oh no...not another feeder question. keeping birds and rats out? treadle designs?

[lizo97]

I designed the extra large feeder both as a chicken feeder and a dog feeder using my own dog at the time, Teddy, AKA Teddy Bear, an 85 pound black Border Collie, normal for a Border Collie/Pyrenees cross. Teddy is gone now, he had gotten old and fell going down some stairs and broke his neck. He was a shelter rescue but I think he was around 5 months old in early 2009 and he died this last summer. He was a very smart dog but he never bothered with the treadle step on his feeder, just pushed the door open with his fat head and ate.

Not sure how a 120 pound dog would scale up from an 85 pound dog. I hesitate to make a prediction. The opening for the door would be around12" wide. We have sold maybe a hundred of the dog feeder/extra large chicken feeder and never had any negative feed back other than the cost of shipping. But it holds 63 pounds of feed, huge box that weighs 21 pounds but dimensional weight charges causes it to ship the same cost a a fifty pound package.

I designed the extra large feeder both as a chicken feeder and a dog feeder using my own dog at the time, Teddy, AKA Teddy Bear, an 85 pound black Border Collie, normal for a Border Collie/Pyrenees cross. Teddy is gone now, he had gotten old and fell going down some stairs and broke his neck. He was a shelter rescue but I think he was around 5 months old in early 2009 and he died this last summer. He was a very smart dog but he never bothered with the treadle step on his feeder, just pushed the door open with his fat head and ate.

Not sure how a 120 pound dog would scale up from an 85 pound dog. I hesitate to make a prediction. The opening for the door would be around12" wide. We have sold maybe a hundred of the dog feeder/extra large chicken feeder and never had any negative feed back other than the cost of shipping. But it holds 63 pounds of feed, huge box that weighs 21 pounds but dimensional weight charges causes it to ship the same cost a a fifty pound package.

Hi Al, where are you located?

 

[Al Gerhart]

Oklahoma City.

 

[lizo97]

Oklahoma City.

Question: I am worried about my dogs messing around with the springs and such on the outside -- is that possible? Also, do the smaller sizes have the same size opening? My hens are not nice to eat other, so I am trying to figure out what to get.

 

[Al Gerhart]

There are two springs on that extra large feeder, one on each side. I could modify the feeder, convert it to the latest dual spring model where the springs are pretty much hidden under the front cover. I'd have to look at one of them on Tuesday to make sure that it is possible. And I would have to be reminded on the order comment form to know it was your order.

The Medium feeder is 4" less wide, the Small feeder is another 4" less wide or 8" less. No way anything other than an extra large would work as a dog feeder unless it was a lap dog. The Medium feeder is around 10.5" inside but there is a one inch lip on each front corner so that takes it downto 8.5" opening and 4.5" opening for the Small feeder.

If you have messy eaters add the extra large feeder lip extender to the order, it is a couple of bucks. You can insert it by hand to raise the lip another 1" or so. Or was the meaning of that last sentence that they aren't nice to each other? If that is the case, two feeders set far apart and even better if one is out of the line of sight of the other feeder cuts down on squabbles.

 

[lizo97]

Ok, I will think about it. I feel like I could use a medium for my chickens to put in an outside location, though I worry about ants. Ants are everywhere in Arizona. Then, I also want to get the XL for the dogs, but again I am worried about ants. Also, can I adjust the push bar so the chickens cannot open the xl feeders? My chickens love dog food.

 

[Al Gerhart]

Order some extra springs with the feeder. I would think that two more springs would stop a chicken from using the dog feeder.

Ants, no help there. About the only way is some sort of moat and keeping that clean with chickens scratching might be an unsolvable problem.

 

[Jmml219]

actually, If I could keep the wild birds out of the open door that would solve most everything. Maybe a "curtain" of some type to discourage wild bird entry? The automatic coop door opens and closes every morning and evening. The feeder opens and closes with it.

I am in the same boat! I tried a clear plastic sheet covering the chicken run & coop doors with about 2 inch slits cut the length of the entry. It took the chickens a couple days to understand that they could just walk through it (my method was to tape up 2 of the flaps & leave 1 flap down and repeat this pattern for the width of the doors) it kept the little wild birds out for a week or so until they figured it out as well. Now I’m chasing 10-20 little bastards out on a daily basis. My question is do any of the ultrasonic sound machines work without harming my chickens? Do any of the shiny spinning things you hang around/in the run and coop work either?
What actually works?!?

 

[Al Gerhart]

None of those ideas will work.

What does work is to stop feeding the wild birds.

You need a treadle feeder and it has to have a spring loaded door and a narrow and distant treadle.

 

[0die]

A treadle will stop wild birds. But maybe not rats.

I'm trying out the hanging bucket with an eye bolt toggle. Works great so far for dispensing minimal feed, wild birds can't reach the toggle and rats probably not either.

The "problem" is getting the stupid chickens to figure out the toggle.

 

[2ndTink]

I have 3 coops, each with a treadle feeder, my feed loss has decreased tremendously. The rat population got curbed, with stopping the free access to the chicken feed, they started finding the zap traps attractive, I havent seen a rat in weeks. Between the zap traps and the dog we killed maybe 20+ rats in two months.

All the chickens picked up how to open the feeder very quickly.

I do have silkies in 2 of the coops and they are not heavy enough to open the lid all the way, so I do put a brick on the treadle each morning and remove it at night. This works for me.