How do you store livestock feed?

A question that I'm sure has many answers, I am curious to know how different livestock keepers manage to store their animals feed. Bins? Barrels? Silos?

I keep chickens and I store their feed inside of their enclosed run for convenience. Two galvanized garbage cans can store at least a month's worth of feed and many months more of supplements/accoutrements. Their feed come from a local grain mill and I can fit several standard feed bags in each can.

Critter proof garbage cans.  I keep more feed on hand during the winter than the summer… in case of weather issues keeping me. Home.

An old freezer works great. You can get the size you need.

Hellooo
We ve had rain, not enough but gratitude anyway, accompanied by rip roaring thunder.
It was quite fabulous but the cats thought otherwise.
They are my principal livestock. There has been a canine presence and may well be another, soon.
To minimize feeding all the neighbourhood cats rats badgers fox, the usual suspects etc all the time, I too have galvanized bins outside under a roof.

For other stuff of interest to uninvited visitors, I have found washing machine drums useful as the holes are sufficiently
small to make access tricky.
When beekeeping, I was amazed to learn that tiny rodents can gain access to a hive with openings of just over 5mm, just under is too small. It s a fine line.
I don t know know how that translates into inches if at all it s that tiny.

Neighbours have old freezers, upside down commercial ovens and fridges. And of course silos but those are not immune to hungry beings.

I am full of admiration for the ingenuity of critters to gain access wherever, a bit like me really.

This year, I have put water out in all sorts of places and of course this attracts all and sundry, yet still haven t seen a hedhehog but where do the froglets come from?
They are most welcome as are the adders as long as they don t chomp each other.
I have asked, nicely.

Blessings from this cooler weather
Her

Ellen Johnson II wrote:An old freezer works great. You can get the size you need.

Agreed. I know people who do this -- it keeps the rodents out and protects against excessive humidity. Sometimes they add a small open pail with dry, loose salt to help with humidity also.

Ellen Johnson II wrote:An old freezer works great. You can get the size you need.

Perfect timing. This would be ideal. We bought Sears largest chest freezer 40 years ago with money we received at our wedding. It's still out in the garage working perfectly but I had decided to send it to the dump when it finally died or when we moved. This would make a perfect feed storage container because it's huge. It will be making the move with us now. This is a great idea. Thank you.

Wow - that is SUCH a great idea about the freezer as storage -  Thanks Ellen and Douglas - I had just been looking to problem solve this, and so this is very good timing

For what is is worth, I had a raccoon chew through the side of heavy plastic critter proof container.

Re freezers: Some of the old ones have an opening at the back where the compressor sits. If you have rats it's a good idea to screw sheet metal over this.

We have three kinds of chicken feed in large plastic buckets, in the house.

I am fortunate to have a conex that is critter proof, (unless someone leaves the door open).  I keep my bags of feed in there.
In my coop I have a metal garbage can I keep all the supplements in.
I built a garbage can feeder I have in the coop that holds 100 lbs of feed.  I know the mice help themselves, but my cats think it is a feeder for them now.

Our feed store delivers in 55 gallon barrels.  They unload the barrels into the shed , and I leave them there.

It’s great not having all the trash build up… the feed sacks I mean.

I used to have bajillions of mice, which would have been a problem because the lids on the barrels don’t necessarily fit tight, unless I put the clamp on, which I don’t want to bother with!

The barrels are rotating stock.  They arrive full and depart empty so there’s no point trying to adapt them for a tight fit.

I had some half grown cats show up a couple years ago.  I fed them and tamed them and they stayed and multiplied.  They’re all neutered now (5 of them!).  They keep the mice out of the house and all the outbuildings.  YAY.  

I used to keep the cat food in a high quality Brute trash can with lid that latches down, but the cats took the lid off at their convenience.

The cat food is now stored in the house.  For now, things are working.

I have a shelter that I had planned to winter bees over. It has 3 walls and a transparent roof and looks to the south.
Now that I no longer keep bees because of all the problems with -icides being used next door, I've gotten to storing their feed in homer pails under that roof. It is still accessible to me when it snows
I try to color code the various ingredients but it never quite works. Tractor supply isa now selling a mix with a great  variety of whole grains. Sunflowers, corn etc. get mixed at the last minute.
The birds and mice cannot get at their feed in those homer pails. I noticed that 50 LBS of feed fit nicely in 2 homer pails, and I can carry one fairly easily for the few feet between the storage and the coop.
I'm trying to fin a way to store them in the coop itself, but I don't care to grab a pail and find myself with a handful of poop.
Once there is snow on the ground, I can use a sled for food and water.
It's not a perfect system, but  it works. Everyday, meal leftovers go in a smaller (1 gallon) pail that I take to them daily. The hose runs from the house during the warm weather, so I'm taking advantage of that now.

Thekla McDaniels wrote:
I had some half grown cats show up a couple years ago.  I fed them and tamed them and they stayed and multiplied.  They’re all neutered now (5 of them!).  They keep the mice out of the house and all the outbuildings.  YAY.  

Our two cats are very thoughtful and bring the mice indoors for us.  Most they end up eating, leaving the stomachs for us or they let them go live in the house so they can have something to chase later.   lol

I bought the galvanized metal garbage cans based on someones advice nearly 30 years ago. The lids leak and they must be kept under shelter or they'll rust away fast. Ellen up there suggested an old freezer. YES! My old freezer stopped being affordablly fixable so I put my feed sacks in there. Perfect even outdoors and animal proof unless you have a smart mammal or something like that. Mine holds a huge amount of feed bags and its easy to rotate bags and scoop out daily needs from each kind of feed sack. I vote for recycling an old freezer. People want them hauled off, they look ok and they weigh very little. Get one for FREE!

I use 55 gallon plastic drums. I cut the top off by placing the wide edge of my saw shoe against the top lip. I then flip the saw around and use the narrow side to trim the top again which will let it fit into the barrel. works great but they are not weather proof. Each barrel will hold about 600# of ground grain.