What size freezer do you have?

[DanaYares]

We're a few weeks away from sending our first litter to freezer camp, but we're wondering what size freezer to get. We'll probably be harvesting 12-18 at a time.

What do you all recommend?

 

[akane]

Any stand alone freezer is probably big enough depending if you are using it all up about the time you butcher more or adding to the amount every time. Rabbit doesn't take that much space when they are all fully butchered. Especially if you cut them up rather than leaving them whole. I've put 15lbs in a standard small freezer over fridge unit that was already crowded. I could probably put 40lbs or so in there if it were empty. Usually I have a bag of about 5 rabbits on the top shelf in between ice cream, venison, and fish and then on the bottom 20-30lbs of beef based dog supplement balls we give them with their raw diet. Beyond that amount and for all my rabbit furs I do use the chest freezer in the garage.

 

[sommrluv]

We have two giant freezers because I'm nuts and buy too much food. LOL. I would honestly get the biggest you can afford, because once you have a deep freezer you will take advantage of all those sales, or buy 1/4 beeves, etc. If I'm expecting a busy holiday season, I will make cookie dough ahead of time and freeze it in buckets, than take it out to bake them all at once.

The other day we went to the grocery store and they had chicken marked down to .16 a lb (thighs, wings, and whole chickens were .25 a lb) It didn't even expire for 2 days. We bought SO MUCH chicken. I'm not generally a fan of factory stuff like that, but at that price, goodness. even if the dogs eat it I'm making out like a bandit.

Oh yes, my point...get a big one!

 

[Iggysbabysitter]

I have 2 thin 4 foot long freezers... one I keep full, and one I will fill on occassion (like meat from hunting/butchering, I have 60lb of grain stored in it right now because I saw a few weavils on the bag... and the chick starter is going in next since there is room). When it's cold outside I'll move the grain to make room for moose and deer or just unplug it if we get none.

Through couponing the past few months I got around 80 pounds of ground beef, 15 packs of cheese and 30 some bags of green giant veggies all free so I kinda had to get a second freezer. Next I need to make sturdy shelving... I like my new hobby.

sommerluv, I make my cookie dough and scoop into balls to freeze... I give those to friends and family or let my kids cook them. They just have to put the ball on a cookie sheet and pop into the oven Saddly, most of my family and friends never bake, so these are the only cookies they get!

I don't know what I'd do if I didn't have a freezer. When I see an unbelieveable sale, I tend to buy 3 or more (those turkeys took up a lot of room...)

 

[Miss M]

I have a relatively small one... about 3' x 2' x 3' high or so. I generally have several beef and pork roasts, several chickens, 10 - 15 rabbits, vegetables, and some sort of seafood in there at a time, along with a few other assorted things.

I would love to have one much larger. My favorite was a huge upright freezer we used to have. Oh, I would put 3 or 4 turkeys in there when they went on sale at Thanksgiving, loads of chicken, produce from our garden... I know uprights are much less efficient, because they shed all their cold air every time you open them, but everything was so accessible. I remember the huge chest freezer my mom used to have. Boy, digging to the bottom of that thing could be fun! I'd love to have one, though.

I agree... buy the biggest one you can. You WILL use it.

 

[Iggysbabysitter]

Just remember that the bigger the freezer, the more space to cool when it's near empty. The freezer will work harder then... drawing more electricity. To help cut down on cooling costs when your freezer isn't full, wad up paper or full bottles with water and stuff into the empty space. If the power ever goes out a full freezer will have a better chance of keeping things frozen longer.

 

[Frosted Rabbits]

My freezer-- not big enough----

 

[Dirty Harry]

Once you start really using a freezer, they are never big enough. I have four fair sized chest freezers. I don't have them all running all the time though. When we butcher a steer it will fill one freezer. We grow most of our own food so we also can a lot. However for short term storage the freezer is the way to go. Also some things, particularly vegetables, taste better frozen if used farily soon. Chest freezers are more efficient but harder to organize. I would recommend getting one bigger than you think you will need.

 

[Miss M]

Iggysbabysitter is right -- if your freezer has a significant amount of empty space, fill some of the space up with milk jugs or 2-liter bottles, or even plastic zip bags, filled 3/4 full with water. Don't fill them all the way, because you must leave space for the water to expand as it freezes.

When we had a hurricane knock our power out for a week, we were glad we had prepared. We didn't have a lot of empty space in our chest freezer (the same size as the one we have now), but we filled what space we had with gallon-size freezer ziplocs of water. We then wrapped the freezer with blankets (you have to leave the places where it draws air in and puts out heat uncovered -- the heat is often emanated from the back of the freezer, even if the coils are not visible). That freezer had a "deep freeze" setting which was even colder than its regular setting, meant to freeze things quickly. We set it to deep freeze, and turned off the breakers to everything but the freezer (we had already emptied the fridge).

When we returned, the people in the apartment complex started having community cookouts using the food that was thawing in their freezers, so it wouldn't go to waste. We figured maybe we'd have something to contribute the second night, but we ended up having to take things out of the freezer to thaw them because nothing was thawing in the freezer. And it was warm in the house -- September on the Gulf coast.

By the end of the week, when our power was restored, everything in the freezer was still as hard as a rock. Several years later, the freezer finally gave up the ghost. It was pretty old.

Dirty Harry, I am so jealous! Four freezers? Boy, the sales I could take advantage of.....!

 

[OneAcreFarm]

one that is too small....hehehehe....I have been on the look out for a bigger used one.

 

[DoubleD-Rabbitry]

I have 2, 22 cf standup freezer, one gets all the Rabbits, Quail, Deer, Hog, Fish ect. ect. the other gets the veggy's & store bought stuff.

 

[Dirty Harry]

OneAcreFarm, you are in the wrong place. Here in Michigan you can hardly give away a used freezer. Probably has something to do with how many peoply are leaving the state. I think we are the only state with an actual population decline over the last ten years. Of course that doesn't help property values either.