Prep Genrl Storing animal feed.

turtlegent

Contributing Member
I was wondering how folks store extra animal feed? For chicken feed I can keep about 125 pounds of feed in steel trash cans, it is very vermin proof. Even though I have 2 great barn cats, I am not ready to store bags of feed, where it can be raided. I have 4 cans now. My flock is 20 Ancona ducks, and 30 mixed chickens, and a few too many rosters that I can cull.ducks and graps.jpg
 

NCGirl

Veteran Member
I use metal trash cans and 40 gallon drums with airtight lids. I have 3 geese and 14 chickens on 3/4 acre so they don't eat too much food. I try to keep at least a couple hundred pounds though.
 

nomifyle

TB Fanatic
My DH has 55 gallon containers with screw on lids, but in Louisiana the corn tends to mold before the containers get empty. I haven't solved that issue.

God is good all the time

Judy
 

SouthernBreeze

Has No Life - Lives on TB
My DH has 55 gallon containers with screw on lids, but in Louisiana the corn tends to mold before the containers get empty. I haven't solved that issue.

God is good all the time

Judy

We have the same issues with mold. We were also thinking of using those galvanized trash cans for our dog's food storage food, but because of the mold issues, we thought better of it. I've got to come up with something, though.
 

turtlegent

Contributing Member
I guess I am lucky that Idaho has very low humidity. But I will see if I can find any of those steel drums.
 

Millwright

Knuckle Dragger
_______________
Might try lining the cans with heavy contractor trash bags.

Sucking out as much air as possible with a shop vac.

Lay the very top over a piece of metal and seal it with an iron. I keep a 3' piece of 1"sq, stainless box tubing for sealing bags.

I've heard of throwing a chunk of dry ice in, don't know if that would help.
 

Orion Commander

Veteran Member
I can't keep to much ahead. I empty a 40# dog food into a small galvanized steel can as well as the cat food. The Norwegian Forest Cat keeps laying large dead mice on our bedroom floor. He catches them in his food bowl. He ain't gonna put up with that.
 
  • Like
Reactions: EYW

EYW

Veteran Member
My concern is dog food and I do not want to buy too much too far ahead. I've got a 28-lb bag sealed as well as half a 28-lb bag I am feeding out of. We've got three small yappers in the household, probably weigh from 15-19 lbs. The food is a Blue Buffalo for small adult dogs and the 28 lbs is how it comes.

Freezing is the best thing I can think of. I have been thinking of sealing it in vacuum bags and putting it in the freezer. Unfortunately the freezer is full. I need another one (it is a smaller one) just like it for the storage foods -- jugs of oil, butter, flour, cornmeal, yeast, meats -- that sort of thing. And I need to start feeding people out of the first freezer. There is a lot of "fun" food in there.

I used to store chicken and goat feed as well as my own bags of rice and wheat in steel trash cans without any mold problems, but I was in a different climate with some altitude. but we did have some humidity in the summer. The human food was kept in a kitchen pantry so no temp fluctuations, and the animal feed was kept in an unheated/noncooled back room.
 

JMG91

Veteran Member
We have the same issues with mold. We were also thinking of using those galvanized trash cans for our dog's food storage food, but because of the mold issues, we thought better of it. I've got to come up with something, though.
I keep the feed in the bags they come in and store them in those blue 55 gal. barrels. I've not had mold issues. Perhaps that might work better for you.
 

West

Senior
My DH has 55 gallon containers with screw on lids, but in Louisiana the corn tends to mold before the containers get empty. I haven't solved that issue.

God is good all the time

Judy

Have you tried DE? About a cup or less per 50 pounds. Helps.

I swear some of the feed we get already have bugs in them, it's on and off. But often the mold in our corn was actually bug poop, or it gets started by infestation. DE helps stop the caking.
 

TxGal

Day by day
Might try lining the cans with heavy contractor trash bags.

Sucking out as much air as possible with a shop vac.

Lay the very top over a piece of metal and seal it with an iron. I keep a 3' piece of 1"sq, stainless box tubing for sealing bags.

I've heard of throwing a chunk of dry ice in, don't know if that would help.

For chicken feed/scratch grains/corn chops, we also use metal garbage cans, and line them with the contractor bags. We haven't done the air vac trick, but what we did do is to caulk all the way around where the lid handles attach. That has stopped the mold issue for us. Apparently as tight as the connection looked, some rain/condensation was making it in. I got that idea from Martinhouse, and that did the trick for us.
 

Martinhouse

Deceased
I found that I had to seal where the two side handles of the trash cans attached, too. I think a hard wind can blow rain through those tiny gaps. The little black bugs that are about an 8th inch long and super slim can fit through there, too. I don't worry too much about a few bugs, as I figure the chickens would probably get as much nutrtion from the bugs growing on the feed as they would from the feed itself. Barring toxic bugs, of course.

I don't use contractor trash bags as I got a huge supply of some far larger clear plastic bags from a place in town that makes frozen yogurt. They seem to use the bags mostly for trash, but there are signs that something else was originally in them. At any rate, they are larger than the trash cans so I can put a full 150 pounds of laying pellets in a can and often 200 pounds of whole corn. Then there's still enough of the bag left to fold it four ways and then tuck it under. I'm really lucky to have those bags. If they split, I mend them with 2" clear tape.
 

JMG91

Veteran Member
I found that I had to seal where the two side handles of the trash cans attached, too. I think a hard wind can blow rain through those tiny gaps. The little black bugs that are about an 8th inch long and super slim can fit through there, too. I don't worry too much about a few bugs, as I figure the chickens would probably get as much nutrtion from the bugs growing on the feed as they would from the feed itself. Barring toxic bugs, of course.

I don't use contractor trash bags as I got a huge supply of some far larger clear plastic bags from a place in town that makes frozen yogurt. They seem to use the bags mostly for trash, but there are signs that something else was originally in them. At any rate, they are larger than the trash cans so I can put a full 150 pounds of laying pellets in a can and often 200 pounds of whole corn. Then there's still enough of the bag left to fold it four ways and then tuck it under. I'm really lucky to have those bags. If they split, I mend them with 2" clear tape.
You know, it's strange, we used to get bugs in our feed all of the time--as someone else said, they seem to come already in the feed--but since we started buying organic, we haven't had that problem.
 

SouthernBreeze

Has No Life - Lives on TB
I keep the feed in the bags they come in and store them in those blue 55 gal. barrels. I've not had mold issues. Perhaps that might work better for you.

I already keep 3 months of our doggie and cat feed in plastic totes inside my laundry room. I'm looking for a way to store more, but it would have to be outside (out of room in there). Metal and plastic cans or barrels sweat too much.

I kid you not, before Laura arrived, my laundry room floor (which is concrete) was sweating so much I had to keep it wiped up with an old towel. My front concrete porch was doing the same. Even the plastic garbage can was sweating. That's the kind of humidity we face here. Mold is a big issue.

We have those blue 55gal plastic barrels, but we keep potable water stored in them. Thanks for the idea, though.
 

JMG91

Veteran Member
I already keep 3 months of our doggie and cat feed in plastic totes inside my laundry room. I'm looking for a way to store more, but it would have to be outside (out of room in there). Metal and plastic cans or barrels sweat too much.

I kid you not, before Laura arrived, my laundry room floor (which is concrete) was sweating so much I had to keep it wiped up with an old towel. My front concrete porch was doing the same. Even the plastic garbage can was sweating. That's the kind of humidity we face here. Mold is a big issue.

We have those blue 55gal plastic barrels, but we keep potable water stored in them. Thanks for the idea, though.
Wow, that is some serious humidity!
 

SouthernBreeze

Has No Life - Lives on TB
Wow, that is some serious humidity!

We can have a temp of 87, but with the humidity factor figured in it feels like 104. That's what we had the day before Laura got here. You walk outside, and you're instantly wet, and it's hard to breathe. Everyone has to stay on top of the mold and mildew issues here.
 

nomifyle

TB Fanatic
sucking the air out of the trash bags is a good idea, I did that with toilet paper 12 years ago and its still pristine.

God is good all the time

Judy
 

turtlegent

Contributing Member
For me, it is a matter of scale. I could store copious amounts of feed. I however, probably could not afford to fill my grain bins. I did find some sealable 55 gallon greek olive drums, which will hold 250 pounds of chicken feed apiece.timesilo.jpgtimesilo.jpgtimedrum.jpgtimedrum.jpg
 
Top