Organizing Chicken Supplies Hack

New to being a chicken keeper? Don’t know where to store all the chicken supplies? Follow these hacks to organize everything in one place.

Grit in one glass jar and meal worms in the other glass jar on a counter — Chicken supplies

Where to Store Chicken Supplies

Organizing all our chicken supplies can be tricky. We don’t have any outdoor spaces to store items for our chickens. Some people have barns and such. We have a storage area for our outdoor tools, tractor, and additional items, but it’s not a practical place to store chicken supplies as mice get in it. Even with our stealthy polydactyl cat, we are not sure if storing supplies there is wise. Let’s look at some chicken supplies organizing hacks.

We store our chicken feed in a large galvanized trash can. We put our bags of feed inside of that. Each kind of food stays in its original bag. I’ve read that you don’t want any of the chicken feed to touch the actual can. It can cause the feed to be unsafe for the chickens. This picture is showing a feeding station set up. HGTV shows how to make the storage feeding station here.

chicken supplies in metal cans on a storage shelf outside — Organizing Chicken Supplies Hack

Use Recycled Materials to Store Your Chicken Supplies

You can use recycled materials to organize chickens supplies. We used plastic food safe storage containers for our big box of Meal worms. The empty milk jugs are for toting water to the chickens in the winter. A smaller container of worms in a glass jar. Another glass jar for grit.

two black plastic bins with meal worms outdoor birdseed empty milk jugs for bringing water to chickens in winter — empty food safe containers for chicken supplies

I bought these 1/2 gallon jars from Azure. One thing to remember if you order from Azure, purchase the lids, they do not come together. This article I found, she recycles food jars for her organization.

I have a glass jar under the kitchen sink where I store the crushed eggs shells. I also have a ziplock bag under the sink for discarded eggshells. If you want to learn how to bake and crush egg shells for your chickens I have a post here.

Grit in a jar meal worms in a jar gloves in a bin plastic bin and scrubber on a dresser — Chickens stuff organizing

Storing Everything Together

I moved the crushed chicken shells to this spot so you could see how to set up a supplies station inside. The bin with the gloves for winter chicken keeping and the bin at the end is for cleaning the chicken waterers. In the spring and summer we use a hose and a little dawn and warm water in the bucket to clean the chickens waters scrubbed clean. The enclosed waterers that we have are heated and so they can’t go in the dishwasher.

I keep that scrubber separate from all our household scrubbers by keeping it in this bin. You can also bring in the waterers to your shower/tub and wash them there in the autumn/winter. I like to spray mine down with some white vinegar when I am done.

muck boots work boots garden shoes on boot tray inside — boots near chicken supplies helps you not to forget to change your shoes

Keep Some Chicken Supplies Inside

The best way to keep chicken supplies fresh is to keep them inside. Keeping them in the shade is another option. We like to keep most of our supplies inside. However, we do keep the bulk of our food in the galvanized can outside for convenience. We keep our mini farmers rake outside of the coop, inside the run.

We keep our hay for the coop and indoor run outside with a tarp over it. With our wonderful cat who loves to catch mice, I am thinking the hay will be ok? We will find out. I also liked this idea. This person has it all right there at hand.

outdoor storage for chicken supplies.jpeg

This might be kind of a pricey set up. I am noting it for future use. I like the idea of having a shovel nearby.

Here is the inside of that container. They even state that they have scissors in it. I don’t know how many times I have needed those.

Here are some ideas I found. They don’t always state where they are storing these items, but they are ideas. More ideas here.

Additional Chicken Items

We store our DE (Food Grade Diatomaceous Earth) in our shed and our nesting material in our garage. Not ideal, I know. I would like for it all to be in one place near our coop.

Questions That People Are Asking About Chickens

How do I keep my chickens busy?

Ways to keep your chickens busy include:

Hang a rope from something and drill a hole in some cabbage, push the rope through the hole and Wah-Lah! Let the chicken pecking begin!
Pile something in the corner of their run, such as straw, leaves or wood chips. Chickens love to level things!
Create perches so they can get an ‘birds eye view’, such as ladders, stumps, logs, and ramps.
Make ‘rooms’ for the chickens with downed branches, old brush, etc. They like hiding and pecking at the pecking at the bark. Good place to toss your old Christmas tree.
Make a chicken swing. But make sure it is close to the ground and wide enough for them to grab hold of.
Rocking Horse Roosting bar, I have no idea what this is, but someone suggested it, so I posted it here.
Treat balls or seed block holders (suet feeders for wild birds) place fresh items in such as kale
bells or a toy xylophone
old mirrors or old cd’s around the run or indoor run

Here is an article about how to make enrichment activities.

I hope these ideas will help you as you are looking to make your days more efficient. Some of these ideas are inexpensive and I am all about saving money here at Our Eden Cultivated. Do you have some tips, tricks or hacks you would like to share? Let’s help each other in this homesteading journey!

Blessings on saving money with gardening, homesteading and chickens!

Kimberlee