I have it too! Love love love. I’m your “next door neighbor” in WA so our weather is similar. I found one cold winters day that one of my hens had wet feet and when she stepped on the frozen metal of the feeder some of her skin got ripped off so I ended up putting “tread tape” on it.
We have full size chickens and and are really happy with our Grandpa’s feeders (made in New Zealand). Very sturdy and simple. We set up a wildlife camera to make sure that rats could not access them as we don’t have a completely rat proof enclosure. Now rats are not an issue. We have one in an open run and three native pigeons landing on the plate at once managed to open it but they didn’t seem to learn from that.😂
We have magpies that are too light to open it, but they sneak in and take bites while the chickens are standing on it. Some of the chickens don't care, but I have a Rhode Island Red who makes a point of angrily running them off. 😂
I use electronet (either regular electronet for sheep or electrified poultry netting) to keep predators away from the coop and to allow the chickens to free-range. Will keep coyotes, raccoons, foxes, stray dogs away. Skunks can get under the lowest charged wire. Not sure about bobcats or bears. Have not found any electrifiable fencing that has small enough holes to keep out weasels but so far have not had weasels come by. Using electronet in the winter requires careful removal of any snow/ice that is dragging the fencing down to the ground where it shorts out. Snow/ice doesn't short out the fence by itself but can cause problems with grounding if you're relying on contact between the fencing and the ground to provide "ground." At any rate you could use electronet in the non-snowy times of year.
Thank you. They sent us flowers and did offer to compensate us. We declined compensation, but appreciated their attempt to make things right. In the end, I recognized that it was also my fault for free ranging my birds.
Just a note that the Grandpa feeder has a great reputation. I looked into them. If you have really light chickens, in my case Serama bantams, you may have to add a bit of weight to the platform to enable the chickens to open it. Also, you can run into the problem that the rats/squirrels/etc. may be able to open the feeder if it's set up to enable very small/light chickens to use it.
Great point, Karen. You just reminded me that years ago, I watched a video with a grandpa's feeder in the background and a Sebright was not able to open it by herself. I was worried for her.
I was wondering about this myself. We have 12 chicks going on 4 weeks old. Do you think just 1 will work for 12 chickens? Have you had any get hurt while using this? Have you had any chickens try to stand on the flip up part when others are feeding. I have watched several of your videos so far. The heat plate( although a different brand) was a lifesaver. Helps them to go to sleep at night without the extra light. The tent idea is also working out great! Love all of the information you give. Keep up the good work! Thank you!
Great info! Could you do a video on how much and how often to feed new adults. I can’t find any videos on it. I have two week old chicks and I’m not sure what their feeding schedule will look like when they transition to adulthood.
Hi Story Therapy, I let my adults feed free choice. I make sure their feeders are always full so they can eat whenever they want to. The only time you wouldn't want to do that is if you're raising meat chickens (like broilers) - they will overeat. Have you seen my video course on raising chicks? I do have a video there on how to transition to adult feed. You can take the course for free at www.thefeatherbrain.com/mama-hens-guide
