in metal trash cans in my barn, in a separate room (to keep my animals from "free ranging." These cans will keep out mice, but not rats.

Don't store in plastic containers UNLESS it's in the house. Originally, I had my horses at someone else's place and stored their grain in plastic cans. Soon they had lots of little holes in them, just like bags of feed will if you store them stacked in a garage. Mice can contaminate the feed with lots of nasty things that won't help your flock.

On the other hand, I had some cracked corn that had kept for over 6 months fine UNTIL we had about a month of heavy rain. It all molded and I threw it out.

BTW, my horses LOVE any excess chicken feed that they happen to find. If it's near a stall, they believe that I put it there for them, and then, they thank me for it.

 

[agirly4chicks]

Thanks I will keep this in mind. I am still debating as my husband say to save the money until we need to but it and I say that it is a good deal. We will see....

 

[Sunny the Hippie Chick]

I would store it in an air tight container.. And freeze it first to kill any bugs or eggs that are in it.. It should keep longer this way..

 

[ducks4you]

Go Ahead and BUY it!! In this economy it might be

***HORRORS***

$20.00 by the time July rolls around!


You don't have to be too timid about your birds. There are far more delicate birds that you might keep, like, parakeets. THEY'll perish if they get hit by a 50 degree Fahrenheit draft!!

Chickens are popular because they are pretty sturdy---even the babies.

 

[vermontgal]

Mine is already $20, but that is organic.

 

[pirtykitty]

dole it out into gallon freezer bags and freeze it till you need it...

 

[ducks4you]

I'll bet you can ALREADY taste those July eggs!

Good luck with your chickies!

 

[countryboy88]

I had bought 6 or 700 lbs of goat feed once when the price was cheap at the mill. I just put it in the barn and the last bag I fed out of the 6 or 700 was about 4 or 5 months. The molasses had soaked into the feed and was some what dry but I had no other problems with it.

As for my chickens I have had cracked corn stored in the coop for about 2 months with out any problems just sitting in there plastic burlap type bags.



The biggest problem when storing feed is water. Once water gets in the feed starts to mold, then the mold multiplies, and pretty soon your whole bag is full of moldy feed. So as long as you keep it dry and away from water you should be fine for at least 3 or 4 months.

 

[agirly4chicks]

Yeah, thanks everyone. I hope my hubbie will be ready to help unload the car tomorrow. I plan to get about 10 bags.