The Accidental Smallholder Forum
Livestock => Poultry & Waterfowl => Topic started by: Ghdp on October 13, 2015, 09:41:36 am
-
I bought a grandpa feeder but have never progressed beyond 'week 2' of training. The girls will NOT stand on the treddle and lean in from the sides to take the pellets. Any accidental touching of the treddle by one of them sends them all scattering in all directions. It is now four weeks on!!! What should I do? If I leave the lid down they just look lost. How long can I leave them like that? The longest has been two and a half hours and they made no attempt to use it.
I mean while am perfectly trained and pop out morning and evening to open and close it :roflanim:
-
Mine took longer than we expected to get the hang of it. The most clever girl took about 3 weeks and the others used to wait until she stood on it and then they helped themselves.
Its a couple of months down the line now and they have all been using it for a little while and its great. I have 5 girls and I usually refill it somewhere between 1 and 2 weeks. The ducks have got the hang of it too (it wasn't meant for them) so if they have been having a good go I might need to refill once a week.
Persevere and you will get there
-
Thanks Bionic. I too have 5 so lets hope one of them leads the way!
-
No they are not thick. You could train them to operate it rather than waiting for a trial and error approach?
-
I have tried Buffy. I spent ages most mornings showing them the food, slowly operating the treddle, placing the most placid one on it, sprinkling corn in accessible bits!! Any other suggestions gratefully received !
-
GHDP, I assume you have propped the lid open?
I used some long screws that fit through the holes at the side. After a few days I used that on the lowest setting so that they had to get onto the treadle to get their heads under.
It still took a while but I think once they realised they wern't going to get fed any other way the found out how to do it
-
Hi. bionic, yes I did all my insructions said. Week one was a doddle. No problem with getting them on the treddle then! Since then not so good. Do you think going back to a fixed lid would help or not?
-
I had them on the fixed lid for about 3 weeks. I just closed it at night when they went to bed and opened it up again the next morning.
-
I dont use this type of feeder myself but my suggestion would be to entice them to step on to the plate with the reward of a treat. you could scatter corn on the plate and on the floor between the plate and the hopper. This way they get used to standing on the plate and finding a treat.
If the rising lid frightens them then tie a string to it. Then, while they are stepping on and off the plate looking for the corn, allow the lid to move slowly up and down without allowing it to move abruptly or make a clattering noise.
-
Thanks Buffy. Will try those. I will post how I get on :fc:
-
I haven't used this type of feeder, but my guess would be put a stone on the treadle to hold the feeder open, leave it like that for a week or so ,such that they know that's where the food is. Then remove the stone...they will go looking for the food and find it when they step on the treadle ?
If they are startled and don't get hang of it, put stone on at lunch time for a while.
I'm thinking of getting one of these feeders to help reduce likelihood of rats and am interested to see how you get on and or others experiences.
-
I think they are great for preventing vermin but my personal view having watched them used is that they can create ore anxiety and agression around meal times. Having watched demos on youtube they also seem to allow dominant birds to guard the food source.
I use two round hoppers as I find that everyone can get round them at the same time and the lower ranking birds can use the hopper as a shield and eat out of site.
With the training Ghdp you are aiming to encourage the birds to make a conection between aproaching the feeder via the plate in exchange for a reward initially. so for the first stage the food reward dosent have to come from the hopper. If your birds trust you, you could feed them with a bit of cheese from your had. They use sight and smell to find food but also learn to respond to sounds. So if the food is not visible and the smell isnt strong enough then they wont be that keen to get to it.
There are lots of ways that you could encourage them but it does depend on your birds and the relationship that you have with them. Calling them to the hopper and slowly opening it for them to eat and closing it when they have eaten, opening it again etc. using cheese, corn, grapes, worms or anything else that they go crazy for will make them much more interested in exploring it than covered up pellets.
If its the guillotine style clatter of the dropping lid that put them off then they are not thick...they are sensible. perhaps you can prop it so it dosent fully close and then their is always a tantalizing gimps of food to encourage them.
Chickens also learn from watching you and each other so if you have a confident, friendly bird train her and she will teach the others. Leaving the lid up teaches them that the tray contains food, when you shut it they will revisit and peck around hungrily. Eventually they will stand on the plate and the food will be exposed but this is as a result a much longer process.
My birds free range so if getting the food was too difficult they would leave it and eat grass instead. If they got hungry enough they would all come and find me and pwork for corn. Thats what they do when the turkeys snaffle all the pellets. But if I introduce something new I always do it with treats and they pick it up very quickly.
-
I have the food visible all the time but they dont seem to cope with the treddle making the lid wobble. I will try intoducing more tempting stuff. One 'girl' has no fear of anything where corn is concerned (happlily climbing on my knee for it) so that is what I have concentrated on - but grapes do cause enthusiastic guzzling so i will try that too. Cheese would certainly smell stronger - can / may i give them that??
I think putting a stone on it from time to time is a good plan too.
Happily they are all such characters I could probably sit in with them for hours. ....am I a bit thick? :roflanim:
-
Ghdp,
My girls used to jump at the clanging of the lid too and it put them off but they did get used to it so perservere
-
I spent a lot of time balancing and greasing our Grandpa feeder to stop the frightening clatter when the lid shut. I know the instructions say to leave the lid open for at least a week, then half close it for another then leave it shut by which time they should have got the hang of it. We haven't actually used it though, but judging by the length of time it took them to figure out how to use a trigger feeder three weeks is about right. We had to get ours to a state of hunger though- seemed to kick them into thinking harder about finding some food.
-
I use the Mole Valley ones and usually find it's a few days for them to get used to it. I put a stone on the plate for a few days so there is no noise or movement and the food is in view. Once they are used to eating from it I take the stone off and leave them too it. Usually one or 2 will work it out. Sometimes I put the stone on again for a couple hours in the mornings so that any really nervous ones get a feed.
Worst ones I had were the Leghorns who would explode into the air every time another bird touched the feeder. But there are fine with it now. I would recommend more than one though in different locations as the bullies will sometimes guard them as mentioned.
-
An up-date.
Mrs Ghdp hit on the idea of dropping meal worms in the groove just behind the closed lid. The girls soon got into the idea of stepping onto the plate to get to them and, as the lid opened as a consequence, reaching in underneath the lid to get the treat.
Not entirely confident as a flock yet ( and our leghorn cross is certainly the most flighty Stereo) but they are getting there. Certainly not a three week training exercise as suggested by the manufacturers in our case but once it is accepted it will make life easier for us!
-
It sounds as if the girls are well on their way now Ghdp