Feeder and water

[AlissaP23]

I am trying to find a No waste feeder that I can leave outside the coop but want get rained in and wildlife cant get it! I also have BIG brahma roosters so I was kinda iffy on the PVC ones I didnt know if they would get there heads stuck?? Any suggestions?!?

 

[GodLovesU]

https://www.google.com/aclk?sa=L&ai...1MvEudiLAxV3SzABHbhdM4MQwg8oAHoECAgQLg&adurl=

 

[BigBlueHen53]

I would think the feed in the tray would get wet if it rained.

 

[StinkyAcres]

Check out treadle feeders.

 

[Al Gerhart]

I am trying to find a No waste feeder that I can leave outside the coop but want get rained in and wildlife cant get it! I also have BIG brahma roosters so I was kinda iffy on the PVC ones I didnt know if they would get there heads stuck?? Any suggestions?!?

That is an impossible list of specifications I think. First, why would you want it outside the coop where large critters can get to the feed? One of our treadle feeders will lock out the wild birds, rats, even squirrels unless there are dozens of them (it will trap them if they get in though). But racoons or possums? Treadle feeders work only when there is a big difference in size and weight, between the species using the feeder and the vermin trying to get in. They need spring loaded doors to prevent a rat or squirrel from pushing the door open and a narrow and distant treadle so if a bunch of birds learned to gang up on the feeder it would close when they rushed forward to eat. The feeders with the wide steps just let the vermin chow down.

The spring loaded door prevents the door from being pushed open but you have to balance the size of the door, the amount of pressure needed to operate the treadle, and the needed back pressure from the springs that keep the door tightly closed. Add a soft close and you throw in another factor into the calculation. Our feeder takes around ten pounds of force at the door crank which has only an inch or so of leverage. That is with the springs set pretty tight. That translates to around 4 to 4.5 pounds of force needed on the treadle which is where they are set during assembly and around 1 to 1.25 pounds of pressure needed to just push the door open. That will keep out rats and most squirrels, even two or three of them. Past that, they get inside, the door closes on their dirty behinds, they smother in short order. Rarely happens, usually where someone lives next to a forest with dozens of squirrels or a commercial farm with hundreds of rats.

But possums and coons weigh a lot more than a chicken and have a longer reach. You would need another form of exclusion, luckily we have them, they are called coops and runs.

A good treadle feeder can handle the average rain, storms maybe maybe not. We sold thousands of feeders and the majority of videos customers sent in were the original inside feeder being used outside and they were fine. During a storm though, it wouldn't be hard for a door with 1.25 pounds of pre loading to blow open and the rain could blow inside.

The no waste is easy, the feeder needs full side panels going way up, a feed lip extending at a 90 degree angle into the feed hopper to stop most feed raking (assuming a uniform pellet or crumble), and the option for an additional lip extension for the hens from hell that have been trained to rake feed by feeding mixed grain feed. Having a chicken stick its head deep into a PVC elbow is just dumb, they are prey species, they need to be watching to the side and behind them which is why they have eyes on the side of their head. Then the depth the hen has to reach to get to the feed, chickens have long necks but only reach so far. Bigger elbows for more space means a longer distance to the feed. Proper treadle feeders have deep feed trays and are designed to allow a thin flow of pellets or crumbles to flow downward, then pile up at the bottom enough to stop the flow and not pile up at the bottom of the feed tray. Unless someone refuses to follow the instructions and doesn't fasten the feeder to a wall or post, the vibration shakes too much feed down when the door slams if it isn't securely attached.

Roosters and PVC elbows are a bad mix.

My advice, get online and research treadle feeders. Do not trust the advice blogs where they get a commission for recommending a certain product. There are plenty of independent blogs and at least one chicken feeder review site out there. Amazon, no go, you pay around 35% in fees to them, any feeder found is one of two things, either severely overpriced or made so cheap they can lose a large percentage to returns (which the seller has to pay for) and still turn a profit. If you are selling Chinese crap that costs 15% of the retail price, fine, you can make a go of it. The good products though know that putting your product on Amazon just leads to pirating and eventual loss of market share. Look at the Grandpa feeder. They started making them in China in the early 2000's, by 2010 other Chinese manufactures started selling them for half the price, now you can find one on Tic Toc for $69.00. Which is what they are worth, out of date, dangerous, leaky, and the design doesn't even stop rats or mice much of the time.

And move the feeder inside the coop! Make a hatch to refill it if needed. Get it away from the larger wildlife.