THE RATS ARE EATING MY CHICKEN FOOD!

[Shamo Hybrid]

Time for ye ol' bucket of water death trap!!

 

[Al Gerhart]

If the door spring and counter weight are in place there is no way a mouse or rat can push open the door of a rat proof chicken feeder. Or the spring wasn't installed correctly. I have seen pictures from customers and they have the spring sliding around on the axle instead of hooked into the wire link. But if the spring is in place, they don't make a rat large enough to push open that door. A dozen rats cooperating will do it though but nearly every time they wind up getting trapped inside and smothering themselves.

Our rat proof feeder is in use in commercial flocks that had hundreds of rats living under the coops. Never seen it not working even under those conditions. If it isn't working something is wrong with the installation or assembly, guaranteed.

 

[cmom]

Time for ye ol' bucket of water death trap!!

I tried that but didn't get one rat in the bucket, which I have tried a few times. I even made a ladder for them to climb up to get on the bucket edge.

 

[cmom]

I agree. This worked for me when I had a rat infestation. They usually go into the tunnels they have and die. Nothing can get into the rat bait box except rats and mice.
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And you haven't had issues with them dropping pieces of it for your flock to find?

No bait has been found outside of the bait boxes. It's about risk management, and the rodents had to go!
Mary

I haven't either found any rat bait outside of my bait boxes. When I took down the ceiling in the infested coop. Rats were coming out left and right. Some nearly landed on me. This is the inside of the coop. I don't know why we did it but we put an inside wall around the bottom and the rats got in-between the inner and outer wall and had nests as well as the ceiling we had put in this coop. They even chewed through a stud.

 

[Howard E]

Hi.
About half a year ago, I purchased a "rat-proof" treadle chicken feeder.
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Which rat proof feeder? Please be specific and name the brand and where you got it.

 

[Al Gerhart]

There is only one ratproof feeder. Just do a search on this forum or site wide and you will see plenty of threads including the 2012 or was it 2011 thread where it all started. Or just Google it. Only one with a spring loaded door and a counterweight, all others rely upon the weight of the door/lid which is why they don't work.

 

[Howard E]

There is only one ratproof feeder. Just do a search on this forum or site wide and you will see plenty of threads including the 2012 or was it 2011 thread where it all started. Or just Google it. Only one with a spring loaded door and a counterweight, all others rely upon the weight of the door/lid which is why they don't work.

What I was hoping to find out if the feeder the OP said was not working was yours or one of the other treadle feeders that are being sold for this purpose. Grandpa's, the large green treadle, etc. One of the "others" you mention above.

We need the OP to clarify which feeder.....exactly......as it does make a difference.

 

[Al Gerhart]

I suspect it wasn't one of mine as the OP wrote this: "About half a year ago, I purchased a "rat-proof" treadle chicken feeder. unfortunately, the rats have learnt to open the feeder by just pushing the lid up with their noses." My feeder has a door, not a lid, and it goes in not up.

You probably saw my post asking if the spring and counterweight were in place just in case it was one of mine. Most people will email if they have a problem, some don't, so you just never know. People do some really crazy things at times during assembly like ignoring the instructions, ignoring the 13" long wire link taped to the side of the feeder right next to where it is installed, then they take the 5" long spring and stretch it out and install it in place of the wire link. Then you get an angry email saying their feeder doesn't work. And a picture of a spring stretched out to 13" long.

The only feeders with a lid that goes up are the Grandpa feeders and the clones of that feeder. No spring, no counterweight, lightweight lid. If all you have are mice they work, rats, not so much. Squirrels, forget about it.

I try to respect the site and not post links to my site. There are a number of reviews around the internet on my feeder plus hundreds of reviews on our shopping cart spread among the various versions of the feeder. They turn up easily in a Google search.