Want to save some serious cash on outdoor bird food, suet, and feeders? In addition, you’ll get the best prices on lawn care, gardening tools & supplies. Then you really need to check out your local feed mill! You can buy bird food in bulk, which is way cheaper than those bags at the specialty stores. Plus, the food is usually super fresh. These places are like a time capsule – a piece of Americana.
Our feed mill of choice? Good’s Feed Mill in East Earl PA, smack-dab in the middle of rural Lancaster County. Feed mills generalize in feeding a wide variety of pets, birds, and farm animals. Brian and I took our grandson Weston for a visit to Good’s Feed Mill. Come with us to pet the animals and explore the hundred plus year old mill. Then we’ll do a price check on buying bird food in bulk and discuss how to store it.
Fun Times at Good’s Mill
The door to Good’s Feed Mill has been familiar to me since childhood. The rustic floorboards, grainy smell, and sounds have all remained the same.
The Mill Cat
Every feed mill needs multiple cats. Grain brings the little nibblers. And mice are organic food for cats. It’s a regular food chain. During World War 2 in Britain, farms were zealously guarded from rats. Otherwise, rodents would have made a significant dent in food production. People (mostly women) to do rat catching. (Wes is not volunteering for this duty.) The cat seems anxious to do some stalking!
Small Animals
Good’s Mill sells some small animals. Ask permission and they might allow you to handle them: rabbits, guinea pigs, chicks, gerbils, hamsters… Wes is snuggling with a rabbit. They have a variety of different kinds of chickens for egg production
…and Birds
Don’t forget to go upstairs. There are all kinds of beautiful songbirds from parakeets and love birds to cockatiels and macaws.
Birdseed in Bulk
Buying birdseed in bulk generally offers significant cost savings compared to premixed bags. Specific seeds can be selected to attract desired bird species. In order of quantity, I buy black oil sunflower seeds, shelled peanuts, cracked corn, suet, and meal worms. Those five foods cover the tastes of seventeen birds that are common at our feeding platform:
A sweet little downy woodpecker visited our feeding platform looking for peanuts or suet crumbs. Usually the food is out in the open for them to enjoy a free-for-all smorgasborg! When photography is being done, the snacks are hidden. The birds go looking for it! See “Baked with Love” and other surprising photographs at AzarElGreetings.com.
This is a price comparison of Good’s Feed Mill, Farm Stores (Tractor Supply, Ace Hardware, etc.) and a specialty store that focuses only on wild birds. Good’s Feed Mill offers bird food in packages of one or two pounds to ten pounds and some 25 and 50 pound packages. Not all the packages are gi-normous!
Specialty wild bird stores have beautifully packaged mixes for specific songbirds. Premixed bags of seed are convenient and readily available. They are often formulated to attract a variety of birds. They are typically easier to store. At a specialty store, they are pricey. Good’s Feed Mill has bird seed mixes at very reasonable prices.
Bird seed mixes are handy at Walmart and the grocery store. However, these cheap premixed blends often contain fillers that may not be consumed by all birds. Examine seed mixes for the quantity of millet seeds. They’re the small, round, “globes”. If mixes contain too much millet, it leaves less room for other preferred seeds like black oil sunflower seeds. Birds that eat millet seed prefer black oil sunflower seeds. A little millet is good; a lot of millet is bad. (For me, zero millet seed is just fine and dandy!) Premixed seed blends cost a lot more per pound than bulk options.
How do you store all that food?
Food for the wildlife needs to be stored properly. Keep food for birds in a cool, dry place in a container that’s rodent and insect-proof. You can store it in a garage, shed, or a cool, dark place in your house.
I’m in-and-out several times a day to restock our feeding platform. For convenience, the sliding door to our Sunrise Deck is surrounded by a collection of containers. A large milk can hold 25 pounds of black oil sunflower seeds. Two large 36 oz tin chip cans hold shelled peanuts and cracked corn. Rustic nesting boxes hold suet and meal worms. You don’t need to go decorative. Use sturdy, sealed containers with tight-fitting lids. Galvanized metal is the best for deterring rodents and squirrels. Lidded drywall buckets stack nicely in the garage. On the deck, squirrels immediately discover drywall buckets and can chew through the thick plastic. Trust me; I know…
History
I’m fascinated with the dusty, worn wooden floorboards of Good’s Feed Mill. I wonder how many barefooted people got splinters in their feet before shoes were required!
Good’s Feed Mill on Muddy Creek has a rich history. In 1800, a sawmill occupied the site. By 1850, a new water-powered gristmill was built. The feedmill has been owned by six generations of the Good family since 1858. In 1904, a non-water powered frame mill was built. Sometime in the 20th century, electricity was added. In the mid-1900’s the Midwest began producing large quantities of cheap flour and gristmills (producing “people food”) began to decline. Good’s Mill became a feed mill, providing food for birds, pets, and farm animals and much, much more. It continues to serve the community today as a feed mill.
This review of Good’s Feed Mill David W. of Gap PA pretty much sums it up:
Wonderful little feed store with a plethora of things you need. This is the old-fashioned feed store of the 1920-40’s with modern day products. Excellent customer service, kind employees and country folk clientele. They have everything you’d need for your small family farm. We recently bought chicks from them and the birds we purchased were strong and healthy and well cared for. Feed, live animals, farm supplies, fencing, it’s all here under one heavy timbered roof. Come take a step back in time and enjoy your purchasing experience as Andy Griffith may have once enjoyed it. Here you are a valued customer, not another faceless $25.
Here’s a short video of Good’s Feed Mill. You’ll see the fun stuff and great prices. Good’s Feed Mill is worth a day trip. On the same day, visit Weaver’s Store in Fivepointville and Boulder Ridge Reclaimed Lumber. They’re all within two miles. Then, there’s Adamstown with its vintage and antique shops. Revisit the 1950’s at Dave’s Diner. Park Place has a huge menu. Yes…definitely a great day trip!
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