But before you buy look for the different versions of our feeder, we have a soft close exterior version, and we now have this new redesigned, made in the U.S. medium feeder.. There are also multi packed feeders that can lower the shipping costs down to as low as $12 to $20.00 each depending on how many and distance.
We have a lot of customer
submitted videos too that show the feeders in use, most from
customers with feeders that are two, even three years old.
The U.S. Made Medium Ratproof treadle chicken feeder hopper holds 32
pounds of laying pellets or other feed and has a 100%
galvanized sheet metal feed tray and hopper so the feed
flows easily and sanitation is assured.
Generally a laying hen eats around 4 ounces of feed per day,
so one pound of feed should feed four birds one day, 7
pounds per week per four birds, or a bit over 5 weeks per full
hopper of feed for a four hen flock. The feeder is designed and marketed for full size birds but you can adjust the strength of the spring loaded door down to about 1.5 pounds of operating pressure . If you have bantams or other than full size birds please read our FAQ section on our
main website. There is a lot of info on that web page including videos.
This newly re designed feeder ships for about 10% less thanks to internal design changes and a reduced box size but it also holds about an extra gallon of feed. That took the feed capacity from 26 pounds up to around 32 pounds if you stuff the feeder to the gills.
The feeder also has a new adjustable door that can be shifted up and down, back and forth, and even side to side should it ever be needed or if you are an OCD type person. That small adjustment also allows us to fit the doors a bit tighter than the original feeders and it eliminated the wood door block and uses a metal angle to hang the door. There is a lot of competition for space at the bottom of the door axle so there will always be a small triangular shaped gap but mice and rats cannot enter through the gap, too small, too slick to climb, and too high off the ground. Be read to tweak the feeder if you want to diminish that gap if you are OCD.
The front edges of the feeder sides are also seamed or flanged instead of the original flat de-burred edges, making them much safer for large comb roosters.
An improved method of welding up the door axles resulted in a more precise door axle and that allowed us to pre-fit the wire links so the treadle bottoms out when the door is opened all the way if the feeder is on a level and flat surface. There will sometimes be a small amount of play but a full sized chicken ought to push the treadle bar all the way down.
The door axle has a new hard tube spacer that replaces the old soft tube split spacer which became needed once we introduced the soft close feature and the axle crank needed to stay solidly in place in a side to side manner.
It also has a new system of securing the feeder to a wall. The original wood block has been replaced by a sheet metal bracket that is fastened to the wall and the feeder dropped down over the top of the bracket so it traps the wire lid axle. This means you can remove the feeder buy just picking it up. The metal bracket also helps block off the a gap in back of the feeder that some customers worried about. Here is a
video showing the features of the new hanging bracket and here is a
video showing how to install the new metal bracket. If these video links do not show up hover over the words and the link will appear.
And finally, the redesigned spring attachment allows fine adjusting of the operating pressure needed to open the door and the spring is now out of the way of the soft close cylinder if you choose a soft close feeder. On the older versions the spring and the soft close rubbed together which bothered some OCD types.
Approximate assembled size is 18” deep x 14” wide x 19”
tall. The actual feeder hopper is about 11" x 10" x 14" tall, partially rectangular, partially triangular shape where the door has to swing back against the feed hopper. Shipping weight is around 13.25# with packaging for
the medium rat proof treadle chicken feeder.
When you are ready to purchase add the item to your cart and then scroll down to find the PayPal icon to automatically insert your shipping information. You will need to add your daytime phone number for FedEx Ground.
For more information about the feeders visit our
main chicken feeder web page. We have a lot of
customer submitted videos too that show the original feeders in use, most from customers with feeders that are two, even three years old.
Here is older review on the original rat proof feeder. The lady had rats tunneling under her coop causing structural damage, saved 20% per day in feed costs for 25 hens, and is getting three to four extra eggs per day, which probably meant that the rats were eating that many eggs or were stressing the hens enough to impact egg production.
Headline: Rats are gone!
Barb, Orange, VA
Review:
I ordered 2 feeders. They're easy to assemble and look like
they'll be easy to clean, although none of the birds are hanging out on
top of them.
I attached the wood mounting block to the back of the feeder and screwed
two heavy-duty hooks into the top of the block. The hooks hang on the
inside of the chain link fence that supports the open-air chicken coop.
This causes the feeder to tilt forward a bit, so I'm planning to add a
bumper near the bottom to correct the tilt.
I recommend training the chickens when you can spend a few hours with
them over two days. They were scared of the sound of the door closing
and would run away. I stood in the coop and would catch a hen, place
her on the treadle and let her eat. Then I'd remove her, let the door
close, and place her back on the treadle. I did this repeatedly with
all the brave girls and the not-so-brave girls would watch and then eat
from the sides. When I saw one girl jump on the treadle, I left the
coop. I repeated this the next day to make sure multiple girls were
jumping on the treadle. Make sure there is no other food available
because they won't learn if they're not motivated by hunger.
I'm using finely-ground feed. I haven't had any issues with bridging,
probably because the hens rock the feeder when they jump on the treadle.
I'm feeding 25 birds with 2 feeders and all of them appear to be
getting enough to eat.
I've seen 4 hens eating at the same time, but usually
I see 3.
My coop recently became overrun by rats that dug through heavy clay
under the apron of my coop. I think one or more got caught inside the
coop when the automatic door closed so they spent the night digging out.
The tunnels were causing structural damage because they tunneled under
weight-bearing blocks. Judging by the extensive network of tunnels
radiating 40-50 feet from the coop, there were many rats.
I installed the rat-proof feeders and poison bait stations at the same
time because rats will chew on the chickens' feet if they don't have
anything else to eat. The feeders and bait stations have been in place
for just over two weeks and we've noticed this past week that the tunnel
entrances in the coop aren't active any more and are being filled in by
the chickens scratching the dirt.
We're even getting 3-4 more eggs a
day. I'm assuming the rats were stressing the chickens, which reduces
egg output.
I'm using 20% less feed and getting more eggs, so I'm very happy with
the new feeders!
Rating: 5 stars out of 5 stars