This is an out of stock item but we left it up because it has some reviews. Find the U.S. made medium soft close feeder in our listings, sells for $100.00 plus shipping.
Do you have chickens and rats? Or
chickens and wild birds that are eating more feed than the chickens?
Here is the solution. But before you buy look for the different
versions of our feeder, this is the original version, there is a soft
close version, an exterior version, and a soft close exterior
version. 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.
This is the Philippines made exterior soft close version of our original rat proof chicken feeder. There have been thousands of the original feeders sold but one of the complaints was that the door closed so loudly and it delayed training for some flocks. Now if people followed the training instructions the birds learned to use the feeder despite the noise and a lot of people remarked that the sound of the door closing allowed them to know that the feeders were working without having to go into the coop. But people kept asking so we finally made a soft close version. The soft close cylinder has been tested down to 9 degrees F and it showed little change in the closing speed at that temperature but sub zero weather might require re adjusting the cylinder screw or removing the cylinder screw until the weather gets back above 9 degrees.
There won't be many reviews for a while as this is a somewhat new item, only
about one out of twenty customers will leave reviews even on purchases
they liked, so please read the
reviews on the very popular medium feeder by clicking here.The mechanism is a cabinet door soft close cylinder mounted on a steel bracket. It is adjustable, the cylinder can be replaced should it ever wear out or fail, and tweaking won't take five minutes once you have the tools gathered. There is listing for a retro fit soft close kit in our Upgrade Kits and Parts category and it has a video showing how to install the soft close kit on a new or old feeder. You will need a screwdriver with a Philip's bit, either manual or cordless, and you will need a crescent wrench to bend the door axle if it doesn't line up. This feeder has the soft close kit already installed. Be sure and watch the
soft close kit install/retrofit video so you know how to install the soft close kit if you retrofit an older feeder.
The medium rat proof treadle chicken feeder hopper holds 26
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 3 1/2 weeks per full
hopper of feed for a four hen flock. The feeder is designed and marketed for full size birds. 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.
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 15 pounds 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
Here is one of the most recent reviews on this product. 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