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I need to find a better way of storing our hen food. I am currently feeding a host of little creatures! Our pigs are soon to be moved from the house garden to the field so their feed needs somewhere safe in the big tunnel too.

I am considering asking for a dead chest freezer on freecycle. Does anyone use one for storing feed? Can you keep the lid shut or do you need to wedge it open a little - I assume the wee creatures cannot climb up the smooth sides to get in the open lid!

Ta.

They can you know. We found a mouse on top of our big chest freezer.

You sure it did not abseil down from the ceiling?

Little Bu44ers

For genuinely dry feeds, old freezers and metal coal bins (the latter cleaned!) are fine.

For feeds with even low moisture levels (eg rolled barley), then you'll need some ventilation. (Have a look at the inside of the lid after three or four days—if it's dry you're fine, if it's damp with condensation then you'll need to ventilate.

The easiest method of ventilation is wooden wedges to hold the lid open a fraction, but this doesn't make for good airflow and mice can still get in.

The next step up is to drill holes in the top and/or sides, covering them with wire mesh to keep the feed in and the critters out.

The premium version is to put 12v computer fans on the lids and used them to draw the air out. Power them with a leisure battery charged by wind or solar. This is what I'm accumulating parts for at the moment.

Cheers - Freecycle here I come!

Thurston Garden wrote:You sure it did not abseil down from the ceiling?

Little Bu44ers

I have no idea but it jumped off and made it's escape *shudders*

It skillfully avoided all traps too

Hi Thurston Garden,
My mum has used chest freezers to store the horses food in for the past 14 years and not had any problems - apart from my sister loosing her house keys down the back of it! So I would say its a pretty good idea.

Echo what keiry said. Definatly an equine tradition around here!!!

I have never known it be a problem and know people that store molassed feeds in them which are positivly damp and never had an problems!!!

I would think if it is being used daily and left open while in use you should be fine!

Well, we've had rolled barley cook off in a steel coal bunker. It was sweating and moisture was condensing under the lid, but then the temperature went through the roof and we were very close to having a fire.

A neighbour and I had to dump 10 hundredweight of barley out onto the hard standing to let it cool and dry.

It was so hot it scorched the galvanising off the sides of the bin in a couple of places.

We've also had a batch of rolled barley develop mould within a couple of days of going into an unventilated bin as it wasn't sufficiently dry and the weather was warm.

In both cases, the suppliers of the barley agreed it hadn't been sufficiently dried and replaced it for us.

Pelletised feed for pigs and chickens has been fine, whole wheat and whole barley have been fine, and mixed corn for chickens has been fine.

So I stand by what I said - sealed bins are for dry feed, ventilated bins for damp.

PS Pop the freezers or coal bins on old pallets. This provides both airflow under the bins and a space to set rat traps/baits where other creatures are unlikely to get them. It also stops damp rotting the bottom out of the bins.

Maybe if you cut several notches in the rubber gasket thingy on the lid, it would allow some moisture to escape while being too small for a mouse?

Pleased to say we collected a big chest freezer today from a 'cycler. I had a lil bit of mould growing on the bottom - I think it had been a little bit damp and stored with the lid closed.

We cleaned it out and hopefully it will be nice and dry ready to store feed in from tomorrow.

Thurston Garden wrote:I need to find a better way of storing our hen food. I am currently feeding a host of little creatures! Our pigs are soon to be moved from the house garden to the field so their feed needs somewhere safe in the big tunnel too.

I am considering asking for a dead chest freezer on freecycle. Does anyone use one for storing feed? Can you keep the lid shut or do you need to wedge it open a little - I assume the wee creatures cannot climb up the smooth sides to get in the open lid!

Ta.

Hi

I can only tell you of our experience in that we kept our dry pig feed in a chest freezer and never had any problems with condensation. however we were opening it and closing it twice a day so perhaps that helped

Never once had any problems with mice

If you only have one or two bags of C/F have you thought about a plastic dustbin (good thick strong one) stood on a couple of bricks and with the lid held on with a bundgee cord.

Not telling you how to suck eggs but keeping the area clean and free from spilt feed goes a long way

School food etc used to be transported in what were call Grundy Bins if you ever see any for sale they are really good for feed

Good luck with what ever you decide to do