My bird and Rodent proof feeder

[sandman55]

My feeder is located in their house but it has a larger than door size opening which we need as we live in a warm climate. When I finish hand feeding them the mixed grain and pellets I will have just pellets in the feeder and when the chooks are trained to using it I think my sparrow problems will be diminished. I don't think the sparrows here will feed alongside the chooks like they do in jengrantmorrises feeder because I once saw my chooks fighting over a sparrows carcase.

 

[sandman55]

I have an update on how I am getting on with the feeder.

It has been working fine now for some months I did have a hiccup when some pellets became wedged between the support arm of the treadle and the side of the feeder which kept it open and they got in and scratched a heap of pellets onto the ground. I fixed this by modifying the rail mounted on the treadle and packing them further away from the feeder so that any pellets billed out can easily drop between the rail and the feeder box. I also made up some mesh from fridge shelves (with my welder) about 50mm / 2 inches square and put it inside the feeder and this seems to have stopped them from billing out grain.

 

[sandman55]

Just checking this old thread and I am happy to say my feeder is still going strong. There is one upgrade I did early on that I haven't included here it is to stop them from billing out the feed I'll attach a pic of it. We haven't had chooks for most of this year because we had a visit from a fox. We have never had fox trouble because we have always had a big dog but our Charlotte who is pictured in my Icon passed away leaving us with our Australian terrier Roxy and she made a commotion that night but I thought it was the usual a cat passing by. I have made the house fox proof and before Christmas we got 4 point of lay Isa Browns for the Grand kids.

 

[aart]

Any trouble with them eating from the side...then bird on treadle gets off?

 

[sandman55]

Hi aart I have the base 300mm or one foot off the ground and while I train them I temporarily extend the sides as shown in the pictures and I see my first post is December 2013 so I've been using it since then and I am not aware of that happening. One thing to remember layer pellets are a complete feed so while training them don't give them anything else and best not to free range them till they are trained though I'm sure some do and manage I start with mine on the ground and the lid open so they know where to get a feed then I raise it 300mm off the ground and place a long concrete brick in front of the treadle to create a 100mm step I forgot the brick once when I had a clean out and they were still using it. I also found if I mix wheat with the pellets they bill the pellets onto the floor to get to the wheat.