Rats under coop & run

[Weeg]

I have, and love my Ratproof Feeder. We did not have a rat problem, but a chipmunk problem. I prefer the non guillotine style of @Al Gerhart 's design. I do remove the feeder each evening, so it does not stay out overnight (no need to entice bears...)

I have seen this one around, I have heard it is really good! I definitely don't want to argue about feeders, just suggesting! That is a nice design Al! Good model.

 

[cluckmecoop7]

@cluckmecoop7 also had and is almost eliamted her rat problem, you want to share what worked best for you? Hope this helps OP!

Well, probably the best thing for the OP to do is to check out my thread.

 

[Al Gerhart]

That is fine, if he wants to show us though is that not allowed? I would love to see his brand! He doesn't have to advertise it or anything! No biggie if that is against the rules or anything!

Yes, against the rules for me to do add links but I see that one of my customers dropped in a link which is fine. I sell plenty of feeders, no need to sell on this site. But the feeder was designed and perfected on this BYC site so I am kind of a home grown product.

I come here for many reasons. First for the chicken info. Second to find out what people are dealing with on vermin issues. Third to watch for any of my customers that are having problems. Fourth to keep up with any new feeder designs or problems with the competing feeders. That makes my feeder better when I see how other feeders fail. And lastly when I have a major design change I run it by the backyard chicken experts on BYC before I put anything into production.

And while scrolling through the threads it is hard to stay silent when you see people pushing a product that is severely flawed and even worse when people link to an article filled with affiliate links to a product that you know is over priced and of a poor design. So it is within the rules to speak up. And the manufacturer is always welcome to respond, but they won't, if you have a flawed product it is better to not prolong the time that the defect is being discussed.

BTW, what started this back and forth was someone with a bad experience with a Grandpa feeder, rats or mice getting inside. I remarked that they are not rat proof, someone took exception to that remark and replied. Everyone was civil, free speech is a wonderful thing.

And I was right about what I said.

https://www.amazon.com/product-revi...e=all_reviews&pageNumber=2#reviews-filter-bar

 

[Al Gerhart]

I have, and love my Ratproof Feeder. We did not have a rat problem, but a chipmunk problem. I prefer the non guillotine style of @Al Gerhart 's design. I do remove the feeder each evening, so it does not stay out overnight (no need to entice bears...)

Sorry I can't do anything about those bears RojoMarz! I need a difference between reach and weight and I am afraid we would need to be breeding much, much, much larger chickens. Have you considered a hot wire around the feeder?

 

[Al Gerhart]

Psst Weeg,
AI sells his own brand of treadle feeder.
That may shed some light on his posts for you.

Long before you registered the feeder was developed right here on BYC. Started out as a plywood feeder, morphed into a 90% very lightweight sheet metal feeder with a wood door for awhile, eventually I spent enough on equipment to cut thicker steel and to be able to gas weld a very solid steel axle for the door and the all steel feeder was the end result. Some of those original plywood feeders are still in use from 2011 or 2012.

So newbies might not make the connection, most people do.

But if folks are sensitive about negative info about their favorite feeder then they are standing in the way of something better. I would love to see a thread started by the Grandpa feeder manufacturer defending his design. In the end flock owners would benefit from competition and better feeders.

 

[Weeg]

This thread was a thread looking for advice on rats, and now it is a thread about which feeder is better. I like your feeder design, it is a neat idea and I like that it was delved on BYC. I also like my Granpas feeder. It is okay if we have opposite opinions, thank you for sharing.

 

[cmom]

I had a severe infestation in one coop in particular. The rats had built nests in the ceiling and the walls. They even chewed a hole through the bottom of a 2x4 stud. I removed the walls and ceiling. Dozens of rats of all sizes poured out. They had also made tunnels in the ground around the coops. I tried several different things such as traps, the bucket among other things and did catch a rat here and there. Our barn is behind the coops and I had seen some rats in the barn. Because I didn't want to poison my birds I bought the rat bait stations. I put them in my barn in places only the rats could get to. They didn't seem to like the bait that came with the bait station so I bought some other bait from the feed store down the road and they seemed to love it. The bait station has a little window above the bait so it can be checked regularly. I'm not telling anyone to use poison only that it worked for my infestation after trying many other thing to no avail. I have a lot of birds and coops. After a few days I noticed the baits weren't being nibbled on as much and I hadn't been seeing any rats. I did not find any dead rats laying around nor any dead critters from eating any dead rats. I suspect they went into their tunnels and died. Good luck with whatever you decide to do...

 

[RojoMarz]

Sorry I can't do anything about those bears RojoMarz! I need a difference between reach and weight and I am afraid we would need to be breeding much, much, much larger chickens. Have you considered a hot wire around the feeder?

haha, thanks for the thought. We have considered hot wire, but have no power at coop, so would entail solar setup. But bigger issue/thought is that we don't want bears coming up here at all...house, garage, shop and coop are all up here. Hoping that by removing food source at night, the bears will not have a reason to climb up the mountain to our place.

 

[cmom]

I have, and love my Ratproof Feeder. We did not have a rat problem, but a chipmunk problem. I prefer the non guillotine style of @Al Gerhart 's design. I do remove the feeder each evening, so it does not stay out overnight (no need to entice bears...)

I have electric wires around my coops and pens. Nothing, not even a bear has gotten past the wires. I know there are bears here but have never seen one around my coops. A couple of weeks ago I did see a big bobcat next to the chick/grow-out coop. The predators know the electric wires are there and don't mess with them.

 

[cmom]

haha, thanks for the thought. We have considered hot wire, but have no power at coop, so would entail solar setup. But bigger issue/thought is that we don't want bears coming up here at all...house, garage, shop and coop are all up here. Hoping that by removing food source at night, the bears will not have a reason to climb up the mountain to our place.

Once a predator tests the hot wires, it won't be back or will steer clear of the hot wires. A DC battery charger would work better in my opinion than a solar fence charger. I have several game cameras up on my property. I'm sure this coyote is teaching her young to steer clear of the coops and hot wires. They know the chickens are there. I don't shut the pop doors but nothing has gotten past the wires.