Soft Close Feeders

Once you see one in action, you will want the feature

Having chickens doesn’t mean you have to have rats, it does mean you need a treadle feeder and now you can do that quietly.

The new 2023 Medium Soft close treadle feeder with the dual spring/no counter weight improvements.  Very quiet, works extremely well. Click here to see the video.

Installing a retrofit soft close on an existing feeder.

There were around  5,000  of our rodent proof chicken feeders out in service before we just got around to making a soft close rat proof chicken feeder as customers had asked for one.    The noise of the door closing did make it a bit harder to train flocks but we got around that by training only when the birds were hungry and very motivated.   And we simply didn’t have the time to design and manufacture this feature.   I had taken a feeder home with the idea that over a holiday I’d stare at the dang thing till I came up with a workable idea for a soft close feature.   The idea of using a cabinet door soft close cylinder came to mind and it works very well, perfect size and action, easy to find replacement cylinders almost anywhere online or in hardware stores, and it was adjustable.

They have been tested down to 10 degrees F, past that  you need to do your own testing to learn at what temperature to back the adjustment screw off till it warms up.  The worst outcome in sub zero weather is that the soft close feature doesn’t work but the feeder door will continue to open.

The addition of the soft close feature makes the doors nearly silent when it closes and if you do the soundproofing retrofit the door is very quiet no matter how hard a bird jumps on the treadle.  Most birds will step on the treadle fairly slowly and deliberately so the soundproofing the back of the door isn’t really needed in most cases, just on super skittish breeds.  Look in our video section for information on soundproof the back of the doors.

Check our video page using the menu at the top right of each page for videos showing the soft close door in action and how to retrofit an older version feeder to soft close.

Soft close interior feeder click here for more info or to purchase

Soft close exterior feeder click here for more info or to purchase 

Soft close exterior version 4 pack  click here for more info or to purchase

 

If your expensive chicken feed is being taken by wild birds like starlings, house sparrows ,English sparrows, pigeons, or grackles this feeder will solve the problem.