Alright, be honest with me for a second.
Walk out to your barn, your garage, or wherever you keep your chicken stuff. What do you see?
If you are anything like me, you see a tangled pile of extension cords, a couple of feeder troughs that still have dried mash caked on the sides, and a heat lamp that you’re pretty sure is buried somewhere under those old feed bags you’ve been meaning to throw away.
And you know what? It’s fine. It happens. We get busy. The birds don’t care if the shed is tidy, right?
But here is the kicker. I recently pulled out my backup incubator—the one I swore I cleaned perfectly last fall—and when I plugged it in, nothing happened. Nada. Zip. I opened it up and the motherboard was just… fried. Rust and corrosion had gotten into the circuits because I stored it right on the concrete floor where moisture seeps up.
That was a $300 lesson. A lesson I really didn’t want to learn.
We Need to Talk About “The Crud”
Look, we aren’t running a hospital here. We’re raising birds. Things get dirty. But when you put equipment away dirty, you aren’t just being lazy—you’re setting a trap for your future self.
Let’s break down what actually happens when you just chuck stuff in the corner.
- The Mold Factor: You wash a waterer, you think it’s dry, you cap it and store it. Three months later, you open it up and it smells like a swamp. That pink slime or black mold is now baked into the plastic. You can scrub it with bleach, but that smell never fully leaves.
- The Chew Factor: I don’t care how good your barn cats are. Mice get in. And they love the smell of that residual fat or corn dust on your equipment. I’ve lost more rubber gaskets and plastic fittings to rodents than I have to normal wear and tear.
- The UV Factor: We all have those tarps or shade cloths we use for the run. If you leave them up all winter, the sun and wind degrade the fibers. The first time you try to fold it up in spring, it’s full of holes.
It’s just frustrating. You work hard for your money, and it feels like you’re throwing it away on replacing things that should have lasted a decade.
The “Flip It and Dry It” Rule
My grandpa taught me this, and it sounds stupid, but it works. If you wash a metal trough or a plastic feeder, don’t just wipe it down. Flip it upside down.
I know, it sounds too simple. But when you leave things sitting right-side up, water pools in the crevices. By flipping it, the water drips out and the air circulates. If you’ve got hose fittings or nozzles, shake the water out of them. Really get in there.
I also started keeping a cheap box fan in my shed. When I wash all my gear at the end of the season, I lay it out on a pallet, point the fan at it, and let it run for a full day. It sounds excessive, but the equipment is bone dry when I go to put it away. And dry equipment doesn’t rust.
What to Do With the “Grabby” Stuff
You know what I mean by “grabby” stuff, right? The stuff you use every single day. The feed scoop, the egg baskets, the small clippers.
You don’t want to pack that in a box. You need it accessible. But you also don’t want it getting stepped on or knocked into the mud.
I found that hanging things on the wall saves my sanity. I put up a pegboard—the cheap metal kind—and hung all the small hand tools on hooks. Now, when I walk in, I can grab the clippers without kicking over a bucket of oyster shell. It saves me about five minutes of searching every single morning. Five minutes might not sound like much, but over a year, that’s a lot of time I get back.
The Big Stuff Nobody Wants to Deal With
What about the stuff you only use once a year?
We have those massive metal feeders we use for the meat birds. They are huge, awkward, and heavy. They take up a massive footprint in the barn. For years, I just left them outside because I didn’t have room, and they just rusted out.
That’s when I realized I needed a different strategy.
I finally admitted that I don’t have to be a hoarder. I don’t have to keep everything on my own land.
We have a unit about a mile from the house, and that’s where the “seasonal” gear lives. The brooder plates go there in the winter when I’m not hatching. The extra heat lamps go there in the summer. I can stack them vertically because I’m not tripping over them in my main walkway.
Does it cost a few bucks a month? Sure. But I was spending way more than that replacing rusted gear or buying new things because I couldn’t find the old ones. Plus, there’s something mentally freeing about walking into my barn and not having a panic attack over the clutter.
A Tip on “Wet” Storage
Here is something a lot of people miss.
If you store your hoses or your water lines, do not coil them tight. I used to wrap my hoses into a perfect circle and hang them on a nail. The stress on the rubber caused cracks and kinks.
Now, I lay them in wide, loose loops in a large plastic tote. I put a little bit of baking soda at the bottom of the tote to absorb any weird smells or moisture that gets trapped. It sounds crazy, but the water lines stay flexible and don’t get that stiff, cracked rubber at the ends.
It’s About Respect, Honestly
I know that sounds cheesy. But think about it.
When you take the time to clean and house your equipment properly, you are respecting the work you do. You aren’t just a “person with chickens.” You are a manager. You are managing an operation. And when you walk into a tidy storage area, you feel more professional. You feel like you have your stuff together.
I want to challenge you. Next time you feed the flock, just stop and look at your storage area. Identify one thing that is sitting in the mud, or one box that is falling apart. Fix that one thing.
Then, if you’re still overwhelmed by the sheer volume of it all, think about moving that bulkier, off-season stuff out. Our storage service is literally designed for that exact scenario. It gets that heavy, awkward gear out of your way so you can actually move around in your workspace.
You’ll be amazed at how much better you feel when you aren’t stepping over last year’s equipment to get to today’s feed.
Give it a shot. Your back—and your wallet—will thank you.
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