Grandpa's Feeders Automatic Chicken Feeder - Sturdy Galvanized Steel Poultry Feeders - Rat Proof & No Spill with Weatherproof Lid - Standard Size for 6-12 Chickens 10 days (20lb Feed)

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A properly designed feeder door swings in, not up, and uses a fraction of the pinch points, parts, and fasteners. I will have to put something on the pedal come winter time because it gets too cold to expect them to step on cold steel. Yeah, not a New Zealand made product any more, in fact it has been made in China for some years according to this news article. Good inner packing will protect a product from a head high fall, usually Styrofoam or cardboard crush zones.

At the same time Grandpa's Feeders also provide a protected way of feeding your backyard chickens on demand, allowing them to access their food when hungry, ensuring optimal laying and happy chickens.For each major rain that we’ve had, I’ve had to flush out the food and clean out the food container. The hens were pretty wary of it on Monday (especially big bum Bella who is a wuss) but hunger got the better of them and they were hopping on and off the treadle (cautiously) quite quicky. The lid mechanism that attaches the lid to the feeding tank is difficult to secure correctly, and almost always leaves a gap. Perhaps the most important part of an “automatic feeder” is to have food available whenever the chickens want to eat.

We believe in the quality and craftsmanship of our feeders and build them of strong, durable, high-quality galvanized steel with an aluminum treadle, with the expectation that they will work flawlessly for years to come. Capacity: a standard Grandpa’s Feeder holds 20 lbs of feed, which services approximately 6 chickens for 10 days. A thin sheet metal strip like this would be fine if it was under tension but under compression it is going to flex and snap or allow the door to bind. The feeder doesn’t have an lip either so they had to add a wire grid in an attempt to stop the birds from raking feed out onto the ground, unsuccessfully according to one review.Provide food in an easily accessible manner for your chickens and poultry so you can get away from home, and take a well earned holiday, leaving them with enough food in the feeder for ten days or more. When a representative of Grandpa’s Feedersin New Zealand contacted me about test-driving one of their treadle feeders, I was not inclined to try one initially because I didn’t believe I needed a new feeder. I found mice droppings in the feeder today, however, which is the whole reason I paid so much money for this product, so I am very disappointed with that result. This feeder took care of spilled feed and helped get rid of the rodents that were scavenging feed every night. They all run away when she comes to the feeder, so she could never see how the others were opening it (serves her right for being so horrible really).

I wish I would have started my setup with this feeder--maybe the rats wouldn't have gone condo on me. Those upright metal plates on either end are to stop the chickens feeding from the side and being injured from the closing lid. It took my older chickens an extra two weeks at the half open setting to get used to the movement and noise, but they did get used to it. We had 12 chickens in that particular coop [we have several coops across the farm] so that should come to 36kg a month.It also makes sure the top can't blow off and leave grain exposed to either rodents, wild birds or rain – all sure ways to bring disease to the chicken house. Unfortunately, it’s been my experience that I’ve needed to do more maintenance with this feeder than the older one I had. I've had four of these for approximately two years and these are the best feeder and worth every penny. Now my flock has – ahem – grown a little, they tend to make a beeline for the feeder first thing in the morning, and it can get somewhat crowded.