With chicken feed or any other grains that you store comes the inevitable.
To be more specific rats and mice. We knew they were around our chicken coop and duck pen. Two years ago they made their way into the garage.
Why not? It’s warmer, more places to build nests and start a family, and as a bonus, poultry feed! They would chew holes into the feed bags and they must have had shovels too, because it was everywhere on the floor.
We tried mouse traps, rat traps, sticky pads, strips of wood dipped in ammonia, you name it we tried it. It deterred a few, some weren’t as lucky. And the remaining sneaky little buggers figured out ways around the traps and continued to feast. I was so frustrated at the amount of feed I was having to throw out constantly, (I didn’t want to scoop it up and give it to the birds after it had been contaminated with droppings. Which was throughout the pile of feed.) and fed up with these varmints that I went down to my local feed store and brainstormed with them on what else we could try. They had a few ideas, but nothing that would work in our situation. As I was leaving, I jokingly said to them “What I really need is a grain silo!”.
So, when I had gotten back home, I did a search online and found a bunch of DIY food silos. Now, I can’t remember the name of the person who posted what they had done, or where I found it, so forgive
me on that. However, one in particularly fit our needs based on the space we were using in our garage for storing feed bags.
I reached out to my good friend, and farmer and told her what I wanted to do. And as luck had it, she had the one major component that I needed, a 55-gallon water storage drum. It was perfect! It even had the metal clamp for locking the lid on. The second big component I needed to find was some sort of value, and back online I went. The stores locally here didn’t seem to have one so I went to Amazon and found a RV waste valve and a couple of days later it arrived.
I put it all together (see below for the basics of how I did it) and low and behold, 6 months later the rats and mice are gone, at least as far as we can tell. We make sure if we happen to spill a few it gets swept up right away, just to be sure they don’t come back.
How to make the grain silo from a 55-gallon water storage drum.
You will need:
Marker or pencil
Drill
3-inch hole saw and bit
Drill bit (slightly smaller than bolts)
Socket wrench (Hardware size is: 1/4"-20 x 1-3/4" for bolts and 1/4"-20 for nuts.)
Chili Powder
Make sure the drum has been thoroughly cleaned and dry.
Next, place the RV sewer valve on the drum with the valve open and mark out where you want the 3-inch hole to be, and the 4 bolts. Making sure that the valve sits flush to the bottom of the drum and that the holes for the bolts are set back from the interior ridge.
Using a 3-inch hole saw, drill out the valve hole.
Next, pre-drill the bolt holes, using a bit just slightly smaller than the bolts.
Place the RV sewer valve over the hole, with the valve open to make sure the valve and bolt holes line up correctly.
Now lay the drum on its side, using a socket wrench insert the bolts from inside the drum. Then, turn the drum upside down and place the valve over the bolts. (Make sure the inner rubber seal is in the correct position) Then place the nuts on the bolts and tighten down with the socket wrench.
Next, I went a little further, in making sure the rats were not going to chew through the valve. (Since this is the easiest point of accessibility from the floor.) I used All Purpose Silicone and caulked around the outside edges of the RV waste valve, sealing in any voids between the drum and valve. And as an extra deterrent, I generously sprinkled chili powder to the wet silicone and the slider portion that covers the drain hole. Let this dry.
Then, you will want to make a stand for the storage drum to sit on. You can build your own wooden stand. Just be sure it will hold at least 350 pounds once you fill the drum with feed.
Make sure what you use to place the drum on has enough space (Width, Height, and Depth) underneath to easily place the size of the feeders or buckets you use.
We had several concrete cinder blocks laying around in the yard, and I placed three of them on their sides. Then I added some scrap wood on top of the cinder blocks. This helped to get the height that I needed for our feeders to easily slide underneath without hitting the bottom of the drum or valve.
Finally, when the silicon sealant is dry on the storage drum, set it on your stand. Place your feeder or bucket underneath the drum, open the valve and double check that the hole lines up so that it is in the center of your feeder or bucket. Then check to see that the storage drum will not tip over or be unstable in this position.
You can see from my picture that some of the excess chili powder I used, fell onto the floor, however most of it stayed on the bottom of the drum. And don't worry if some falls into your buckets or feeders, the chickens love chilis and its good for them.
Fill the drum with your feed. To give you an idea of how much feed will fit into the drum. I had just poured five (5), fifty (50) pound bags of feed into the drum when this picture was taken.
Next, place the lid on top of the feeder and if you have the metal clamp, secure the lid to the drum. (We did use the clamp for the first couple of months, but I have to say we've gotten lazy since then.)
Although I do love having and using this silo, there are some drawbacks, that can be annoying. However, it’s a tradeoff, since we do not want the rats or mice in the garage.
When the feed gets too low it will not flow into the feeders underneath, so I do have to use a board to move the feed towards the hole. (I've been pondering on how to make a churn that will help with that, if I come up with something nifty other than the board, I'll let you know.) And when you use the board, it will hit the bolt heads that are at the bottom of the drum.
Lastly, the rubber gasket on the outside of the valve did come off, however it does not affect the use of the valve since it is not holding liquid. Now, the gasket coming off may have been my fault, in not making sure it was properly seated around the valve hole when I was installing it on the drum. I still recommend this type of valve for this DYI project.
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