Protecting Outdoor Feeders

[BDutch]

@chfriedmam , how is you’re setup/coop now? Maybe we can give you a few hints to secure things. ?

I find my automatic system a great help. Because:

• I love to go away on trips , and it makes it easy for my neighbours to look after the chickens.
• I’m not an early riser and it gives the chickens acces to the larger run after sunrise. And are safely locked up at sunset.
• I had unreliable older kids too when I bought the Chicken guard (left the nest now).

I never regretted the investment.

 

[MACCanadianCoop]

Yes.

Risk tolerance assessment largely depends on whether the chickens are pets or livestock -- with the livestock people being more tolerant of occasional losses.

It's more involved than that. People who are "livestock people" are usually (not always I realize) individuals who have a lot of space for their chickens to roam and a lot of chickens. There is probably a wide range of natural cover for the birds to use as protection, they probably (but again not always) have rooster(s) to help propagate the flock, and it is likely just not feasible to predator proof such a large space.

People who have smaller groups of chickens, may or may not consider them pets, but they have other considerations. They may be limited to the number of birds they can keep, so the loss of any one bird represents a greater percentage of the whole flock. They may be restricted from owning roosters, so their flock doesn't self propagate. And they may be limited in space, which means tighter quarters for the chickens to escape from and easier pickings for a predator.

I fall into the second group. For me, predator proofing my coop and run is protecting my investment.

 

[affacat]

ya, the real problem is I can't rely on my adult kids to clean up and secure the feeders at night when I'm not around due to the amount of work currently involved. But ya, a separate pop-door area is not too realistic.

what I really need is probably a feed holder that is easier and more effectively secured... I was using spill-resistant DIY feeder from Roosty's, and that had nice covers for each port that were really fast and easy to put on. But then I went and bought a feed silo from CoopWorx (way too much $$, why did I do that?!), and the covers for those feed ports are next to impossible to get on and don't stay on securely.

So then I decided I'm just gonna throw an upside down metal garbage can over the feed silo at night, but normal size cans don't fit over the CoopWorx Silo's base! Ugh.

Another solution is to feed twice a day instead of having food always available, or keep the feeder in the coop.

Honestly, right now they aren't really spilling much feed and we are leaving the feeder out there at night with minimal "disturbance". I think I may swallow my pride and admit I wasted a ton of $$ and go back to the roosty's feeder that's quick and easy to cover, and also get a cat from our local shelter's semi-feral room.

The only way to make a run truly rat-proof run would be hardware cloth on all 6 sides of this 400ft2+ space, and I'm not doing that.

We have a lot of free range chickens that we give a meal to once a day. We just have metal trashcans with 50 lbs of feed in them, and feed directly into bowls. They devour everything and leave nothing for rats.

But... They spend the day outside the run and eat bugs all day. If you keep them in a run I understand why you might want to feed them more. Still, maybe just feed them this way twice a day?

Without a secure run any attempt at giving them access to food all day will draw rats i think?

I've skirted a ton of run at this point. If you can stomach the expense it feels good once you're done.

I do like your idea of an upside down trash can, but would add:

1) stake down some hardware cloth in this area then put the feeder too. This will prevent burrowing, as well as just general chicken scratching creating rat entrances down the road

2) if you're struggling with the can, add an extra handle or two with tapcom screws to give you better leverage where you need it. Or, if you have any beams above, you could even set it up on a very simple pulley.

 

[chfriedmam]

@chfriedmam , how is you’re setup/coop now? Maybe we can give you a few hints to secure things. ?

I find my automatic system a great help. Because:

• I love to go away on trips , and it makes it easy for my neighbours to look after the chickens.
• I’m not an early riser and it gives the chickens acces to the larger run after sunrise. And are safely locked up at sunset.
• I had unreliable older kids too when I bought the Chicken guard (left the nest now).

I never regretted the investment.

my original post was a while ago and I feel like I've reached equilibrium for now, but it's a constant improvement process, and the run area is the next big area to improve, so go for it and make your suggestions!!! I'm not a farmer, but a backyard chicken keeper. I know people love pics, so I'm gonna post pics. Coop and chunnel are by garages/outbuildings, and neighbors are ok with the run by their side yard. Right now door opens at sunrise, shuts at dark. They have their feeder in the run, water in run, also water in coop. So they can always get feed. I get up around 0630 if I'm home, but I work nights, so sometimes I'm not home til 0800 and then I go out and check on them. They get scraps around then, after they have eaten some feed, then I clean their poop boards and either start my day or go to bed after work. They put themselves to bed about 30 minutes before sundown. If I'm home at night, I go out and make sure all standing water is dumped, no food scraps are left out, and I sometimes shovel/turn the ground a bit. That CoopWorx feed silo is a b&&ch to plug up, so I don't even do it when I'm home, I admit it!

Part of the reason we hesitate to build up a permanent run is bc we want to rotate it around the periphery of our yard at will.

As I'm taking these pics I was thinking why not just have a couple smaller feeders and keep them in the chunnel, which has a gate at the run entrance-but I like having the food in the run to encourage them to go there.

PS they are locked out of their coop right now bc we are putting a brooder box in there today. I guess I'll post a pic of that too for fun. A couple eggs are hatching in a few days. Our lows are in the 55 degree range, so we're gonna brood them in the coop with heat plate.




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