Recent content by Al Gerhart

  1. Al Gerhart

    Any advice for keeping starlings out of my hen coop?

    Sigh..... There are only two methods to keep vermin out of your feed. A.) Build a Fort Knox tight coop. Or. B.) use a treadle feeder. There are no other answers. There will never be other answers. Chose one. Implement it. Done.
  2. Al Gerhart

    All Things Treadle Feeder

    No problem, always glad to answer questions to make sure the product is a good fit for a customer. If I were you, I would go with one medium. The Large feeder is no longer made because we re designed the Medium feeder so that it held nearly as much as the Large feeder. The Large feeder sold...
  3. Al Gerhart

    All Things Treadle Feeder

    You found the site ending in .net, correct? It has the videos on repair, installation, training, and tons of customer supplied videos. you basically slide a washer on one of the bolts, stick it through the side of the feeder coming from the inside pointing out, add the second washer, then the...
  4. Al Gerhart

    All Things Treadle Feeder

    Well...I'm hardly needed here. Some of my wonderful customers have answered your questions better than I could. The soft close, some of the spring tension needed to close the door and bring the treadle up is dissipated compressing the soft close cylinder. I usually set the weight needed on...
  5. Al Gerhart

    All Things Treadle Feeder

    Rodents invade for one of four reasons; food, water, shelter, or nesting materials that can be shredded. If one of those four is present there is very little that will make them stop coming. Irritants like odors, capsaicin, ultra sound, never work. I'd rule out warmth and safety, a burrow...
  6. Al Gerhart

    All Things Treadle Feeder

    That is the other method that works every time; building a Fort Knox tight coop. That said, it is the more expensive method in material, time, and money as it must be maintained. The previous thread you responded to had successfully beaten the rats with the ratproof feeder and the rats were...
  7. Al Gerhart

    Treadle feeder problem

    Treadle feeders, of course. But pick one that has an inward swinging door for safety and to avoid the three week open feeder "training" period. No plastic parts of course that rats will chew though. And a narrow and distant treadle works far better than a close in wide treadle. No holes...
  8. Al Gerhart

    Treadle feeder problem

    They are a bit young to use a guillotine style feeder like the Rent a coop feeder but if their weight is enough to raise the lid, it is just the fear of that overhead lid that is stopping them. And I don't blame them. Imagine your front door hung sideways and you having to step on a treadle...
  9. Al Gerhart

    Game bird grower for chickens

    Can you get some standard layer pellet or crumble? Have some free choice so they can get what might be missing in your game feed?
  10. Al Gerhart

    Hermit Crabs- Mean mothers... maybe someone has some ideas?

    I doubt a treadle feeder will help if there are that many crabs. It would keep the feed off the ground but if the crabs can smell the feed or are smart enough to swarm the treadle even a narrow and distant treadle might not work. Sound like the hardware cloth is the way to go.
  11. Al Gerhart

    Hermit Crabs- Mean mothers... maybe someone has some ideas?

    If you can't pour concrete, find the actual law and read it. Perhaps stabilized soil might be okay. Cement and or lime mixed into the soil and pack the bejesus out of it. Brown color, no one will know it's stabilized
  12. Al Gerhart

    Hermit Crabs- Mean mothers... maybe someone has some ideas?

    Sounds like free protein for your flock unless they are protected by law.
  13. Al Gerhart

    Still making a mess with port feeders

    People worry about how the hens will handle limited feeding space but they do just fine with maybe 7" of linear space for 16 hens. One feeder per 16 hens. It is the total capacity and the desire to be gone for a week on vacation that is the real decision maker in my opinion. Having two...
  14. Al Gerhart

    Still making a mess with port feeders

    That is almost the same as the one I started out with except I used elbows on each end and a five foot tall 4" pvc pipe so it would hold a lot of feed. Little waste, worked fine till the rats found me about a year later. Mice first, then the rats move in.
  15. Al Gerhart

    Still making a mess with port feeders

    That is a hard no for me. Back in 2010 and 2011 when I needed one they were $270.00 plus shipping....even as a cabinet shop owner I couldn't afford that or wouldn't pay such a ridiculous price. So I built one for at the time one fifth the price. Once I improved it to a metal design it was...
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