New Design Medium Treadle Feeders
The new design medium rat proof treadle chicken feeder hopper holds 32 pounds of laying pellets or other feed and has a 100% galvanized sheet metal feed tray and hopper so the feed flows easily and sanitation is assured.
Generally a laying hen eats around 4 ounces of feed per day, so one pound of feed should feed four birds one day, 7 pounds per week per four birds, or almost five weeks per full hopper of feed for a four hen flock. The more poultry feeders you have the more birds can be fed per poultry feeder.
Size
Approximate foot print of the medium automatic feeder is 18” deep x 14” wide x 19” tall. Shipping weight is around 12 pounds with packaging for the medium rat proof treadle chicken feeder.
Number of birds per poultry feeder
That will vary depending upon how established the flock is and your goals for the birds. If they are layers you need to make sure there are no more than 12 to 16 hens per poultry feeder because a laying hen needs to eat as often as possible for full egg production. The more she eats the more eggs per week she can put out as protein consumption is usually a hen’s limiting factor.
If you are feeding out broilers the weight gain per day is as important so once again you should have one poultry feeder for every 12 to 16 birds.
If a flock is well established there will be a pecking order and you can go as high as 20 birds per poultry feeder as long as you don’t mind a few less eggs per week
Other Versions available
There is a soft close version $100.00 plus shipping
Click Here to Order a New Design Made in the U.S.A. Medium Treadle Feeder from our shopping cart
New Packaging System
The old system was styrofoam in various thicknesses that cradled the feeder in the box. It worked fine except when boxes got dropped on a corner and the environmental issues of using a petro chemical based styrofoam.
The new inner packing system pictured to the left is made using recycled scrap plywood from our cabinet shop, diverting that material from the rocket stoves that heat the shop. The thick top and bottom plywood prevent corner crushing while the thinner corner legs prevent crushing along the side. The labor costs are up a bit to cut and assemble the wood cage but the materials costs are down due to the styrofoam no longer being needed.
Construction Details
Right Side View
One piece steel bar treadle with an attached distant and narrow treadle which gives the maximum amount of rat proofing, add a wider plywood treadle for smaller birds.
The dual spring loaded door is what makes this poultry feeder truly rodent proof. If you are having problems with wild birds like starlings, house sparrows ,English sparrows, pigeons, or grackles stealing your chicken feed they can be stopped just as easily. This dual spring model will even stop a squirrel from stealing feed.
Here are some of the improvements made in the new design.
The dual adjustable springs have a series of holes up under the top front cover, used to provide lighter or heavier door pressure. We installed the springs there so the springs no longer compete with space for the soft close cylinder on the soft close models. Here is a video of the new dual spring door tension adjustment process.
The front edges of the feed opening have been seamed or rolled over for the safety of large comb roosters to prevent scrapes on their combs. This does push back against the door somewhat but the spring will hold the door closed.
The feed hopper has been enlarged by not allowing the door to swing back quite as far, which allowed enough added feed volume that we were able to shrink the shipping box by 3″ to provide a cheaper shipping rate. This allowed an additional six pounds of feed inside the feeder if you stuff it to the gills.
The door is now hung using a heavy gauge sheet metal angle plate that allows a small amount of forward and backward adjustment to the door itself as well as some vertical adjustment to regulate the gap at the base of the feeder. That allows the OCD types to do some tweaking.
There is a new hanging system that uses a sheet metal bracket that hooks over the lid axle so the feeder can simply be lifted off the bracket for cleaning or maintenance. Here is a video showing the features of the new hanging system and here is a video showing how to install the new hanging system.
There is a new axle spacer made of hard plastic that prevents the door axle from shifting to the left and the new dual spring placement now pull the door straight up instead of to the left on the previous model, keeping the springs away from the soft close cylinder if you purchase a soft close version.
The packaging is smaller and a much snugger fit for the feeder to prevent rattling around during shipping.
The treadle bar is adjusted to bottom out on the ground as long as the wall is level and the ground is level.
The door axles are much more precise than before thanks to some dedicated welding jigs that allowed a consistent angle of the door crank.
Click Here to Order a New Design Made in the U.S.A. Medium Treadle Feeder from our shopping cart