BarredBuff
El Presidente de Pollo
I had heavy plastics and th mice invaded with cats catching them, so anything for us has to be metal...
Feed and food prices are supposed to skyrocket again
- Thread starter Bettacreek
- Start date
terri9630
Almost Self-Reliant
Mice will chew through the plastic. I have 2 heavy plastic trash cans with holes chewed through the lids. I bit the bullet and paid $30 each for some metal trashcans. The mice are getting desperate now. They are trying to steal feed out of the buckets as we are pouring it in.
MyKidLuvsGreenEgz
Lovin' The Homestead
Guess I'll look into metal trash cans. Ick.
terri9630
Almost Self-Reliant
You could also check around for old used truck tool boxes. The metal ones. They will hold lots of feed depending on what style you find.
baymule
Sustainability Master
What about old refrigerators or freezers? I have seen both used to store feed and they hold a lot and keep varmits out. Be sure to disable the latch so if any child gets in, he/she can get back out.
- Thread starter
- #36
Bettacreek
Almost Self-Reliant
THIS! I see a lot of free freezers that no longer work. If I could figure out where to put one, I'd be snatching one up in a heartbeat! I wonder if you could keep one outside in the elements?baymule said:
baymule
Sustainability Master
Yes you can keep one outside, but they do better if under cover. Is there any way you could rig up some kind of cover? And put it up on cinder blocks to keep it out of the mud. Go freezer shopping!Bettacreek said:
Just be sure to disable the latch so it can be opened from the inside. Typically around here a chain with lock is put on to keep varmits (2-legged) out. 
- Thread starter
- #38
Bettacreek
Almost Self-Reliant
I was thinking about putting it behind the garage, where it'd be on asphalt and out of the main portion of wind and rain. As for a latch, I'd actually have an outside lock so that nothing could get into it. I lock my coop up, so feed would be easy to lock up, since I'd have the feed trash can in the room they stay in and would fill that from the freezer. I'm going to have to go for it... for a free freezer and only paying the gas money and effort to get it here, it wouldn't kill me if it rusted a little and had to be replaced eventually anyways. Now, the problem is finding affordable grain for the girls. I put a CL ad up and haven't gotten a single hit yet! I'm down to maybe 100lbs of feed right now, and with money being slightly tight, I cannot wait to turn the feed hungry chickens into food we can eat instead!
opiemaster
Lovin' The Homestead
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If you can get by to harvest, and you have been graced with rain this year, MOST farmers will sell you corn out of there trucks, the will fill a 55 gallon drum or drums in your truck and charge you the bushell price. Most of them dont care who buys it, you or the Grain dealer. They will also let you walk the fields and pick up the corn cobs that the combine dropped or missed. Sometimes they might ask for half of what you pick up,( if you load a pickup full). But most of the time not. You can fill alot of cans this way for free.
Also drive down roads where ytou know they load the grain, alot of times there is a sizable pile left where they loaded from overflow or just sloppy loading, all you have to do is scoop it up.
Also drive down roads where ytou know they load the grain, alot of times there is a sizable pile left where they loaded from overflow or just sloppy loading, all you have to do is scoop it up.
- Thread starter
- #40
Bettacreek
Almost Self-Reliant
We do have the two corn fields here and I plan to scavenge them after they harvest. I'm sure the birds will go and do some of their own scavenging as well, lol. I wish the wheat field had been the one adjacent to the yard though, because that's not really worth the effort of picking it up myself, and the birds won't go that far to forage it for themselves. :/
