Treadle feeders are a good concept but they scared our chickens silly ~ especially smaller sizes like Silkies ~ those metal treadles are LOUD when they open/close.
We got two of these large metal treadle feeders from the company who sold us our Barn Coop/Run but the feeders were huge & obviously were dog feeders modified as a chicken feeder ~ what a dud! These were huge about 2 ft tall!
So we bought a smaller size Feed-O-Matic treadle feeder w/mostly resin parts; however the metal mechanisms to operate the treadles are still noisy. We did all the recommendations for getting the birds to get over their fears. Only one chicken ever used the treadle but the timid Ameraucana & Silkies refused to get near it & it was not that tall!
Our Blue Breda hen was the only one that used the small Feed-O-Matic feeder ~ the other chickens ran away when they heard the noise of the treadle or saw the lid open in front of them. We followed instructions on training but none of it worked except on ONE hen! This might work to train more assertive standard hens like Leghorns, Australorps, or Rhode Islands but timid gentle birds like Silkies, Polish, bantams, etc, maybe not be a good choice.
