Tired of feeding freeloaders

[Al Gerhart]

The cost of the HC will be more than the cost of a treadle feeder that will stop the squirrels. Keep spare springs but other than that, no need for maintenance, no need to watch for new openings in the coop.

Never deal with symptoms until you fix the root cause of a problem. The squirrels are coming for the chicken feed. Control the feed, control the squirrels, rats, and wild birds.

 

[Bawkbok]

The cost of the HC will be more than the cost of a treadle feeder that will stop the squirrels. Keep spare springs but other than that, no need for maintenance, no need to watch for new openings in the coop.

Never deal with symptoms until you fix the root cause of a problem. The squirrels are coming for the chicken feed. Control the feed, control the squirrels, rats, and wild birds.

A prior poster mentioned squirrels were still getting into their treadle feeder. With various sizes and weights of squirrels and chickens, how does one know what the correct adjustment of weight balance ratio is on a treadle?

 

[SkyAJK]

We have rats, I think they bring their whole families to the chicken runs to feed on what the chickens kick out of the feeders...grrrrr

In the morning I see load of rats dropping...I clean it all up. I make sure I clean up all the feed on the ground..never completely 100%, this sometimes work well, no rats droppings at night.

We put out trap and caught some big one, we rehome them in a park somewhere. My neighbours and I have dogs running around the backyard all day so no bait for rats. I will not put out bait anyway those are slow painful death for the rats. I did see 1 came into my backyard suffering, I put it out of its misery.

 

[redinator]

We started having a squirrel problem just in the past two weeks with squirrels getting into the open air run which is welded wire, which is completely zip tied with 1/4" nylon shade cloth. We've had no issues with critters or predators prior to this point. A momma squirrel showed her two young ones how and where to squeeze through an opening of the nylon shade cloth on one end that connects to the run. Today the chickens were out roaming the yard which is when I noticed one of the nasty critters in the run. I trapped it in the smaller run and had a good time watching it bang itself up against one side and then the other trying to escape with my presence only a couple of feet away. I actually grabbed it with my hand (first mistake), it turned to bite me which freaked me out and I automatically released my hand (second mistake). The little bas$#rd retaliated by jumping on my face, literally. I felt it's claws scrape my chin and it's mouth made contact with my cheek. @moonshiner, I feel your pain. Now I got pissed. I picked up the nearest thing I could find which was a pretty good sized tree log and bashed it against the run wall, which from the inside is just the coated wire. The "wall" flexed enough against all this pressure and as I withdrew my arm to exert another bash, it gave the squirrel enough flexibility to get away from under the log and squeezed through from the smaller run into the large one and out the door so fast it's ass was on fire.
By the time I got into the house my face was bleeding profusely. Their claws are like ninja swords! I spent the next two hours adding hardware cloth on top of the nylon netting which is zippied to the welded wire. I only had enough cloth to cover the points of failure from where I could see they were getting in and out (nylon was ripped).
In lieu of making a huge investment in hardware cloth to cover the entire run 12'x9', I will be having my coffee in the morning watching the chickens as usual, but with a tool in hand. At the first sight of that squirrel, he'll be eating a pellet for breakfast. I don't like to hurt wildlife but I'm not messing around with this one. It's aggressive and mean and apparently not deterred by humans.

Later today, the same bas%$rd ran in front of the chickens, getting only a foot away. One of the brave girls started to give chase until the squirrel stopped, turned and sat on it's haunches daring her to continue. She stopped and thought twice. I was quickly making my way toward the squirrel and when it saw me it took off.

Don't waste your time switching your chickens from pellets to crumbles. They LOVE crumbles, which is what we feed.

I never thought about feeding the squirrel to the chickens......not a bad idea except that squirrels can carry rabies. Yet another thing to worry about with my already failing health - geezopete.

https://a-z-animals.com/animals/squirrel/can-squirrels-have-rabies-what-to-do-after-a-squirrel-bite/

I hadn't thought about rabies, but I just looked it up . .if it's cooked it's safe(ish). Well damn, there goes my winter protein boost.

I haven't seen squirrels in the feeder since I switched to crumbles. In my case I have a dog that has free access to the yard at all times, so I think this is why switching to the crumbles has worked for me, so far. We'll see as time goes on if that remains to be the case.

Edit: The winter protein is back on the menu> i found this on Google, so take it with a grain of salt:

No, chickens cannot get rabies. Rabies is a viral disease that primarily affects mammals, and chickens are birds. Birds do not have the receptors necessary for the rabies virus to infect them. Therefore, chickens are not susceptible to rabies and cannot transmit it to humans or other animals.

 

[Al Gerhart]

A prior poster mentioned squirrels were still getting into their treadle feeder. With various sizes and weights of squirrels and chickens, how does one know what the correct adjustment of weight balance ratio is on a treadle?

It is more than the weight/balance ratio. To exclude squirrels the door has to be spring loaded and pre loaded, meaning the door already has at least a pound of tension needed to push the door open. Most treadle feeders are not rat proof or squirrel proof, you won't find a single one on Amazon. The lids rise up instead of back, making it too dangerous to spring pre load the door and they don't have springs anyway. Some are "adjustable" with a series of holes to move a pivot point or a wire link. Might make 8 ounces difference, not enough.

It is not easy to design a feeder to keep out squirrels, on our feeder we have over ten pounds pressure needed directly on the door crank but leverage, the door crank being only maybe 1.5" long versus 9" length on the treadle arm and the fact that the door itself is 9" long leaves only 1.5 pounds of resistance on the door even at 10 pounds on the door crank. The only solution is a shorter door and a shorter treadle but that would make it harder for larger breeds. We could develop another feeder for large chickens/turkeys/geese but that doubles the SKUs needed and means slower moving inventory.

So, you just have to provide fine adjustment on the spring tension, warn customers that lighter weight chickens mean less ratproofing and possibly no squirrel proofing, and be ready to help the customers that respond with issues. Good customer service....because a lot will not read more than a paragraph of text.

So, if you have a rat problem with small hens only, be ready to do adjusting and tinkering. Use the standard feeder, not the soft close. If you have a mixed flock, set the springs tight for the average weight hen and let the others learn to eat when they can.

 

[Al Gerhart]

We have rats, I think they bring their whole families to the chicken runs to feed on what the chickens kick out of the feeders...grrrrr

In the morning I see load of rats dropping...I clean it all up. I make sure I clean up all the feed on the ground..never completely 100%, this sometimes work well, no rats droppings at night.

We put out trap and caught some big one, we rehome them in a park somewhere. My neighbours and I have dogs running around the backyard all day so no bait for rats. I will not put out bait anyway those are slow painful death for the rats. I did see 1 came into my backyard suffering, I put it out of its misery.

You should measure your feed use. One quarter pound of feed per hen per day, ignore roosters unless you have a lot of them. Chances are the rats are feeding during the day. Mice, maybe less of a chance, rats, will dominate most hens and a lot of roosters. BTW it is illegal to rehome a rat. Drown them. Unless you are okay with them killing off song bird chicks, eating the wiring in cars, and killing smaller mammals like rabbits and squirrels.

 

[Ridgerunner]

I hadn't thought about rabies, but I just looked it up . .if it's cooked it's safe(ish). Well damn, there goes my winter protein boost.

I haven't seen squirrels in the feeder since I switched to crumbles. In my case I have a dog that has free access to the yard at all times, so I think this is why switching to the crumbles has worked for me, so far. We'll see as time goes on if that remains to be the case.

Edit: The winter protein is back on the menu> i found this on Google, so take it with a grain of salt:

No, chickens cannot get rabies. Rabies is a viral disease that primarily affects mammals, and chickens are birds. Birds do not have the receptors necessary for the rabies virus to infect them. Therefore, chickens are not susceptible to rabies and cannot transmit it to humans or other animals.

Since I'm also in Louisiana I looked this up. This is an excerpt:

Rodents, squirrels, rabbits, hares and chinchillas are rarely found to be rabid and have not been known to cause human rabies in the United States. For these reasons, these species are not considered vectors of the disease except in certain unusual circumstances.

From the link below specifically about Louisiana.

https://ldh.la.gov/assets/oph/Center-PHCH/Center-CH/infectious-epi/VetInfo/Rabies/RabiesInLa.pdf

There is a chart in this article that covers the rest of the states so you can see what is going on where you are.

https://avmajournals.avma.org/view/...5.0344/javma.25.05.0344.xml?tab_body=fulltext

Rabies is real. When I dispose of any predator's body (mainly skunks and raccoons) I am careful how I handle the body. But I don't worry about it that much, more about fleas and such than rabies. I take standard precautions and get on with my life.

 

[Bawkbok]

It is more than the weight/balance ratio. To exclude squirrels the door has to be spring loaded and pre loaded, meaning the door already has at least a pound of tension needed to push the door open. Most treadle feeders are not rat proof or squirrel proof, you won't find a single one on Amazon. The lids rise up instead of back, making it too dangerous to spring pre load the door and they don't have springs anyway. Some are "adjustable" with a series of holes to move a pivot point or a wire link. Might make 8 ounces difference, not enough.

It is not easy to design a feeder to keep out squirrels, on our feeder we have over ten pounds pressure needed directly on the door crank but leverage, the door crank being only maybe 1.5" long versus 9" length on the treadle arm and the fact that the door itself is 9" long leaves only 1.5 pounds of resistance on the door even at 10 pounds on the door crank. The only solution is a shorter door and a shorter treadle but that would make it harder for larger breeds. We could develop another feeder for large chickens/turkeys/geese but that doubles the SKUs needed and means slower moving inventory.

So, you just have to provide fine adjustment on the spring tension, warn customers that lighter weight chickens mean less ratproofing and possibly no squirrel proofing, and be ready to help the customers that respond with issues. Good customer service....because a lot will not read more than a paragraph of text.

So, if you have a rat problem with small hens only, be ready to do adjusting and tinkering. Use the standard feeder, not the soft close. If you have a mixed flock, set the springs tight for the average weight hen and let the others learn to eat when they can.

Thank you for this detailed explanation. We have a small mixed flock of small and medium birds.

One sign of a rat a while back - I believe the black snake got him.

We currently have a gopher problem and I have not seen the snake in a month so I suspect a hawk snatched the snake (dang it).

No evidence of mice or mice poo that I've seen. We have baited mice traps in the shed - locked to dogs and birds - have not caught anything.

Rabbits have all been run out of the territory from all the new home construction and understory destruction.

No roosters - illegal in this county.

 

[Bawkbok]

BTW it is illegal to rehome a rat. Drown them.

I don't know why anyone would consider rehoming a rat.....nasty critters right up there with mice and squirrels. I'm ok with them eating the squirrels but I think a snake - or owl - or something - ate the rat. Haven't seen it in months. Yay

 

[SemiSweet2391]

rats, will dominate most hens and a lot of roosters.

By this do you mean rats will eat more than most hens or that rats will bully most hens away from the food?