Chipmunk in feeder

Harringtonjen

In the Brooder
May 3, 2020
10
3
13
Hello.
We’ve just introduced our chickens to their new coop and run. They’ve adjusted and know where their food and water are kept (within the run).
The waterer and feeder came with the Omlet
Coop.
Unfortunately, an otherwise adorable, cheeky chipmunk has found its way into the feeder. Literally within hours of
Set up. The little guy would fill its cheeks, leave, then return minutes latter.
the 7 chicks don’t deter it.
I read about “Granpa’s feeder”. Any other suggestions?
 
Welcome to BYC. Do you have a picture? How old are the chickens? I wouldn’t keep full feeders til you found a way to deter that chipmunk 🐿 or all your feed will be gone!
 
Thank you both. The chicks are about 6 weeks, so keeping them out during the day.
Very annoying that supplementing the run area with hardware cloth is likely going to have to be the solution-given the price of the Omlet. Wonder why they don’t make the run holes smaller?
So, no pest proof feeder itself you could recommend? Thank you for responding!
 
Very annoying that supplementing the run area with hardware cloth is likely going to have to be the solution-given the price of the Omlet. Wonder why they don’t make the run holes smaller?
So, no pest proof feeder itself you could recommend? Thank you for responding!

There's treadle feeders, which are operated by the chickens standing on a lever to open it, but you'll need to wait until the birds are older and heavier to use one.

I suppose an alternative to the hardware cloth would be lightweight bird netting - a lot cheaper, and might be enough to ward off a chipmunk, but I've never tried it.
 
Some good advice given so far. And yes, do not use a treadle feeder with six week old chicks. Some will get trapped inside and they aren't big enough to operate the feeder and a blocked open treadle feeder is useless.

Grandpa feeders are not squirrel or even chipmunk proof. One of the review sites has a video showing two tiny chipmunks working together to shove open the lid and eat the feed. Which is why we use the heavy counterweight and the spring loaded door. After all these years, not one competitor has copied our design because of the cost to manufacture is much higher than one of the guillotine style feeders. If you sell on Amazon you are giving up at least a third of the cost of the product in fees and subsidized shipping so what you will see available is plastic crap or Chinese crap.

As the birds are few in number and still quite small, is it possible to upgrade one section of the coop tight enough to keep the chipmunk out till they are large enough to use a treadle feeder?
 

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