chipmunks/squirrels/desert rats eating expensive chicken feed! help!

[zephyr66]

i live in california where feed is terribly expensive. i buy organic layer feed at $23.75 for 50#. i have a 6' x 10' coop and a 300sf run for the girls and my rooster. i have a hanging feeder in the run where the chickens can feed and it's at neck level - good height as any higher they would have difficulty eating. i have another feeder that is a trough style (like a mini steel hay feeder for a horse) that is mounted up high on the wall at neck level also. in the evenings when i close up the coop, i bring in the hanging feeder and lay a 2x2" piece of wood in the wall mount feeder. but, during the day i have seen squirrels and chipmunks in the coop and run with very full cheeks and the feed is going faster and faster. since i'm in the desert, they eat their feed almost exclusively as there isn't grass/insects in abundance.

does anyone have any suggestions on different types of feeders or things i can do to keep the critters out? killing them is not an option as there are tons of them and it would do no good. i can't afford to replace the coop enclosure with hardware cloth as it currently has poultry wire and the chipmunks can get through and squirrels burro under. small birds have also been able to squeeze in the 1" poultry wire and have a snack. any thoughts?

tired of feeding the neighborhood and can't afford it any longer!

sylvia

 

[clairabean]

Do you have a chicken house? Can you feed them IN the house?

 

[Gallo del Cielo]

Hello from a fellow desert dweller. Seems like everything out here wants to eat your chickens or their feed. I had a problem with wild birds and mice eating my chicken feed and made a treadle feeder. It keeps the food away from most critters. You can see plans to build one in my sig. line. If it makes you feel any better, your organic feed is cheaper than is it here!

 

[zephyr66]

clairabean - the critters go in the coop just as easily as the chickens, so that doesn't do any good, unfortunately.

gallo - your idea might be a good one! i am pretty handy so think i could make the treadle feeder before too long. thanks so much for the idea! hope my girls are smart enough to figure it out.

sylvia

 

[HorseFeatherz NV]

zephyr66 Another desert dweller here - and I know how you feel. I had to STOP free feeding - it is the only way for me.

I feed in the morning - chickens eat their fill and I pick up what is left over. Then the birds are turned loose to free range - and as you know there really is not much, but they will scratch and eat the ugly weeds that grow and have really cut the grasshopper population to zero (I have to check the neighbors to see if grasshoppers still live

)

Then about an hour before dusk and lock up - I feed the birds again and pick up what is left over.


Now during the day (I am always home) if they mob me when I go out, I will throw some treats or even their pelleted feed to them, or household scraps.


A treadle feeder does not work for me as I have chicks, bantams, heritage, ducks all together.