You don’t need a fancy barn or coop to keep your feed organized! For years I spent so much time walking from coop to barn, to barn to house, and back down again. Having all my feeding areas spread out was frustrating and a lot of extra work. Of course barns are important for animal shelter, but you don’t need a barn to store your feed!
Just make a metal storage box instead!

Here’s a fact for you: feed attracts vermin.
No matter where you decide to store your flock’s feed, mice will smell it and they will come. It’s for this reason, I prefer not to have hanging feeders in my coop. Broadcast feeding onto the dry ground, just enough for the chickens to eat each day, has drastically improved our mouse problem, but it was when my husband made me a storage box for the feed, that changed my game for good!

The best and most convenient way to store feed is in its own box. A trunk style box is small enough to be put anywhere in your farmyard. Where you put your feed box is up to you! We have ours closer to the house than the coop. It sits up next to the goat/chicken fence. On the other side of the fence, we have a little wooden trough where I can feed everyone all at once.
Your feed box will become the hub of activity in your farmyard, so you may not want to place it too close to the house! Our chickens and goats hang out next to the box when they are free ranging; probably waiting on their next meal!

The most important part of building your feed storage container, is to make the walls METAL. A wooden frame is fine, but metal walls are key to keeping out pests. Mice cannot chew through the metal, and should stay out. Metal is waterproof, lasts longer, is more affordable, and a is pest deterrent.
Unfortunately, it is also heavy. Installing a hydraulic hinge to either side of the lid will help keep it open without the danger of the lid falling on you. With the hinge, it will be super easy to pop up, so you’ll need to install a simple lock to keep the wind from blowing it open.
Inside, try using large plastic or metal bins to hold your different types of feed. This further protects the feed from becoming moldy or damp. I like to keep 3 containers of feed in my storage box: dog food, chicken feed, and horse/goat feed. It’s also handy to have a medicine box of first aid items on hand for emergencies. Some Blue Kote, bandages, scissors, rope, and zip ties are always in my “miscellaneous container.” Last, you’ll need somewhere to put all your empty feed bags, so I like to stack them along the back wall.

There you go, a one stop shop for all your daily feed needs! Having a storage box will cut time off your chore list, giving you more time to enjoy your flock! They are easy to build and you won’t regret it!