Free choice or not

[junkman56]

Chickens will kill and eat mice, or whatever, during the day, NOT at night in the dark. Then the mice come out and have a good time! Set traps where the chickens can't get them, and I think the best traps are the old wood with wire springs, not the newer plastic things. You want them dead, not half dead!
By the time you are seeing them, you may have MANY, and it may take poison in bait boxes. Rats will eat eggs and kill chickens at night, it happened here! Only poison bait will get all the rats...
Mary

I haven't seen rats. Just mice, I will be getting some traps

 

[gtaus]

I have a 5 gal bucket feeder also, but I dont use it since I made the tote, I have 12 chickens now, had 15, and the tote feeds 8 at a time versus 3 in the bucket. I need to figure out how to hang the tote, I like the idea.

The tote is really nice with 8 feeding slots. Nothing says you can't hang your 5 gallon bucket with 3 feeding slots while you figure out what to do with the tote. I have 10 chickens and my 5 gallon feeder bucket has 4 feeding slots. But I have the feeder hanging in the coop 24/7. I never see more than 1 or 2 chickens at the feeder at any time. I suspect because the food is always available, there is never any fighting over who gets to eat.

 

[junkman56]

I am going to try and figure a way to hang the tote today. And find the mice enter and exit holes and seal them up, but they are probably coming through the pop door to.

 

[Folly's place]

If you have any hiding places for the mice in the coop, fix them. Insulated walls? Tunnels underneath? Any breach in your defenses, and they will be there.
Mary

 

[Mvan42]

I have cats, They leave me nice presents on my porch every day. Lol. The chickens do eat or at least peck at the dead one when I sweep them off my porch.

My feeder is a homemade one that was my hubbys grandfathers. It’s hanging and can hold about 30lbs of feed. As for spills, if a lot is on the floor I wait to fill the feeder. It allows the girls (and rabbits) to clean that up before I add more feed.

 

[Ladies-Eight]

One way to hang your tote, would be to drill a hole in each corner. The rope or wire used to support it will fill the hole and make it easy for you to get the top off for refilling.

 

[oldhen2345]

I used to have a PVC pipe feeder that I thought was great until I saw the rats - huge wood rats- climbing in and out during the night. I switched to just putting the feed in an old aluminum loaf pan - I only have a few hens, and removing it at night. There is a lawn mower shed near the coop. The doors stay locked and there is a paver floor. I put Just One Bite in there. Other animals are safe since it is in a locked area. I replace it once or twice a year- haven't seen rats in the coop since I started this. Usually by the end of spring, the entire package is gone with nothing but paper left.

 

[TooCheep]

One way to hang your tote, would be to drill a hole in each corner. The rope or wire used to support it will fill the hole and make it easy for you to get the top off for refilling.

I was thinking of a rectangular wood frame around the sides of the tote. It would be tight against the plastic and just below the side ridge. That would provide a lot more support area and be less likely to break than holes in the plastic. Also, it would be low enough to not interfere with the lid.

 

[junkman56]

Thank you all for the great advice

 

[TooCheep]

I was thinking of a rectangular wood frame around the sides of the tote. It would be tight against the plastic and just below the side ridge. That would provide a lot more support area and be less likely to break than holes in the plastic. Also, it would be low enough to not interfere with the lid.

Oh, forgot one other benefit of this design. If you are having problems with the bottom being too weak, it would be easy to add some kind of strap to the wood frame to help support the bottom.