Feed preservation questions

[Marinea]

So, I have my four little buns (pics of my new blue Dutch doe coming soon) and a 50 pound bag of pellets lasts a long time. Currently, I keep the open bag in my shed. I am worried about it going bad. Should I be keeping it somewhere else, contained in something other than than the bag? I can't find a local source selling in anything other than 50 pound bags.

I have similar questions about my hay. It is kept outside in the rabbitry. With the high humidity we've been having, I notice it seems dampish. I seem to have to dig into the bale to find dry hay. Any ideas on what to keep it in to avoid losing any of it to dampness or, even worse, mold? The hay is kept off the ground and has plastic sheeting on the bottom.

I have a large heavy duty plastic garbage can, several rubbermaid type bins, a hubby who can build stuff , and I am not afraid to modify any of the bins if they'll work.

 

[ottersatin]

Marinea,
if you have the space in your freezer you can
separate the feed into smaller bags [10 or 20 lbs]
than take it from the freezer as you need it.
Freezing will add quite a bit of time to
the nutritional life of the feed.
Ottersatin. ldtimer:

 

[MaggieJ]

Ottersatin is right. Freezing some of the feed is a good idea, even if it means watching for a cheap/free second freezer on CraigsList.

The hay worries me a bit. It would be better to store it on wood pallets than on plastic. Make sure there is good air circulation all around. You may need a fan in the rabbitry to aid evaporation.

If you have a good sense of smell, use it to help you detect problems in the feed or hay. Fresh feed and hay should smell fresh!

 

[Secuono]

I keep my feed in those 35g $15 trash bins, have a whole row of them along the fence. Hay is kept in the barn, no added moisture in them, they are dryer than sand. I know people steam dry/old hay for horses so they eat more of it, might have the same effect on rabbits. As long as it's not moldy, it's fine.

 

[Miss M]

I have my hay in the shed, stacked up in a corner.

My feed is currently just in the bags, in the shed. I fold the open bag closed when I am finished, and that does quite well in keeping the feed from interacting too much with the humidity.

Eventually, I want to keep my feed in metal trash cans in the shed. Extra feed I want to keep in a defunct freezer beside the shed in the shade. As long as it has a good seal, it should keep rodents and humidity out.

 

[zee]

I only have 3 breeding rabbits and 6 ten week old kits, so, I keep the hay and the pellets inside the house in the laundry room. I use 6 gallon buckets with gamma lids to store the pellets. That gamma lid and bucket keeps the food dry and rodents and ants can't get inside. I hope this helps.

 

[Marinea]

Wow, thanks for the replies! I never thought of freezing, but to be honest, with all the garden stuff and seeds, I don't have room. (puts a second freezer on the wish list)

The shed is really dry, so I think I'll just keep the feed there- maybe in a closed container.

The hay currently sits on wood pallets loosely covered with plastic. It gets good air circulation, but still feels damp to me. There is no room in the shed for the hay, so I really need to find a solution for it in the rabbitry. Could I keep it in a closed garbage can, maybe with some air holes for air circulation? Any other ideas to try and keep it drier?

I do check the hay and smell it every time I give some to the buns. It's fresh and clean, I avoid giving them the parts that feel damp to me.

 

[wsmoak]

Getting the hay further up off the ground will help -- can you put some concrete blocks under the pallets? A vapor barrier (plastic) on the ground is good to keep moisture from coming up, but there is also moisture in the hay traveling down, and it needs somewhere to dissipate.

I can't tell if you have the hay *covered* in plastic or not? What do you mean by 'in the rabbitry' vs. in the shed?

Probably the best solution is another shed for the hay, but I know that's expensive. (Try storing enough for a horse!)

Hay has been scarce and expensive the last couple of years. I soak and rinse questionable hay before I feed it to the horse. It would be lovely to only feed fresh smelling perfect hay... but even at $16 a bale, we take what we can get, and as long as it's not truly spoiled, he just has to deal.

-Wendy

 

[Marinea]

Here is my setup for the hay:

The cage sits up off the ground, there is wood under the bales and it's loosely wrapped in plastic sheeting.

My rabbitry is a covered attached carport. Due to some drainage issues we are working on, the area stays damp a lot of the time. We will resolve that issue, but for now I feel I need to do something different with my hay.

Any ideas? As I said, I have a large heavy duty plastic garbage can, plastic bins, wood to build something with, lots of plastic sheeting. I just don't know what to do.<br /><br />__________ Mon Jun 17, 2013 3:11 pm __________<br /><br />*shamelessly bumping this for some hay advice*

 

[Miss M]

I see now... I would definitely get them separated from the ground. I did keep mine in a barrel when we lived in Florida. Ideally, it would be a food-grade barrel liberally drilled with holes (starting at least a foot from the ground). Mine was a metal barrel, so I lined it with a 55-gallon heavy-duty trash bag, and upended the bale into it. I would close the bag when it rained, to keep the extra humidity from getting to the hay. Otherwise, it stayed open.

Not ideal, as the sides had no ventilation, but I never did end up with mold.

If you build something, that would be fine, too... just anything to get it away from the ground. Probably with a solid floor to help keep some of the ground dampness at bay. A shelf over the cages, perhaps?

 

[Marinea]

I could do a barrel, or a heavy duty trash can, drilled with holes. When it's going to rain, would I be OK covering the barrel/can with plastic?

I would do a shelf over the cages, but I don't think I could reach that high. I really think a container of some sort is going to be my best bet.

 

[DitchDoc]

Have you considered a bag of hay cubes instead of a bale? Mine stays in the kitchen next to the dog food. They get long stemmed weeds and dandelions from the yard to munch on as well. just a thought...

 

[Marinea]

Mine get greens also, but they don't like the cubes. I tried them. I could try again.