I let my 4 hens free-range during the hot summer days but leave food for them in their chicken tractor. The pigeons, doves and grackles have moved in and I find them inside eating the feed. Does anyone have any ideas or types of feeders that only chickens can access and not unwanted wild birds?
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This is why I always recommend that people never use chicken wire and instead use 1/2" hardware cloth. Sparrows go right through the chicken wire. (They'll also go through any similarly sized gaps, so you have to be good about sealing it up tight around the edges.
If your chickens are free range I would recommend the autofeeder. It keeps you from having to get up early. If you have a problem with rodents, then suspend the feeder with a rodent deterrent spinner (like for squirrels) above it. The feeder that you have to step on to use is worth trying too. I haven't tried it but I don't think the chickens would be too hard to train, but if you have more than a few birds, than I would have a couple feeders.
I have found that rodents can jump several feet high from the ground or a flat surface, right into suspended feed buckets. They are amazing. In other words, if the feed is suspended at a height such that the chickens can reach it, the rodents can easily jump from the ground up into it and feast, also.
The autofeeders drop the food directly to the ground. You could suspend it 8 feet off the ground and it wouldn't matter.
Keep us updated if you try out the feeders where they have to step on something to get it to open, I'm curious how hard they would be to train.
My chickens are not free range, but I still have finches inside the coop, and mourning doves sticking their heads through the holes in the chicken wire. I am going to put a finer mesh along the perimenter, about ten inches high and that will stop the bigger guys. The little ones don't eat that much, as far as I can tell. I can't imagine the feed could harm the native birds at all.
We just put up a plastic owl this weekend...I don't think it works but my husband does. my neighborhood flock of sparrows and doves plowed through a 50lb bag of organic pellets in 5 days. I felt like I was in the classic movie Birds! I resorted to larger pellets as the little birds can't seem to get a hold of them as easy. My chickens don't like them as much either....Am going to cover the coop with bird netting here in a few weeks. I hope that the birds along with the pesky bugs will keep each other company in September!
Good luck, can't wait to hear what everyone else is doing,
We have ten free-range hens and were overwhelmed with dozens and dozens of wild birds coming to eat huge amounts of organic feed. I finally pulled the feeders and have resorted to twice-daily hand feeding my flock. This solves the problem, but IMO laying hens do better when they have free access to their food all day long from sunrise to sunset. They get vocal and very agitated if I don't get out there early in the morning to feed them.
I tried one of those $70 pet food feeders and a rodent ate through the plastic chute the first week and ruined it. Dana mentioned a possible solution I'd like to try. Chickens are very food-driven and can probably be trained on how to self-dispense from a special feeder.
hmmm...i seem to remember seeing instructions or a you tube video of a contraption that the chicken walked up & stepped on to open the feeder when she wanted to eat. I don't know how easy it would be to train the chickens..but the video showed a chicken eating from it. I don't have time right now...but when I get a chance, I will look thru my history to see if I can't find that.
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If your chickens are free range I would recommend the autofeeder. It keeps you from having to get up early. If you have a problem with rodents, then suspend the feeder with a rodent deterrent spinner (like for squirrels) above it. The feeder that you have to step on to use is worth trying too. I haven't tried it but I don't think the chickens would be too hard to train, but if you have more than a few birds, than I would have a couple feeders.
http://www.backyardchickens.com/LC-feeders.html
I have found that rodents can jump several feet high from the ground or a flat surface, right into suspended feed buckets. They are amazing. In other words, if the feed is suspended at a height such that the chickens can reach it, the rodents can easily jump from the ground up into it and feast, also.
Keep us updated if you try out the feeders where they have to step on something to get it to open, I'm curious how hard they would be to train.
Good luck, can't wait to hear what everyone else is doing,
I tried one of those $70 pet food feeders and a rodent ate through the plastic chute the first week and ruined it. Dana mentioned a possible solution I'd like to try. Chickens are very food-driven and can probably be trained on how to self-dispense from a special feeder.
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