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  1. Al Gerhart

    RATS!

    I'll try to help. The problem with the grandpa feeder is the feed tray has no real sides, front lip, or even a feed lip. They put that wire grate in there and that is about all they can do. Back in the day, it was all there was. I suppose the tooling costs are too much for them to change...
  2. Al Gerhart

    Best feeder for 8 chickens with an enclosed run?

    Great points. Although two medium would hold 66 pounds, provide 20" of eating space, opposed to 14", and as one poster rightfully pointed out, having two feeders is great for bullies in the flock. Cost is actually lower for two mediums than one extra large. I'm a tightwad, making and selling...
  3. Al Gerhart

    deer feeder for chickens...hoping to cut waste and rats...

    No, if you free range that limits the Fort Knox coop method, unless you leave the feed inside the coop and keep the door closed during the day. The second method, the sanitation method, is cheaper than the Fort Knox coop. And if you follow it you ensure the rats stay at the neighbor's coop...
  4. Al Gerhart

    Best feeder for 8 chickens with an enclosed run?

    Nat J, Altairsky, and Rosemarythyme have given some great advice. Not sure of the other manufacturers, but our Medium feeder will hold around 33 pounds of feed if you stuff it to the gills. Eight birds, like they said, 2 pounds per day, 16 days before needing a refill with 8 hens. The extra...
  5. Al Gerhart

    What are your opinions on grains/seeds as layer feed instead of processed feed?

    Two value systems colliding. Hard truths that people don't consider. I look at the pampering of pets and agree, it is their money to waste if it makes them happy. But the other end is "How many kids in the developing world could that pet pampering money save through vaccinations and survival...
  6. Al Gerhart

    Chickens Won't Eat Corn or Milo

    Frost ranger answered your question quite well and thank you for questioning the advice. An open mind is a great thing. But the advice is not rare but the most common held knowledge, stick to commercial feed, the appropriate feed for what you are feeding. Billions have been spent over the...
  7. Al Gerhart

    deer feeder for chickens...hoping to cut waste and rats...

    That is a great price and it might work for mice that chickens might kill during the day, you will be programming the rats to wait and eat when the feed is dispensed. They will fill up and stuff their burrows with the excess. Meantime your flock is introduced to artificial scarcity and they...
  8. Al Gerhart

    What are your opinions on grains/seeds as layer feed instead of processed feed?

    When people think they are smarter than college trained and experienced nutritionists with all software and testing equipment I just have to shake my head. Millions, billions, have been spent on research on feeding chickens with the current experts standing in the shoulders of the ones that...
  9. Al Gerhart

    Chickens Won't Eat Corn or Milo

    Asking the wrong question. Ask why you would feed scratch and harm your birds.
  10. Al Gerhart

    All Things Treadle Feeder

    Royalchick is completely correct on this. I design, build, and install trophy kitchens but even there I try to squeeze out every penny in cost to get the customer the biggest bang for the buck. When I grew up, money was scarce, so I learned to respect it above so much. My thinking is to...
  11. Al Gerhart

    All Things Treadle Feeder

    If you had read the instructions you would have read the part telling you to email with pictures so I could understand what the issue was. Since you didn't, most would understand that you didn't read the instructions. The "gap" is nothing more than the spring tension needing adjusted or the...
  12. Al Gerhart

    All Things Treadle Feeder

    The gap will not be 3/8", send me a picture if it is but I can assure you it is not. Gaps will be between 3/16" and 1/4", put there on purpose for two reasons. First, the door drops as it rotates back, if the door is tight it will snag on the bottom. Second reason, as the sheet metal wears...
  13. Al Gerhart

    Mice eating feed and getting into coops

    Mice breed even faster, after delivery they can be pregnant again within hours and deliver the babies around 19 days later. About the same number per year, say 140 per mother mouse. But, they are at breeding age in six weeks......
  14. Al Gerhart

    DIY Ideas needed for meat bird feeder

    Send those back if they are new. $52.00 a pop, $33.00 less than a treadle feeder with non of the benefits. You didn't say how many meat birds but I'll assume 100. You would be feeding 25 pounds per day once they hit a couple of pounds each and to get to that two pounds weight they will...
  15. Al Gerhart

    Mice eating feed and getting into coops

    You got the young ones which is good but the parents will have another litter of nine on the average in 22 days. Or less, she was likely pregnant with the next litter before you found her litter. One to two days after a mother rat delivers her litter she is breeding again and there is a 21 day...
  16. Al Gerhart

    Rats here and there

    Removing the feed at night can work sometimes for flocks IF the chickens kill the mice. Rarely for rats as few if any hens or roosters will take on a full grown rat. The rats will happily eat during the day and take food back to their dens for storing. Poison never works long term, the rat...
  17. Al Gerhart

    Any advice for keeping starlings out of my hen coop?

    Sigh..... There are only two methods to keep vermin out of your feed. A.) Build a Fort Knox tight coop. Or. B.) use a treadle feeder. There are no other answers. There will never be other answers. Chose one. Implement it. Done.
  18. Al Gerhart

    All Things Treadle Feeder

    No problem, always glad to answer questions to make sure the product is a good fit for a customer. If I were you, I would go with one medium. The Large feeder is no longer made because we re designed the Medium feeder so that it held nearly as much as the Large feeder. The Large feeder sold...
  19. Al Gerhart

    All Things Treadle Feeder

    You found the site ending in .net, correct? It has the videos on repair, installation, training, and tons of customer supplied videos. you basically slide a washer on one of the bolts, stick it through the side of the feeder coming from the inside pointing out, add the second washer, then the...
  20. Al Gerhart

    All Things Treadle Feeder

    Well...I'm hardly needed here. Some of my wonderful customers have answered your questions better than I could. The soft close, some of the spring tension needed to close the door and bring the treadle up is dissipated compressing the soft close cylinder. I usually set the weight needed on...
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