Fluffy Butt Acres: Stories of our flock

[Sylvester017]

Nasty buggers. Do they only visit in the night?

Recently I saw someone post a review on a feeder silo with a timer that closed the feeding-station in the night. It didn’t work bc the chickens spilled a lot of food.

It made me wonder. If you make/buy a rat proof food cabin and install an auto pop door with a light sensor on it, it is a way to give the chickens access to food during the day.

View attachment 4224775You need a big wooden box like a garden box for pillows, with a lid for access to the feeder. The example on the photo is 50cm3 and costs €75,-.

View attachment 4224776 buy a cheap chicken house door with light sensor (€35) like the one on the photo. Make an opening as in the instructions and screw the auto pop door on the box.
This way the food is unaccessible during the night.

Even better seems to be a special manufactured treadle feeder, but it takes time to learn the chickens how to use it, and not being afraid of the noise.

Those are good alternatives... only problem I see w/ a box feeder is that some rats are tenacious to chew thru plastic, wood, plaster, etc.

We thought metal treadle feeders holding 25 lb feed each was a great idea but only one chicken would use the metal as the others were petrified of the noise.

Our 2 big metal treadle feeders $100 each & only one chicken used them. 2015

So we bought a smaller treadle $75 w/ softer sounding resin parts but not one chicken would use it. Followed all the advice for training but only the wild birds ate from it. 2016

 

[rural mouse]

Hmmm. After the latest battle in the great Blueberry wars I see that winning is a lot about technique.
While Mr. Chips was once again the clear victor (I honestly cannot imagine him ever giving up food to the ladies!), both Calypso and Cookie did rather well.
Calypso is the only one who swallows whole regardless of size of blueberry (and there were some huge ones!), and this means she is able to consume more per minute than anyone else.
Cookie uses a different approach - she hangs back and swoops in when any other hen puts their blueberry down in the ground.
I need to go buy more blueberries.

He'll be more willing to share food when he's not growing up as much as just filling out. Cookie's a smart one. She bears watching.

 

[RoyalChick]

Thinking back, before PITA decided she was done, the 5 boys were on rotation as to which was hanging closest to mom. The others were first to the roos for the tidbit calls. Mr Chips is learning what mama Tassels says is extra good food. Good. Should give him a bit of a leg up when it comes to courtship later.

I hope you are right. As well as blueberries I had an apple core and I tossed it down. Tassels has recently taken against apples but Mr. Chips dove in with gusto. Tassels looked but did not call anyone for it and walked off. It was interesting to see that Mr. Chips gave up his prize and followed his Mama.
I think Pooh still likes apples so she probably ate it.

In the last day or two Mr. Chips has started bulking up and looking tall. He is still barely bigger than Geronimo but I suspect will be bigger soon.
Tassels shows absolutely no sign of letting them roost or even stray very far from her. This is the hen that was broody for 6 weeks until I put her on bricks of ice, so there is really no reason to believe she will ever give up trying to control them. I assume at some point they will stop paying attention to her - which will be a little sad. Then I assume she will lay and egg and then immediately go broody again!


Tassels on ice after 6 weeks of sitting on a nest with nothing (just as a reminder of how determined she was).

 

[featherhead007]

Those are good alternatives... only problem I see w/ a box feeder is that some rats are tenacious to chew thru plastic, wood, plaster, etc.

We thought metal treadle feeders holding 25 lb feed each was a great idea but only one chicken would use the metal as the others were petrified of the noise.

Our 2 big metal treadle feeders $100 each & only one chicken used them. 2015
View attachment 4225045

So we bought a smaller treadle $75 w/ softer sounding resin parts but not one chicken would use it. Followed all the advice for training but only the wild birds ate from it. 2016
View attachment 4225049

Expensive restaurant for you to open, just to find out your clientele isn’t interested in opening the door. Maybe you should have made a special sign, saying “great eats inside just use the door!”

 

[featherhead007]

I hope you are right. As well as blueberries I had an apple core and I tossed it down. Tassels has recently taken against apples but Mr. Chips dove in with gusto. Tassels looked but did not call anyone for it and walked off. It was interesting to see that Mr. Chips gave up his prize and followed his Mama.
I think Pooh still likes apples so she probably ate it.

In the last day or two Mr. Chips has started bulking up and looking tall. He is still barely bigger than Geronimo but I suspect will be bigger soon.
Tassels shows absolutely no sign of letting them roost or even stray very far from her. This is the hen that was broody for 6 weeks until I put her on bricks of ice, so there is really no reason to believe she will ever give up trying to control them. I assume at some point they will stop paying attention to her - which will be a little sad. Then I assume she will lay and egg and then immediately go broody again!


Tassels on ice after 6 weeks of sitting on a nest with nothing (just as a reminder of how determined she was).
View attachment 4225076

Now, that is really putting somebody on ice!

 

[Sylvester017]

We have 2 cats for that but… last winter we got rats, realised it was because the cats never went in the chicken run. We moved our chicken feed and water down to an exposed part of the garden where the cats go. Now thinking I’ll have to hide it as a crow took an egg shell from their pile of supplements and now hoping it won’t come back with its pals and mob our birds to death, which is very common where we are. I’ve never had a chicken catch a rat although they will catch shrews and voles. We got rid of ours between taking the cats round, moving the feed and them when they were starving trapping them, we only had one left after the starving part and that went in the trap.

Are you in a rural or suburb environment? We live in a city where we don't have spacious property to move things around. Our birds only catch insects during foraging or they catch spider webs in their feathers. They'll eat bigger stuff like locusts or lizards but only if we toss them an already dead one

 

[featherhead007]

The chooks just had a little snack.
I cooked and cut beak sized morsels for each bird. Kinda wore me out.

 

[RoyalChick]

Those are good alternatives... only problem I see w/ a box feeder is that some rats are tenacious to chew thru plastic, wood, plaster, etc.

We thought metal treadle feeders holding 25 lb feed each was a great idea but only one chicken would use the metal as the others were petrified of the noise.

Our 2 big metal treadle feeders $100 each & only one chicken used them. 2015
View attachment 4225045

So we bought a smaller treadle $75 w/ softer sounding resin parts but not one chicken would use it. Followed all the advice for training but only the wild birds ate from it. 2016
View attachment 4225049

I doubt either of those would actually be rat proof because the treadle goes near enough to the food for a rat to reach. The rats will join together until there are enough to provide the weight needed to open the feed container.

 

[Sylvester017]

Expensive restaurant for you to open, just to find out your clientele isn’t interested in opening the door. Maybe you should have made a special sign, saying “great eats inside just use the door!”

What an excellent suggestion... now... if only they could read!

 

[featherhead007]

I doubt either of those would actually be rat proof because the treadle goes near enough to the food for a rat to reach. The rats will join together until there are enough to provide the weight needed to open the feed container.

Rats are pretty smart. That’s why they’re so hard to catch. I don’t have rats, but I have plenty of field mice.