Buying food in bulk can be wasteful.
Buying in Bulk or One Bag At A Time
How To Keep Your Feed Fresh
Just as in any product on the market these days , keeping the food fresh is of great concern. Dealing with the dates of when bags are purchased and opened help a chicken farmer determine how long the product will last and stay fresh. Because I am a mini-farmer, the date is of no real value for me because I buy just what I need for a week’s time. Often my purchase lasts 2 weeks but buying often is easy for me as I pass right by the feed store every week. No biggie! I can see however, the importance of this dated bag if I had a huge farm with hundreds of chickens. (Oh, the dream!)
Today I bought two fifty lb. bags of feed; one crumbles and one scratch. My chickens tend to enjoy the seeds in the scratch but will eat both crumbles and scratch when left over time. To keep their interest in different diets, I vary the brand of scratch and crumbles. Just as when humans eat at one sandwich shop over another, the roast beef sandwich is the same but tastes entirely different.
Sometimes I buy from Tractor Supply, on other occasions, at Fred’s and still another time I buy from the Westside Feed store. Most of these brands are similar. Generally speaking, buying weekly or every other week works well for me.
To keep feed away from varmints or other grain-seeking animals, the feed is stored in galvanized trash cans. At this time, 2 cans are perfect and used solely for the purpose of storing chicken feed. Most of the time two bags are kept in each can. During the week one will be running out as I purchase the other.
Fresh food is so important with yard birds who live in safe runs as this is their source of food. While they may be take out on free range fields trips and even while in the run may catch a fly from time to time, they need tasty, safe and fresh food.
Here are a few tips to help when thinking about buying, keeping and storing food for your chickens:
1. Buy the least amount of food possible so that you will buy more often and have fresher food.
2. Store food in grain bins, galvanized cans or other containers that do not allow air inside. This will keep your products freesher.
3. Vary the product brand so that your animals are getting different tastes from different companies.
4. From time to time, add some “goodie” inside your feed such as meal worms to excite the flock!
Happy Feeding!
