Tired of feeding freeloaders

[TioBollio]

I have this lid trap I've used for rats/mice https://a.co/d/0i7ZjFB which works great, but I just know chicks would fall in and drown too, so I only use it in places the chicks/chickens don't go.

I've used a few homemade versions of the bucket traps with good success against mice, not so much with rats. For rats I use snap traps under buckets that chicks can't access.
For squirrels, I've found the best defense is a decent pellet gun with a good scope (it has to be specifically for pellet guns).
I don't mind a few squirrels bouncing around, but when the population gets above my comfort level I trim them back hard.
I like the treadle feeders to minimize loss from wild birds, particularly starlings and blackbirds.
Good luck to you, it's definitely a challenge!

 

[redinator]

I've used a few homemade versions of the bucket traps with good success against mice, not so much with rats. For rats I use snap traps under buckets that chicks can't access.
For squirrels, I've found the best defense is a decent pellet gun with a good scope (it has to be specifically for pellet guns).
I don't mind a few squirrels bouncing around, but when the population gets above my comfort level I trim them back hard.
I like the treadle feeders to minimize loss from wild birds, particularly starlings and blackbirds.
Good luck to you, it's definitely a challenge!

Neighbors houses are too close for me to be comfortable shooting at them unless they were trapped or contained. My luck I'd hit my chickens or my dog.

 

[redinator]

<<< I just realized I'm crowing

 

[TioBollio]

<<< I just realized I'm crowing

 

[chooki]

Is it possible to be around or nearby when feeding your chickens?

We usually only feed our free range chickens a couple of times a day, while we are nearby to deter the advances of wildlife. Each feeding sessions only last about 5 - 20 minutes, sometimes with multiple feed stations, until all chickens are full.

Very often when no wildlife is in sight, I will just leave the feeder out, and collect it after 20 - 30 minutes, sometimes I check in between because once the feral pigeons find out the feeder, 20-30 of them will swamp around the feeder and scare off my small flock of chickens.

We don't leave food out because there are rats, pigeons and cockatoos. If let it be, they will surely consume more food than our chickens.

The only other way I could think of, is to fortify your coop, cover it with dense chicken wires all around, including putting skirt around the coop to prevent animals from getting in.

 

[TioBollio]

Neighbors houses are too close for me to be comfortable shooting at them unless they were trapped or contained. My luck I'd hit my chickens or my dog.

When we moved into our Oregon home, the seller (older hippie guy, wonderful artist) had a "squirrel feeder" hanging from a limb about 5 feet off the ground.
After a few weeks of settling in, I finally put bird food in it and noticed it had a two prong plug on it.
I won't go into any more detail, but I was shocked that he had built something like that.
We were on 5 desert acres, so I cut the plug off and sighted in the pellet pooper

 

[redinator]

Is it possible to be around or nearby when feeding your chickens?

We usually only feed our free range chickens a couple of times a day, while we are nearby to deter the advances of wildlife. Each feeding sessions only last about 5 - 20 minutes, sometimes with multiple feed stations, until all chickens are full.

Very often when no wildlife is in sight, I will just leave the feeder out, and collect it after 20 - 30 minutes, sometimes I check in between because once the feral pigeons find out the feeder, 20-30 of them will swamp around the feeder and scare off my small flock of chickens.

We don't leave food out because there are rats, pigeons and cockatoos. If let it be, they will surely consume more food than our chickens.

The only other way I could think of, is to fortify your coop, cover it with dense chicken wires all around, including putting skirt around the coop to prevent animals from getting in.

My older chickens (6 months and 4 months) free feed throughout the day and have access to the whole yard and a lot of grass bugs etc., so I guess I could start feeding them on a schedule.

I also have chicks that are still confined to the run because we have small hawks in the area that could snatch young chicks. I don't let them out of the run until they're about 8-9 weeks old, maybe a bit older for the bantams I just got.

Most of my yard has good tree cover, which is why the squirrels love it. Once the chicks are free ranging with the older birds I won't need to have food out all day, but with growing chicks I like them to have all day access to feed.

 

[redinator]

When we moved into our Oregon home, the seller (older hippie guy, wonderful artist) had a "squirrel feeder" hanging from a limb about 5 feet off the ground.
After a few weeks of settling in, I finally put bird food in it and noticed it had a two prong plug on it.
I won't go into any more detail, but I was shocked that he had built something like that.
We were on 5 desert acres, so I cut the plug off and sighted in the pellet pooper

The wheels are turning . . . .

 

[redinator]

The wheels are turning . . . .

I'm not seeing how I could apply this concept to a chicken feeder, though.