Make your own - No waste - 5 gallon (25# feed) bucket feeder for about $3

[pfields]

No.... unless you don't mind putting caps on at night and taking them off in the morning. This is what we've had to do with our feeders. It was after I built the second feeder while filling it up with feed that I noticed the rat droppings inside the feeder. I checked the next one and the same.

I use to use a long piece of rain gutter attached to the fence to feed them and it worked great. I could fill it up with feed and they could all eat at once and then the wild birds found it and they came by the dozens. The birds left after I built the new feeders and rats took their place.

We bought a pop door last year just so we didn't have to go out first thing in the morning and the last thing at night to open/close up the coop and the rats have taken away that pleasure.

My dad planted acres of clover for his honey bees behind our house and that's when the rats started to multiply. We never had rats before. Here in Texas rats/mice draws snakes/rattlesnakes.

 

[Finnie]

No.... unless you don't mind putting caps on at night and taking them off in the morning. This is what we've had to do with our feeders. It was after I built the second feeder while filling it up with feed that I noticed the rat droppings inside the feeder. I checked the next one and the same.

I use to use a long piece of rain gutter attached to the fence to feed them and it worked great. I could fill it up with feed and they could all eat at once and then the wild birds found it and they came by the dozens. The birds left after I built the new feeders and rats took their place.

We bought a pop door last year just so we didn't have to go out first thing in the morning and the last thing at night to open/close up the coop and the rats have taken away that pleasure.

My dad planted acres of clover for his honey bees behind our house and that's when the rats started to multiply. We never had rats before. Here in Texas rats/mice draws snakes/rattlesnakes.

Aw, I feel for you. If it's not one thing, it's another. Maybe you could get some rat terrier type dogs and/or cats to keep the vermin population in check. That of course, would lead to other problems to deal with, but it might be worth it. If it all started with the honey bees, just remember that they are a very important part of the ecosystem, and well worth a bit of trouble. Plus, there could be some other reason that the rodents have started to multiply.

 

[pfields]

Thanks, it certainly feels that way but I don't blame the honey bees, we need more honey bees for our plants. My dad is 86 and loves those honey bees. I believe the rats would have found the feeders sooner or later with or without the honey bees. We just didn't think about it at the time we were building them. They look nice and sounded like such a good idea for them to have plenty of feed rain or shine.

We put out those dark green poison blocks and they work. Boy, do they smell when they die!

They also killed a skunk that had been coming around our yard and getting under my parents deck (they live about 1/2 acre from us). My dad had set a trap for it for weeks and he couldn't catch it. I threw one block of poison under the deck and the next morning the skunk had crawled into the trap and died.

 

[P-Dog]

Has anyone tried this as a hanging feeder? As previously mentioned, we have a mouse problem. We're thinking if we hang this feeder (taking the weight into account) we'd thwart the mice.

 

[qhlover]

I

Has anyone tried this as a hanging feeder? As previously mentioned, we have a mouse problem. We're thinking if we hang this feeder (taking the weight into account) we'd thwart the mice.

I plan to hang me 5 gallon feeder when I get their run finished

 

[Finnie]

They also killed a skunk that had been coming around our yard and getting under my parents deck (they live about 1/2 acre from us). My dad had set a trap for it for weeks and he couldn't catch it. I threw one block of poison under the deck and the next morning the skunk had crawled into the trap and died.

Pew! That must have stunk!!

At least if you have to put the caps on and off the feeder ports every morning and night, it's not as crucial when you do it, and you could still sleep in some. If your pop door lets the chickens out in the morning, they could forage on some green plants for a while until you come open the feeders. I hope to have an automatic door some day. I feel really guilty if I wake up a little late and I know the chickens have been waiting to be let free, since their sleeping quarters are a little cramped.

 

[Finnie]

Has anyone tried this as a hanging feeder? As previously mentioned, we have a mouse problem. We're thinking if we hang this feeder (taking the weight into account) we'd thwart the mice.

I know this is OT, but P-Dog, I LOVE your poodles in your avatar! They are standards, right?

 

[P-Dog]

I know this is OT, but P-Dog, I LOVE your poodles in your avatar! They are standards, right?

Finnie, thank you! They are. Their names are Gilly and Jackson - or Jack and Gill. I lost both of them within the past year (Gilly to old age at 16 and Jackson to Melanoma at 14). I have another standard now, Samson, who I rescued a few months ago. I've had standards since I was 10 years old and I'm 42 now! I'm practically a poodle myself. *grin*

 

[pfields]

Pew! That must have stunk!!

At least if you have to put the caps on and off the feeder ports every morning and night, it's not as crucial when you do it, and you could still sleep in some. If your pop door lets the chickens out in the morning, they could forage on some green plants for a while until you come open the feeders. I hope to have an automatic door some day. I feel really guilty if I wake up a little late and I know the chickens have been waiting to be let free, since their sleeping quarters are a little cramped.

We're not late sleepers and their pop door open between 6:15 and 6:30 am, it's just that the grass is so wet early in the morning and I feel guilty if I don't get out there and take off the caps.

 

[Cluckies]

We're not late sleepers and their pop door open between 6:15 and 6:30 am, it's just that the grass is so wet early in the morning and I feel guilty if I don't get out there and take off the caps.

Put a feeder in their hen house. I have a feeder in the hen house as well as outside. You have alot of unused nest boxes, throw one in there. Here is the one I did that is in one of my nesting boxes, one photo is looking through my hardware cloth pop door (I had my husband make a hardware cloth door as I don't have a south facing window and I wanted more airflow in the summer, especially when there is only a breeze from the south) anyways, you can see it (kind of) in the second photo, down on the right. that was last winter.



Don't worry, I lock the pop door down on the inside.