Stored feed question?? Thanks ahead of time

[nao57]

So... 2 years ago I had ducks in my backyard. It was wonderful. Loved it. Then... the hammer came down and the police filed a complaint. We had to get rid of the ducks, because of the d i c ks.

Well. some time passed. Then I found out one of my family members was the person who complained, and that means its a fake complaint.

So I want to do poultry again. Especially because it seems that the way the economy is going, if you don't do something like this, it could be trouble feeding your family soon. (Possibly less problems if I do chickens instead of ducks...)

BUT a question arose... we never got rid of some of the stored feed in my backyard that was stored in closed lid bins. Its basically you know... mill laying mash. Its been sitting there for awhile. Because its been there for 2 years, I wanted to ask how long you can keep this stuff and still use it? Surely someone has dealt with an issue like this before and what did you think and decide?

Money is tight so I have to try to save and use the stuff if I can... and in theory the nutrition level shouldn't stop right away but in the math side of things the nutrition should follow a slow decline on a bar graph. But I'm not sure where the cut off line would be? I've used old feed in the past and didn't have trouble. But I've not pushed it past this 2 year mark before.

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One theory also is that if its not bad and not too old I could do part new stuff and part old stuff so the birds don't get only old feed...

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And another idea I have is that its possible the farm and economic damage is so bad in the US that the old feed might not be much worse than some of the new stuff people are passing off as 'feed' that I know has saw dust in it. (I have had past posts on this forum also if you are interested about talking about how to correct for sawdust fluff in your feed and its lack of nutrition also if you need this information; which should be in some of my old posts or questions).

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If anyone also has feed mix questions feel free to bounce ideas off me as I've done some of this before. But I've found its most helpful to compare results and experiments with others, who are doing the same thing.


Thank you very much. And happy new year!

 

[Brooks_]

Well. some time passed. Then I found out one of my family members was the person who complained, and that means its a fake complaint.

If you are not allowed to have poultry in your zoning it really does not matter who reported it.

Because its been there for 2 years,

It is likely past any reasonable level of nutrition.

 

[Stravager]

After about one month of a processed chicken feed it typically begins to degrade in nutrition value. Most articles I've read recommend no more than one month of storage in order to get the actual nutrition values listed on the feed bag, which likely means around two months from the time it gets from the mill to your house. If it was whole grains, maybe, but if it's a pellet or mash two years would be pretty excessive. Good for compost though.
Also keep in mind that when it comes to feed, hot and cold does affect it, so depending on where you're storing it, it could have sweated, partially fermented and then dried out, and/or built mold spores that are hard to detect...