Geese Feeders

[donkeydew2farms]

i am looking for a solution to keep my feed dry. it has been raining inches here. my coop is open too. they have dog houses. I been wasting a lot of feed any ideas. I would post pictures of my set up but my camera got trample by my donkeys. thanks.

 

[Miss Lydia]

i am looking for a solution to keep my feed dry. it has been raining inches here. my coop is open too. they have dog houses. I been wasting a lot of feed any ideas. I would post pictures of my set up but my camera got trample by my donkeys. thanks.

We make these using scrap wood. I have 3 set up around my property

 

[donkeydew2farms]

thanks Miss Lydia I could make something like that.

 

[Miss Lydia]

thanks Miss Lydia I could make something like that.

I think you could too!

 

[Jessi8]

I've raised geese for 20 years and simply fed them out of a bucket until two years ago. Then, rats invaded the yard, attracted by the goose feed and the birdseed I had started putting out. There were so many you actually could see them running around the yard in the daytime. Big freak-out.

My vet told me if I stopped feeding the yard birds (it was summer, and I slowly weaned them off the seed) and got a covered goose feeder, the rats would run out of motivation to stick around and would take off of their own accord. That is exactly what happened when I followed his advice. No more rats!

The covered goose feeder I now use I found online. I found it at a site called "Grandpa's Feeders." There's a little treadle that the goose steps on, which opens the lid to the feeder. When the goose walks away, the lid closes. I had to have my handyman make a slight alteration in the feeder to accommodate the shape of a goose, because the feeders are made for chickens. But the geese learned to use them quickly, and they work great. They have the side benefit of keeping the feed dry even on rainy days. The slugs like to get into them, though. Ugh. But better slugs than rats.

My feeder cost $250 or something like that. On the website, there's a video that shows how they work. The lady there, if you phone her, can talk about the modification they suggest you make for geese. I think it was just that we made the treadle stick out a little further. You do have to be careful if you have goslings, though. They could get crushed under the treadle if they're little enough. We put the feeder away when there are tiny goslings and go back to the old bucket system. Other than that, the feeder works fine.

 

[Jessi8]

Google "Grandpa's Feeders." I got one, and it works great for my geese. They step on a treadle, and the lid pops open, then closes when they walk away. No more wet feed -- or rats, which is what my open buckets were attracting. I just posted something about this on another thread, with more details. Talk to the lady on the phone at the website and ask her how to modify the feeder so it fits geese. As I recall, we had to extend the treadle a little.

 

[grannyh]

Great idea Miss Lydia! Thank you for sharing! Not sure how it would work here with our blowing rain storms....

 

[grannyh]

This would be good Jessi8..It would keep the ground squirrels out too...but a little pricey for my 3 'pets'....:-(

 

[Shepherdesscmh]

Hey Jessi8...how long did it take to teach your geese to eat from the Grandpa's feeder? Did you follow the same directions as they give for chickens?

 

[Jessi8]

I just followed the instructions on the feeder for how to break the geese into using it. It took about 2 or 3 weeks -- one week at each of the stages of "mastery." No glitches. Worked like a charm. I did have my handyman modify the treadle a bit. It needs to come out a bit further, to accommodate the size and proportions of a goose. The woman who answers the phone at Grandpa's Feeder's should be able to advise you on how to do this, if you tell her you're getting a feeder for a goose. It wasn't at all hard, the handyman said.