Help me decide- Grandpa’s Feeder or other brand?

[Al Gerhart]

Thank you! I like to research so the website content is useful just the sites a little harder to navigate, just a personal opinion. Also I’m on mobile so maybe I’ll pop out the laptop to take another look! LOL I’ll check it out more and HOENSTLY figure that your feeder medium soft close will be the best treadle feeder for us. Just closing the gap learning more about the training process before I pull the trigger. Thanks for taking the time to respond!

You know, I heard you yesterday when you commented that the website had too many options. True, I had left up some legacy products because of the great reviews they had. So I spent about three hours today transferring the reviews on those legacy products to the newer version of that product and removing the legacy product listings. This forum is invaluable as a listening post about our feeder and the needs of the flock owners.

The best source of training info is the nearly 200 reviews on our most popular feeder the Medium that Rojo Marz bought. Don't let their views override the written training instructions on the product page though. Some folks really mess up. I saw one review that had posted a picture of their feeder with the comments they were very happy but it took four days to train their hens.

Imagine this scene. An angled chicken ladder coming down from a coop maybe three feet off the ground, the poor treadle feeder being hung on a close by freaking welded wire wall, with four bricks standing on edge supporting just the bottom of the feeder. Hillbilly meets redneck meets rube goldburg kind of installation. The treadle appeared to just touch the chicken ladder on the left side. How in the h*ll did they not manage to kill all of their chickens I do not know, much less that it took only four days to get them to use the feeder. But it solved their rat problem.

Mobile, yes, the site is mobile friendly but there is a ton of info and it views much better on a laptop. I really, really, want people to read the info and make an informed buying decision. Money is hard to come by, the $8 to $10 in profit on a feeder isn't worth an unhappy customer, but the shipping has gotten so expensive that you can't sell on approval unless you are charging Grandpa feeder prices. I prefer not to do that and keep prices as low as possible. You know the saying, pigs get fed. Hogs get slaughtered.

 

[Al Gerhart]

Oh ok! In my mind I’m thinking more about access, I’m a noooob with chicken raising so for now all the chicks need a spot to eat at the feeder so they can grow … that goes away as they age and they just take turns?

They take turns in the morning when they come off the roost. Hens spend very little time eating each day. They fill up after sunrise, graze a few pellets now and again during the day, then fill up again before sunset. The more feeders you have, the more hens per feeder as one will usually be open. Commercial free range flocks using our feeder can get up to 100 hens per feeder but they are grazing on grass and the feeders are usually empty at the end of the day. Home flocks, up to 16 hens if it is an established flock, five to six days before running out of feed. Over 16, get two feeders, try to visually block one from the other if you have some bully hens. Two feeders can handle probably 30 to 36 hens.

No chicks! Birds need to weigh three to four pounds, then adjust the spring tension way down and increase it a bit every two weeks till you are back at 4 to 5 pounds of treadle pressure for maximum rat resistance.

 

[FeatherAndBloom]

They take turns in the morning when they come off the roost. Hens spend very little time eating each day. They fill up after sunrise, graze a few pellets now and again during the day, then fill up again before sunset. The more feeders you have, the more hens per feeder as one will usually be open. Commercial free range flocks using our feeder can get up to 100 hens per feeder but they are grazing on grass and the feeders are usually empty at the end of the day. Home flocks, up to 16 hens if it is an established flock, five to six days before running out of feed. Over 16, get two feeders, try to visually block one from the other if you have some bully hens. Two feeders can handle probably 30 to 36 hens.

No chicks! Birds need to weigh three to four pounds, then adjust the spring tension way down and increase it a bit every two weeks till you are back at 4 to 5 pounds of treadle pressure for maximum rat resistance.

ordered a medium and will wait until the time is right to use it. Thanks for all your help!

 

[Al Gerhart]

ordered a medium and will wait until the time is right to use it. Thanks for all your help!

Awesome, when the time comes, please follow the directions to the very letter, nothing added, nothing left out. If you need help, please email with pictures or video if needed and I'll walk you through things. The email is on the printed instructions in the box or you can use the CRM system on the shopping cart and it will connect us via email once I respond to your inquiry.

 

[ameraucana 25]

Also looking in to chicken feeders chicks are going out to their coop soon and don't know which feeder or waterer to use what do you guy recommend?

 

[FeatherAndBloom]

Also looking in to chicken feeders chicks are going out to their coop soon and don't know which feeder or waterer to use what do you guy recommend?

Ended up buying the Medium Rat Proof feeder. It’s a treadle style and I’m very happy with the build so far. It’s simple looking but I can really see how it will be effective against pests for feeder that states in the run, and will be a perfect supplement to our fermented feeding (in a trough). My chicks are still too little to report on how the training and use is going (need to be heavier) but I really don’t foresee any issues if I follow the instructions!

 

[ameraucana 25]

Can you give me the link to it. also is it water proof and is it still good with or with out fermented feed?

 

[FeatherAndBloom]

Can you give me the link to it. also is it water proof and is it still good with or with out fermented feed?

If you scroll back up to the beginning of this thread you’ll find great information from Al, the inventor of the Rat Proof feeder. Also searching BYC for the topic will yield tons of reviews and info. Short answer is it can be outside, but I would suggest a covered run, not or constant moisture. And no, not for fermented feed at all. Dry feed only.

 

[BeckyRK1974]

Can you give me the link to it.

I noticed Al has his website in his signature. So if you find one of his comments in this thread, you can get to his website that way.

 

[ATXInstantFlock]

Stumbled across this thread, and just wanted to say that I'm a happy customer of Al's with no business affiliation. We got our flock about 11.5 months ago starting from absolute zero (chickens, knowledge about chickens, gear, etc).

1581 eggs later, my rat proof chicken feeder has been here for every single one of them and I couldn't be happier with it. They figured it out in less than 24 hours.

You can see pics of my install here. We tend to the feeder roughly once/week on the weekend since that's the most convenient, but they never finish the food. 9 hens and 1 roo on a medium feeder that can probably go about 1.5 weeks if the feeder is filled to capacity. Every week, my 10 birds will eat about 70-80% of a 5gallon plastic bucket that is roughly 75% pellets and 25% crumbles.

Only thing I need to figure out now is whether I'm comfortable switching to a mix of less pellets and more crumbles since the all-flock keeps getting more expensive at my local TSC, even with the 5% subscription discount.