Treadle Feeder Training

[JennyRobertson]

My chickens are on day 4 of the non-prop treadle training and are not getting it. They are very skittish chickens!

There is no other food around. The one chicken who will approach the feeder (or me!) will step on it with one foot, but not two. So, when I remove my foot, it closes. I've even set her on the treadle, and she eats, but she won't go back on it herself. I know because I put a handful of scratch inside on the regular food, so they would see the scratch if they stepped on the treadle, but it's still there. Stupid chickens!

I think I may have to use the "prop it open" gradual technique because they are starving.

Jenny

 

[rides2far]

I bought one of the knock offs from Amazon. It is really cheaply made. Mine could never figure it out, so I bought an antique feeder that my chickens love. They don't waste food & they can't sit on it & poop all over it. If you do purchase one, buy a good one. In this case, you do get what you pay for. I'm not even going to tell you the words my DH said while putting it together. You need more than 4 hands to hold it together...

 

[cherylgladys]

If you prop open a treadle feeder to "train" birds all you are doing is training them that the door isn't supposed to move.

I've sold thousands of these feeders in the last few years and here is what we tell folks to do.

Remove ALL other feed sources before the birds go to roost, fasten the new feeder to a wall or post with the spacer block so the feeder doesn't bounce around as it gets low on feed. That movement will shake too much feed down the feed ramp! Secure the feeder solidly to an object that can't move.

The next morning wait a few hours after daybreak so the birds are hungry. Use your toe and show them how the treadle opens the door. One or two will be brave enough to start eating, let them get a few beak fulls and shoo them off the treadle. Repeat the process. After a couple of times the braver birds will have picked up the idea. Check on the birds a few hours later and again before they go to roost to see if they have forgotten how to operate the treadle then check again a few hours after daybreak just in case.

Two reasons why people have trouble with new treadle feeders... leaving other food for the birds and propping the door open while "training".

However the guillotine type feeders like Grandpa's feeder or the wooden copies will take much longer to train a bird because the lid is swinging in their face and over their head. Heck, I wouldn't want a door over my dinner table that could whack me in the head if another diner left the table. Our feeder has the door swinging IN, not up. There is no free lunch though, the Grandpa feeder is water tight due to the design of the lid so put our feeder inside the coop or under a closely fitting shed roof with sufficient overhang to prevent blowing rain.

I just got mine the other day, your feeder, and today is their first training day. I have been out there about 5 times and they are super hungry. I keep trying to train them, and a few times they stepped on the treadle, but then when they jumped off, the sound freaked them and then left. I will keep trying. My issue is, should I let them go hungry all day? How long can they go without eating?

 

[Al Gerhart]

I just got mine the other day, your feeder, and today is their first training day. I have been out there about 5 times and they are super hungry. I keep trying to train them, and a few times they stepped on the treadle, but then when they jumped off, the sound freaked them and then left. I will keep trying. My issue is, should I let them go hungry all day? How long can they go without eating?

Oh, I am so glad I had the time to check in at BYC today. Email me please so I can help immediately. I might go weeks before I have the time to check on old threads.

Every time that someone has emailed after having problems with getting the birds to use the feeder it has turned out that they were not following the instructions. But I always ask questions before I assume that. So...

Can you post pictures of the feeder as it is installed? Just in case something isn't right.

The basics are:

The feeder must be secured to a post or wall to prevent the feeder from rocking around when the birds step on the treadle.

the treadle MUST bottom out so it can be firmly pinned down to the ground with one foot while the chicken stands on the other foot to eat.

ALL other feed must be gone, no old feed under the deep liter for them to scratch up, no free range, no treats of any kind. Just the feed in the feeder.

Have you adjusted the spring? From the date your feeder might be one of the new design feeders with the series of holes in the front cover to allow a stronger or weaker door closing action. Doesn't sound like it is the soft close feeder. You want the spring strong enough to close the door but not so strong that it is difficult for the birds to open the door.

Send a close up of the spring where it is attached to the wire link/door crank..

As far as how long to let them go hungry, if everything is done according to the instructions, to the very letter, nothing left out, nothing added, one or more birds will pick up the skill and teach the other bids in a day's time. Chickens generally will not starve themselves to death, at some point hunger overcomes the fear of the new noisy contraption and one of them starts using the feeder. If you are in the deep freeze like so many are this isn't the time to start using a new feeder. Pull the feeder and wait for mild weather, the birds need feed to stay warm. If you realize that the feeder wasn't installed correctly and the birds are skittish for good reasons pull the feeder for a week and start over so they have a chance to forget their initial fear of the feeder.

And email me please! And send pictures so I can help.

 

[Al Gerhart]

My chickens are on day 4 of the non-prop treadle training and are not getting it. They are very skittish chickens!

There is no other food around. The one chicken who will approach the feeder (or me!) will step on it with one foot, but not two. So, when I remove my foot, it closes. I've even set her on the treadle, and she eats, but she won't go back on it herself. I know because I put a handful of scratch inside on the regular food, so they would see the scratch if they stepped on the treadle, but it's still there. Stupid chickens!

I think I may have to use the "prop it open" gradual technique because they are starving.

 

[Al Gerhart]

My chickens are on day 4 of the non-prop treadle training and are not getting it. They are very skittish chickens!

There is no other food around. The one chicken who will approach the feeder (or me!) will step on it with one foot, but not two. So, when I remove my foot, it closes. I've even set her on the treadle, and she eats, but she won't go back on it herself. I know because I put a handful of scratch inside on the regular food, so they would see the scratch if they stepped on the treadle, but it's still there. Stupid chickens!

I think I may have to use the "prop it open" gradual technique because they are starving.

Jenny

Jenny, we really need to see pictures of the feeder to see how you have it installed and what kind of feeder it is. The guillotine style do require a prop open style of training because you have to acclimate the birds to that overhead door coming up and down. Using one foot is the way most hens will step on our feeder treadle, pinning down the treadle with one foot while standing on the other.

When you set a chicken on the treadle you are teaching her that you need to do that in order for her to eat.

Four days of training tells me something is very wrong with the feeder or the installation or how you are training the birds.

 

[cherylgladys]

Oh, I am so glad I had the time to check in at BYC today. Email me please so I can help immediately. I might go weeks before I have the time to check on old threads.

Every time that someone has emailed after having problems with getting the birds to use the feeder it has turned out that they were not following the instructions. But I always ask questions before I assume that. So...

Can you post pictures of the feeder as it is installed? Just in case something isn't right.

The basics are:

The feeder must be secured to a post or wall to prevent the feeder from rocking around when the birds step on the treadle.

the treadle MUST bottom out so it can be firmly pinned down to the ground with one foot while the chicken stands on the other foot to eat.

ALL other feed must be gone, no old feed under the deep liter for them to scratch up, no free range, no treats of any kind. Just the feed in the feeder.

Have you adjusted the spring? From the date your feeder might be one of the new design feeders with the series of holes in the front cover to allow a stronger or weaker door closing action. Doesn't sound like it is the soft close feeder. You want the spring strong enough to close the door but not so strong that it is difficult for the birds to open the door.

Send a close up of the spring where it is attached to the wire link/door crank..

As far as how long to let them go hungry, if everything is done according to the instructions, to the very letter, nothing left out, nothing added, one or more birds will pick up the skill and teach the other bids in a day's time. Chickens generally will not starve themselves to death, at some point hunger overcomes the fear of the new noisy contraption and one of them starts using the feeder. If you are in the deep freeze like so many are this isn't the time to start using a new feeder. Pull the feeder and wait for mild weather, the birds need feed to stay warm. If you realize that the feeder wasn't installed correctly and the birds are skittish for good reasons pull the feeder for a week and start over so they have a chance to forget their initial fear of the feeder.

And email me please! And send pictures so I can help.

 

[cherylgladys]

To Al and others that are reading this post. It has been a couple weeks now and my three girls are famously feeding on the treadle feeder and all is well. I have not seen any sign of rats lately either and the birds are frustrated I am sure because there is no seed around for them to eat. Well, maybe a few crumbs here and there, but I keep it pretty clean in the coop. My pest guy did put out 7 black box traps so I am sure that helped, but all in all, I would recommend the treadle feeder, but you MUST be conscientous and do exactly as Al says. It took about 5 days to get them used to it!

 

[Al Gerhart]

Awesome, after making way, way, over 10,000 of these feeders and getting feed back both good and bad we have learned the best way to get a chicken to use the feeder. Sometimes I come off dismissive I am sure by telling people to follow the directions, well in their mind they are following the directions, their interpretation of the instructions.

I learned years ago training employees that telling someone to do something can be quite difficult even in person standing right beside them. Writing instructions using English, which is so diverse, words meaning many things in some cases, is difficult.

Thank you for the update and the kind words.

 

[Drumstick63]

Awesome, after making way, way, over 10,000 of these feeders and getting feed back both good and bad we have learned the best way to get a chicken to use the feeder. Sometimes I come off dismissive I am sure by telling people to follow the directions, well in their mind they are following the directions, their interpretation of the instructions.

I learned years ago training employees that telling someone to do something can be quite difficult even in person standing right beside them. Writing instructions using English, which is so diverse, words meaning many things in some cases, is difficult.

Thank you for the update and the kind words.

Do you still make treadle feeders ?