Medium Ratproof Chicken Feeder U.S. Made

review
5
0
5
Your Price: $85.00
In stock and ready to ship
Part Number:F-MED-US

Why buy this product?:

Stop the rats, wild birds, squirrels and other vermin from stealing your feed and spreading disease. Cut your feed bill in half!

Shipping info

Fast 2 -3 day shipping. For cheaper shipping use the Mult packed feeders or send us your own shipping label if you can find cheaper shipping

Videos available

Please visit our main website at ratproofchickenfeeder.net for videos and more info on the feeders

Is it hard to assemble?

The picture slide show to the left has a video of the feeder in use, check the small feeder and replacement parts listings for more videos

Is it hard to train the chickens to use it?

Assembly and training instructions are in the tab sections below. Five minute assembly, fast training if you follow our directions.
  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. Note that there is only one Medium Feeder for sale, all are made in the U.S., we leave other product pages up because of the many reviews on the listing.  This product page merely lists the improvements to the newly re designed Medium Feeder although you can order from this page.

We have a lot of customer submitted videos too that show the feeders in use, most from customers with  our Philippines made 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 dual spring/no counter weight door pre load system  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 eight years old.  
 


 
5 Stars
Works for my macaw!
This feeder works great for my Catalina macaw. Al was able to modify the treadle for her to accommodate her size and was very helpful with other suggestions. I did replace the wood with a Crepe Myrtle branch since it takes her longer to chew through that. Rats were eating all her food in her outdoor aviary and this feeder put a stop to that.
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Reviewed by:  from Powder Springs GA. on 11/1/2022
5
5 Stars
You Need This Feeder!!!
This feeder is AWESOME! My chickens started using it after one day. I removed all other feed, took my friendliest hen, and showed her how it worked. I will admit that at first, most of them only stuck their heads in to get a bite while she was on the treadle, but they figured it out quickly! And the SAVINGS!!! Yes, it is expensive, yes, you can find cheaper feeders (not of this quality), but this thing pays for itself fast! I went from going through a bag of feed in a week to a bag lasting 2-3 weeks - and no feed strewn all over the ground! Seriously, order this! Oh, and I can't forget to mention the customer service - seriously, if you have a question - give them a call, or shoot them an email - you will have a quick, friendly, helpful response!
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Reviewed by:  from GA. on 5/4/2022
5
5 Stars
Feeder as expected
The feeder was well represented on the website. It is sturdy and my chickens learned to use it following the guidelines provided. It works to keep songbirds out of the feed.
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Reviewed by:  from Helena. on 1/6/2022
5
5 Stars
Nice, but takes patience (long review)
I'm writing this review of the medium feeder 3 weeks after installation. Overall I am very pleased with this, but it did take a lot longer, and a small modification before it would work for my flock of 3 birds (calling them alpha, beta, and miss omega). Assembly was fine, though the counterweight scraped on the side. Instructions said to bend the bar, but that was too hard, so I added extra washers that I had on hand. Problem solved. Overall videos were great, and much better than the written instructions. I tried the teaching method as written, but it didn't work for my flock. The feeder is in the enclosed run, and I don't spend much time inside with them, so they are terrified of me. Even with no food all day, they would not come near enough to watch me activate the pedal. I finally propped it open (by jamming something under the counterweight) for a few days. I was heading out of town, and left it that way. When I got back I restarted the process. I added a new 3.5" x 1/2" wood slat because it seemed they would only eat from the sides and would not step on the platform. After that they would stand on it. I then adjusted the brick propping the counterweight up so that the pedal would have some travel, and they would get used to that. Couple days later I removed the prop, and put some seeds on top of the food so that I could verify that they had eaten. Otherwise it was too hard to tell. I thought I was all set, but then I spent a lot of time observing and realized that alpha girl was the only one who knew how to do it, and beta was high enough rank to hone in and and join her. Miss Omega was getting nothing. I propped it open for an hour and she chowed down for a long time! Then I went back to propping it halfway, and watching to see that she would stop on it and not be afraid that it moved. Once that was accomplished, I removed the props and again kept going out to observe. At this point I'm convinced they are all eating. Alpha & Omega can open it freely, and Beta eats from the side when another is eating. My takeaway is that it's a great product, and will deter rodents & small birds from eating the expensive feed. It is important that one dedicates the observation time to make sure all birds are getting the opportunity to eat.
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Reviewed by:  from SF Bay area. on 6/27/2021
5

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