Author Topic: Recommendations please : rat proof hen feeder (Read 6946 times)

nutterly_uts · « **Reply #15 on:** April 25, 2018, 08:45:06 pm »

Quote from: SallyintNorth on April 25, 2018, 04:23:32 pm

These hens run a little thin unless they get a good period of access to layers' pellets.

I think I'd be tempted to worm them all, and try also doing a scatter feed of something like pigeon mix or corn too

SallyintNorth · « **Reply #16 on:** April 25, 2018, 09:02:44 pm »

Quote from: nutterly_uts on April 25, 2018, 08:45:06 pm

Quote from: SallyintNorth on April 25, 2018, 04:23:32 pm

These hens run a little thin unless they get a good period of access to layers' pellets.

I think I'd be tempted to worm them all, and try also doing a scatter feed of something like pigeon mix or corn too

They do get corn too. I can ask whether they've been wormed; thanks.

doganjo · « **Reply #17 on:** April 26, 2018, 12:28:53 pm »

I never leave feed in my inside runs at night - mainly because of rats. Can't hens survive overnight without food? I don't leave them water either.

SallyintNorth · « **Reply #18 on:** April 26, 2018, 04:57:50 pm »

Quote from: doganjo on April 26, 2018, 12:28:53 pm

I never leave feed in my inside runs at night - mainly because of rats. Can't hens survive overnight without food? I don't leave them water either.

Yes they can survive overnight without food. The problem we are trying to solve, which I have obviously not explained very well, is that they do seem to need some time during the 24 hours with ad lib feed available. They are fully free range once let out in the morning, and the ducks would steal any feed we left out. So the place and time we want them to have their ad lib feed is in their run after they get up and before they are let out. We have tried fitting in the first person up putting out feed for them in their run and someone else later letting them out, but we haven’t managed to make that work very well. So a rat proof feeder we can leave set up in their run, ready for them to eat when they get up in the morning (long before most of us are awake), seemed to be an option worth exploring.

Jim Bob · « **Reply #19 on:** May 02, 2018, 08:36:09 pm »

Just want to throw this into the discussion. This morning I discovered that one of my rat bait boxes had been moved a number of yards and the bait had gone. This afternoon I found that another of my bait boxes had vanished into thin air !!!!!! I then went to check on my third bait box and saw it rise into the air in the beak of a magpie which dropped it as soon as I called out. Would never have suspected birds in a million years and if I had not spotted the magpie I would be forever wondering where they had disappeared to. Still haven’t found my second bait box.