Rat proof feeder options.

[SandyRiverChick]

My husband suggests an air rifle (with someone who knows how to kill the target not wound it)

It's helpful but not a total solution of course. When we first bought our property and discovered a rat issue, out boys would get dressed up for "recon," and go out with their airguns. They could take them out when they came to a bird feeder (wild bird, not chicken.) But you need to get the nests with all of the family also... Just one bite, did the trick here. I had to have total elimination before taking all of the steps to sanitize and exclude (the steps from Howard E.) It's works.

 

[Dalhart]

I love my rent a coop treadle feeder!

Hello I am looking to get a treadle feeder. Do you still love it or recommend other?

 

[Al Gerhart]

Before you buy that feeder, hit Amazon and find the Rent a Coop feeder listing, and check the negative reviews. If you sort the reviews by most recent, the first review that pops up with a picture will make you rethink using this type of feeder. That poor chicken....

Do your research before spending this kind of money on a treadle feeder. The negative reviews tell a better story as to if a treadle feeder is safe and if it actually stops the rats. Go back to page 4 on this very thread and find the feeder than had the sliding door. They sold a ton of those before the returns put them out of business.

 

[GreenHaven]

I’ve had my “rat proof chicken feeder” for over a year now. I will never go back to a standard feeder. I got it when the rats discovered the easy meals, evidenced by rat poop all around the feeder in the morning. Since I got them - I’ve seen none. An added but important bonus is that the wild birds can’t use it, so they are not interacting with my hens, and that helps them avoid illnesses that they might be carrying. Plus, there is very little food waste - maybe because I’m feeding pellets. Every once in a while I clean out the feeders and use the powdery residue that slowly collects from the hens pecking as a mash. So very little food is wasted.

 

[Al Gerhart]

Thanks for the kind words GreenHaven. Keep an eye on the springs, they are a wear item. They are in our repair parts and upgrade kit section. Other than that keep it up out of the muck on patio blocks and it should be good for many years. They usually rust out before they break down but that is from keeping them on the corrosive poop covered litter.

You are using the small metal cleat/hanger right? So it is easy to remove and clean?

 

[GreenHaven]

Thanks for the kind words GreenHaven. Keep an eye on the springs, they are a wear item. They are in our repair parts and upgrade kit section. Other than that keep it up out of the muck on patio blocks and it should be good for many years. They usually rust out before they break down but that is from keeping them on the corrosive poop covered litter.

You are using the small metal cleat/hanger right? So it is easy to remove and clean?

Yes we are. We built a wood frame for them because they are kept in a shade structure with no floor. Keeps them up off the ground and makes them easy to move (because we rotate fields). They hang on the frame and sit on 2x2’s.

 

[ATXInstantFlock]

They usually rust out before they break down but that is from keeping them on the corrosive poop covered litter.

Hmm...
1 or 2 of my birds have recently started making a habit of perching on top of our feeder and popping on top of it. Do I need to stay on top of that getting cleaned off? Other than building a sacrificial roof/ledge over my feeder, I'm not sure what else I can do to dissuade them from popping on top of it.

 

[Al Gerhart]

Chicken poo has the urine in it, lots of ammonia, so it is pretty corrosive. Can you tie a chunk of tin at an angle to keep the birds off? Or thin plywood. Anything to make a slope the birds won't jump up on.

 

[ATXInstantFlock]

Chicken poo has the urine in it, lots of ammonia, so it is pretty corrosive. Can you tie a chunk of tin at an angle to keep the birds off? Or thin plywood. Anything to make a slope the birds won't jump up on.

Makes sense. I guess I knew the answer was "can't just leave it alone". I'll have to put my thinking cap and think of something. Due to laziness, I haven't got a perfect bead on exactly how much they eat every day, so I've mostly just been topping off their food every week. I'll try to slightly underfill it next week so it gets completely empty before hosing it off and building a "guard" for the top. Hopefully I can come up with something that they won't just try and perch on top of.

 

[Al Gerhart]

I've considered an angled top. We used to make nest boxes with angled tops. The problem is it makes the box another four to five inches longer, meaning a 20% increase in shipping cost for the customer, or the feeder loses five pounds of feed capacity. And the extra complexity of making an angled top versus a rectangular top. Then you would have to change the inner packing and fill that missing triangle of space with inner packing.

Lots of ideas to make a feeder better but if we want to keep the price as low as possible to provide not only a better feeder but one for half the price of the Chinese made Grandpa feeder, you have to limit the bells and whistles.

You might try an angled top using cardboard. Should work unless the feeder top gets wet a lot.