Change in Feeding Frequency

[5OneChick]

Looting squirrels have made it necessary to put feed away during the day.
Our flock consists of 6 standard 1 silkie hens, almost 18 months; 2 silkies hens, about 9 months
They’re let out early am and put to bed at sunset. We check them at least a few times a day (when not working in the yard), to get eggs before squirrels steal them; put layer feed out midday for 15+ minutes. Our flock has an acre to forage and plenty of water stations.

We’re going out of town 2-3 weeks.

House sitter is not available weekdays to do midday feeding.
At night they are secured in coop with feed and water until morning.
Question - if their feed is only available to them dusk to dawn, is that enough sustenance for them?

 

[nuthatched]

They don't eat at night so no.

 

[5OneChick]

Darn it was hoping foraging all day was helpful. So we’ll have to get probably triple feed before leaving town because squirrels will eat much of it.

 

[Al Gerhart]

You pay for a treadle feeder even when you don't have one.

But, squirrels are tough to stop even with a treadle feeder. The best feeder for that has a narrow and distant treadle so the squirrel is too far back to reach the feed if they overwhelm the tension on the door. Some learn to balance on the thin treadle arm, sometimes three or four gang up. If that happens they usually get trapped in the feeder so if away without anyone checking on the hens I'd get two feeders just in case. If you have a few weeks to train the hens and trap a few squirrels one feeder would do. This only works with inward swinging door feeders. They will be trapped inside the lower feed compartment, won't be able to move, can't get up into the upper feed chamber, so you lift the feeder off the hanging cleat, dump the feed in a container, maybe shake out as much of the other feed as you can, then submerge the feeder in a barrel of water for at least a half hour. Might have to remove four screws to get the front cover off and the door off to get the squirrel out, might be able to slosh it out once it is dead.

Spring tension, if you get one with adjustable spring tension, if it even has spring tension, will keep two squirrels out most likely but maybe not three.

You won't trap your way out of a squirrel problem but most learn quickly not to mess with a ratproof treadle feeder. If you have a lot of squirrels, you just have to either fence them out or deal with trapped squirrels. The good thing is while the usual traps might not work a treadle feeder that can trap squirrels will always work until they learn not to try to get to the feed.

They are expensive, the dual spring model which is best for dealing with squirrels starts at $85 plus shipping. So is having a house sitter manually feeding the chickens.

 

[5OneChick]

Wow thanks for the comprehensive suggestion! I will definitely look into the treadle feeder.
By any chance do you know if the silkies would get trapped? They are average size for the breed.

 

[Al Gerhart]

Silkies won't be trapped but they are too small to operate a rat proof feeder, too little weight, not enough reach. They will learn to eat with larger birds if you have them. Block the side approaches to the feeder, milk jugs filled with water or dirt or sand.

Adding a duck step helps with the reach issue with the silkies but it also makes the feeder less ratproof.