What are your frugal and sustainable tips and tricks?

[gtaus]

That winter I went through almost a bag a day. so 2 buckets per bag x 30 day= at least 60 buckets for a month of feed. That's a lots of buckets LOL

Sounds like you at a much higher level of keeping chickens than I am with my small backyard flock of ~10 chickens. A 50-pound bag of feed lasts me almost an entire month.

I imagine you might need a different storage strategy if you go through two 5-gallon buckets of feed every day. I don't think I would bother transferring that much feed into small 5-gallon buckets. I know our local grain elevator sells feed in bulk, but it's something like a full IBC at a time. You can save money buying in bulk, but that would be way too much feed for me and my small backyard flock of 10 chickens. The feed would go bad before it was ever eaten up in my case.

 

[gtaus]

$485 per Hour Sifting Chicken Run Compost!?

I was in our local garden center the other day and noticed that they are selling 0.75 cubic foot bags of organic cow and chicken manure compost for $12.99 per bag. Well, heck, I make my own chicken run compost so I wondered what the current cost savings for me would be if I used the cost of $12.99 per bag in my calculations.

A few years ago, I invested just over $200.00 and converted a cement sifter into a compost sifter. Here is a picture of my setup...

With the cement mixer compost sifter, I can sift out about 7 cubic feet of compost into that 6 cubic foot black wagon every 15 minutes.

I had to sift out a wagon full of compost for Dear Wife this past weekend for her flower gardens and pots. I wondered how much it would have cost us to buy the equivalent in bags of organic compost at the local nursery. Turns out, that wagon full of my homemade chicken run compost would cost $121.28 if we bought the compost per bag!

That makes my time savings in sifting my own chicken run compost up to $485.00 per hour! Of course, you don't need a cement mixer compost sifter like mine to make valuable compost at home. But I'm an old guy and it was just too much for me to continue to sift all my compost with my old wood frame and hardware cloth over a wheelbarrow.

For those of you who might like to look at the cost savings breakdown of my homemade chicken run compost, here is the math from Copilot AI...

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Let's break this down step by step to calculate your savings per hour:

1. Determine how many bags of store-bought compost equal 7 cubic feet:[7 \div 0.75 = 9.33 \text{ bags}]
2. Calculate the cost of 9.33 bags:[9.33 \times 12.99 = 121.22]So, 7 cubic feet of store-bought compost would cost $121.22.
3. Find out how much you produce per hour:Since you sift 7 cubic feet every 15 minutes, in one hour you would sift:[7 \times 4 = 28 \text{ cubic feet}]
4. Determine the cost of 28 cubic feet of store-bought compost:[(28 \div 0.75) \times 12.99][37.33 \times 12.99 = 485.10]

So, by sifting your own chicken run compost, you save $485.10 per hour compared to buying the equivalent amount from the store.

That’s a huge savings! Your method is definitely paying off.
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[Molpet]

Sounds like you at a much higher level of keeping chickens than I am with my small backyard flock of ~10 chickens. A 50-pound bag of feed lasts me almost an entire month.

I imagine you might need a different storage strategy if you go through two 5-gallon buckets of feed every day. I don't think I would bother transferring that much feed into small 5-gallon buckets. I know our local grain elevator sells feed in bulk, but it's something like a full IBC at a time. You can save money buying in bulk, but that would be way too much feed for me and my small backyard flock of 10 chickens. The feed would go bad before it was ever eaten up in my case.

View attachment 4133808

I eat 3 cockerels and half a jake a month. So I sorta end up keeping all the girls
And I originally planed on rotating the stewing hens out, but since I retired I figure they deserve to retire too.

So out of over 40 chicken hens I get maybe 1 and half dz on a good day lol ...only 1 pullet from last years 4 made it to spring.

I don't have a place to store or way to unload bulk and the local grain elevators , that are left, don't sell chicken feed anymore. They buy, sell and store grains. No Mill any more

 

[Smokerbill]

Monday morning is the best time to find cull lumber at my HomeDepot store. I got $156 worth of lumber for $47. It's all pretty straight, just some checks, splits and dings that I can work around.

I got:
Four 2x6x12 premium fir boards
One 2x6x8 premium fir
One whitewood stud
One 2x12x8 treated
Two 2x8x8 treated
Two 4x4x8 treated

I brought my handsaw along just in case there were boards longer than I could safely haul in my truck, but didn't need it. The 12 foot boards fit OK when placed diagonally in the truck bed. A big red flag stapled on the end.

Along with the six 2x10x10 premium fir boards I bought a few weeks ago I have a nice lumber stash now, hopefully enough for a greenhouse, a chicken house or coop and some rails for a chicken wire garden fence.

 

[Molpet]

Monday morning is the best time to find cull lumber at my HomeDepot store. I got $156 worth of lumber for $47. It's all pretty straight, just some checks, splits and dings that I can work around.

I got:
Four 2x6x12 premium fir boards
One 2x6x8 premium fir
One whitewood stud
One 2x12x8 treated
Two 2x8x8 treated
Two 4x4x8 treated

I brought my handsaw along just in case there were boards longer than I could safely haul in my truck, but didn't need it. The 12 foot boards fit OK when placed diagonally in the truck bed. A big red flag stapled on the end.

Along with the six 2x10x10 premium fir boards I bought a few weeks ago I have a nice lumber stash now, hopefully enough for a greenhouse, a chicken house or coop and some rails for a chicken wire garden fence.

View attachment 4139229View attachment 4139230View attachment 4139231

I leave the tailgate up with the flagged 12 or 14 ft boards sticking out. Longer if I have more to hold them down, along with straps. 8ft bed

 

[Smokerbill]

I leave the tailgate up with the flagged 12 or 14 ft boards sticking out. Longer if I have more to hold them down, along with straps. 8ft bed

I wouldn't feel comfortable doing that with my 6 foot bed. There'd be an awful lot hanging over the tailgate.

 

[MROO]

I stay out of Tractor Supply during "Chick Days." It's saved me a fortune on feed!

 

[gtaus]

Monday morning is the best time to find cull lumber at my HomeDepot store. I got $156 worth of lumber for $47. It's all pretty straight, just some checks, splits and dings that I can work around.

Great score! Cull lumber at 70% discount is a great deal if you know what you are buying and can work around those flaws. I go into town about once a week, but I always check out the cull lumber cart at Home Depot.

Speaking of cull lumber, Menards also has some cull lumber for sale. Mostly on shelving boards at our store. A few days ago I went into Menards looking for some cull shelving board to make a taper jig for my table saw. I needed some factory straight edges for the jig project. I was lucky and got help from a nice young woman who walked me around to 3 different places they put their cull lumber - those places are not marked, so you had to either know about them or accidently find them. Anyways, the third spot she took me to had a board that was perfect for my taper jig project. It was a 4-foot long shelf board that was broken on the end, leaving me about 41 inches of useable board. Good enough for what I needed. She marked it down to salvage value of $1.00!

I don't know if Menards sells other cull lumber like you got. I'll have to ask someone next time I go to their store. Home Depot has their cull carts prominently displayed to sell their cull wood. I have never seen anything like that at Menards. But maybe it's just hidden, and you have to ask.