Mole, rats, mice, chipmunks, grampa's feeder, warning graphic photo

[turkey girl 0964]

How do you feed the birds then? I see your in Tucson. Thats where I am originally from. My family is all still there. I am missing the warm weather very much right now.

We feed morning noon and night, we just put the food in a large bowl for them.

 

[Painted Calls]

Shrews are carnivorous/insectivorous. They're not after your feed. They're after insects.

 

[Al Gerhart]

One of the many major design flaws of the grandpa feeder is the guillotine style lid which they have attempted to design around by making the lid balanced so less mass is slamming down when a chicken is in the wrong place at the wrong time. The balance is so light to improve the safety that a tiny shrew can push its way into the feeder. The critter might have been found on the top but I would bet that it would be impossible to climb the galvanized sheet metal and push open the top lid, more likely to have entered in the bottom and burrowed up to the top. Either that or the lid isn't closing completely.

Everyone has likely seen that video with the two tiny chipmunks pushing the lid open as a team so I am wondering why it took two of them to push the lid open when this shrew could do it on his own. Maybe it is like that Ron White joke, that is how many they had. Or maybe a shrew is pretty powerful as it does dig through soil.

Fixes, I wouldn't give up on the feeder without trying some things. Perhaps adding some weight to the lid if you are just raising broilers and aren't worried about risking a few birds. Before that though check the treadle and dig out any built up debris under it to make sure the treadle is closing all the way. Clean off any poo that might be on that huge treadle step, that might affect the balance.

Check all around to make sure the lid is closing tightly. If it is warped try flexing the treadle to see if that is causing the lid to close unevenly. They use a pvc pipe to connect the treadle to the side arms, might be a split in one of the pipes allowing it to twist and lose some of the travel. Might grease up the linkages and check that a bolt hasn't backed off and has allowed the bolt to twist excessively and bind up the action. It has a very complex set of levers and linkages.

And above all else, if you cannot fix the problems write a review warts and all. I can tell you that manufacturers hate negative reviews and will listen and make changes when people complain. My feeder is so much better thanks to developing it with the feedback from the good folks at BYC. Not going to say that negative feedback is pleasant to get but I will say that it helps everyone by fixing the design.

 

[The Tiny Homestead]

Years ago I had mice getting into the catfood dishes. I set traps and caught several. One morning I checked the trap and there was a half eaten mouse in it. I made a homemade live trap and caught a shrew, and later read that shrews will kill and eat mice