How I stopped feed loss to squirrels and other rodents

[Ddb123]

Just an update: After a recent Omelet firmware update, the door controllers go in and out of connection. Had been working perfectly before. Dealing with their customer service (such that it is on the 'service' part) is frustrating. I only seem to be able to email them and they eventually will reply. Still waiting for a reply from my query late last week regarding this problem. Had a thought about resetting the panel and starting over, skipping the firmware update, but I'm going to give them a few days more. Sure glad I don't use these on my coop door and only on the feeder box. Jeez.

I also have an Eglu and when I ran into a problem I found it helpful to call the sells department, they seemed to be more eager to please.

 

[LyndallA]

So I have a feeder enclosure which has two feeder boxes facing opposite directions and they have those omelet Auto doors on them. Previously what I did is set open and close times on the feeders but of course that just resulted in lots of feeding on part of squirrels and other creatures in between the times that the chickens were feeding. But about a month ago I guess it was the company that makes the Omelette Auto doors came up with an upgrade we're basically you can attach a controller which looks similar to the old one but it has Wi-Fi connection and has an app that works with it. As soon as I saw that, I ordered two.
So what I did, is I put them both in manual mode so come around 6:00 a.m. I open both of the feeder enclosure doors so the chickens can feed. Then usually around 7:30 or so I close the feeder doors. This works out well because I'm usually done with breakfast around that time anyway. The next open time is around 10:00 a.m. with a close time somewhere around 11:30 or so. The final opening is around 3:00 and it stays up to about 4:30. Since it is powered by the app that runs on my phone I can do these open and closings from wherever I may be. Whether I'm flight instructing at an airport or I happen to be home. So I find it very convenient.

This has been a remarkable change which has led to significantly less feed being consumed by creatures other than the chickens. And I had tried a variety of things I tried the treadle feeders etc. Unfortunately I think here in the city maybe our squirrels are better educated and they figured out how to game the treadle feeder.

Now this is certainly a costly solution but I am more than pleased especially since I had The Omelette Auto doors already for the feeders all I had to do was get the updated control box for each of the doors.

I like using The Omelette Auto doors on the feeder since that's about as far as I trust them. For my chicken coop door I've been using the same all metal doors (pulletshut doors) which I've used for over 15 years. They've been very dependable and nothing is going to chew through them.

But these simple omelette Auto doors with this new Wi-Fi accessible controllers has been a wonderful Discovery for me. So if you raise your chickens as pets which I really do and definitely not any sort of commercial Enterprise. This has been a great solution for me and the timing couldn't have been better because I was getting tired of filling the two feeders as often as I was fully knowing that I was feeding squirrels Etc in the process.

Ooooo, someone else with a rodent problem! Your solution sounds great - will,look up that product. A question: are your feeder outside the coop/ henhouse? I’m trying to decide where to put my feeders given my ground squirrel problem of grain raiding.

 

[Al Gerhart]

The problem I had with a feeder tension is that adjusted too high the hens could open it and adjusted any other level the hens AND the squirrels could open it

Okay, but which feeder brand was it? If it was one of my feeders I bet it can be made to work even with the squirrels. We have the fairly new dual spring set up, infinite adjustment on the tension. And with the treadle set far away squirrels ought not to get in or at least trap themselves.

Holler at me privately if you prefer using the messenger function. Your work around with the electronic doors is cool but the squirrels will figure out the timing.

Analog works better than digital in some cases, right?